A closer look
While the rest of 19th-century Africa was being carved up by Europeans, Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar decided to simply opt out of colonization via sheer terror. She expelled foreign missionaries, canceled treaties, and instituted an isolationist policy backed by a legal system centered on the 'tangena' ordeal. If anyone was suspected of treason or collaborating with foreigners, they were forced to eat three pieces of chicken skin along with a toxic nut. If you vomited up all three skins, you were innocent. If you died, you were guilty. Her brutally uncompromising tactics effectively kept the French and British empires at bay for over three decades, proving that supreme paranoia makes for a remarkably solid defense strategy.
