From wikipedia about Mauritius
Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of
Madagascar. In addition to the island of
Mauritius, the Republic includes the islands of Cargados Carajos, Rodrigues and the Agalega Islands.
Mauritius Island is part of the Mascarene Islands, with the French island of Réunion to the southwest and the island of Rodrigues to the northeast. Mauritius's area is 2040 km2; its capital city is Port Louis.
The British took control of the islands during the Napoleonic Wars, and
Mauritius became independent from the UK in 1968. It is a parliamentary republic and is a member of the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the African Union, La Francophonie and the Commonwealth of Nations.
Mauritius has an upper middle income economy.
The main languages spoken in
Mauritius are Mauritian Creole, French and English. English is the only official language but the lingua franca is Mauritian Creole and the newspapers and television programmes are usually in French. Rodriguan Creole is a minority language and is spoken in certain parts of the country only. The country is composed of several ethnicities, including Asian, African, Chinese and French. The first European explorers found no indigenous people living on the island.
The island of
Mauritius is renowned for having been the only known home of the dodo. This bird was an easy prey to settlers due to its weight and inability to fly, and became extinct fewer than eighty years after the initial European colonization.
History
For a long time the island of
Mauritius was unknown and inhabited. It was first visited by the Arab sailors during the Middle Ages who named it Dina Arobi. In 1507, Portuguese sailors visited the island uninhabited and established a visiting base. The Portuguese sailor Domingo Fernandez Pereira was probably the first European to land on the island at around 1511. The island appears with a Portuguese name `Cirne' on early Portuguese maps, probably because of the presence of the Dodo, a flightless bird which was found in great numbers at that time.
In 1598, a Dutch squadron, under the orders of Admiral Wybrand Van Warwyck, landed at Grand Port and named the island "Mauritius", in honour of Prince Maurice Van Nassau, "Stathouder" of Holland. However, it was not until 1638 that there was a first attempt of Dutch settlement. It was from here that the famous Dutch navigator Tasman set out to discover the western part of
Australia. The first Dutch settlement lasted only twenty years. Several attempts were subsequently made, but the settlements never developed enough to produce dividends and the Dutch finally left
Mauritius in 1710. They are remembered for the introduction of sugar-cane, domestic animals and deer. It was another Portuguese sailor, Don Pedro Mascarenhas, who gave the name Mascarenes to the group of islands now known as
Mauritius, Rodrigues and
Reunion. The Portuguese did not stay long as they were not interested in these islands.
France, which already controlled the neighboring Île Bourbon (now Réunion), took control of
Mauritius in 1715 and later renamed it Île de
France (Isle of
France). In 1735, with the arrival of the most illustrious of French governor, Mahé de La Bourdonnais, the "Isle de France" started developing effectively into a prosperous economy based on sugar production.
Mahé de La Bourdonnais established Port Louis as a naval base and a ship-building centre. Under his governorship, numerous buildings were built, a number of which are still standing today - part of Government House, the Chateau de Mon Plaisir at Pamplemousses, the Line Barracks. The island was under the administration of the French East
India Company which maintained its presence until 1767. Thus, Indian slaves and coolies were brought to
Mauritius. Between 1834 and 1921, around half a million of Indentured labourers were present on the island. They worked on sugar estates, factories, in transport and construction sites. Following British vindication, some 8740 Indian soldiers were brought.
From that year until 1810, the island was in charge of officials appointed by the French Government, except for a brief period during the French Revolution, when the inhabitants set up a government virtually independent of
France.
During the Napoleonic wars, the "Isle de France" had become a base from which French corsairs organised successful raids on British commercial ships. The raids continued until 1810 when a strong British expedition was sent to capture the island. Despite winning the Battle of Grand Port, Napoleon's only naval victory over the British, the French surrendered to a British invasion at Cap Malheureux three months later. They formally surrendered on 3 December 1810, on terms allowing settlers to keep their land and property and to use the French language and law of
France in criminal and civil matters. Under British rule, the island's name reverted to the original one.
Mauritius then went on to become independent in 1968. It became a republic in 1992.
The British administration, which began with Robert Farquhar as governor, was followed by rapid social and economic changes. One of the most important events was the abolition of slavery in 1835. The planters received a compensation of two million pounds sterling for the loss of their slaves which had been imported from Africa and
Madagascar during the French occupation. The abolition of slavery had important repercussions on the socio-economic and demographic fields. The planters turned to
India, from where they brought a large number of indentured labourers to work in the sugar cane fields. Between 1834 and 1921, around half a million of Indentured labourers were present on the island. They worked on sugar estates, factories, in transport and construction sites. Following British vindication, some 8740 Indian soldiers were brought.
Indians mainly originated from Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. The first group arrived in 1721 from Bengal and Pondicherry. Most were Bengali Muslims or Tamil Christians. Port-Louis was divided into three sectors and the Indian community fitted into the eastern suburb known as the ‘Camp de Malabar’. A great number of Hindus from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were brought as Indentured labourers under British colonialism. This caused a massive migration of other immigrants from
Madagascar, Southern and Eastern Africa,
Mozambique and Comore. Chinese immigrants who were in commerce also arrived later and the colony was transformed into a predominantly Asiatic population. This also attracted many Muslims traders from North
India due to the expansion in the marketing sector.
As the Indian population became numerically dominant and the voting franchise was extended, political power shifted from the Franco-Mauritian and their Creole allies to the Indo-Mauritian. Cultivation of sugar cane was given a boost and the island flourished, especially with the export of sugar to England. Economic progress necessitated the extension and improvement of means of communication and gradually an adequate infrastructure was created.
