first sisal plantation near Amboasary is established by Établissements Gallois. Henri de Heaulme established his sisal plantation and the Berenty forest reserve. 1937 - Hydrographic assignment of Aviso Bougainville in the South:to chart the exact positions of the two brothers capes-the "True" and the "False"-so called by the mariners.The true one -Southernmost point of Madagascar- is named Cape Saint Marie.Latitude 25°35'S. 1940 - Vichy France takes over control of Madagascar. 1943-44 - Up to half of those in Androy emigrated due to the severe famine. Another 15,000 died. 1955 - Plantation on 4.000 ha of Opuntia stricta, a spineless cactus, is completed. Twenty thousand hectares planned in the so-called Raketa operation. The Opuntia with a red prickly pear fruit is called raketamena. 1955-56 - In the Androy district, the indigenous production of food crops was : cassava 18.000t, corn 4.000t, grain sorghum 1.000t, beans 800t, groundnuts 700t . 1956 - Drought. 1956 - Amboliandro Atsimo (SW Tsiombe). Aermotor Company(USA) sets up a water pumping windmill - wheel diameter 6m - on a 15m high tower: it pumps out 10 cubic meters/hr water from a 45m deep well. Fifty units are foreseen, one every . 1957 - Erection of a 414m long steel bridge, designed by Anciens Ets Eiffel - Pont du Mandrare - insures the first all-year-long road link between the Androy and Anosy regions ( RIG 13 ). The Antandroy-so called Grand Pont is one of the last impressive steel bridges, built in the nineties, just before the technological move to the prestressed concrete works. 1950s-60s - Boetchi (Swiss), de Heaulme and Jenny families and the Lyonnaise and Marseillaise companies exported wild beans of Castor oil plant (1220 tons in 1957), cattle (10-30,000/year), mica and sisal, much of it from Androy. 1958 - Monja Jaona formed the Madagasikara Otronin'ny Malagasy (MO.NI.MA.)--Madagascar for the Malagasy—party which he led till his death. This became a significant regional party which represented both radical intellectuals and peasants from the south (especially Androy). 1960 - Madagascar declared its independence from France. 1971 - Monja Jaona claimed authorship of April armed insurrection by impoverished peasants in Androy who were upset by the corruption of government tax collectors at a time when their cattle herds were being ravaged by disease. There were also frustrations due to the failure of the government to provide disaster relief in response to a serious drought which was followed by floods.