History

Malay sailors knew of Mauritius as early as the 10th century and the island was first discovered by the Arabs in 975 AD.

Portuguese Sailors (1507-1513)

Mauritius was discovered and visited by the Portuguese between 1507 and 1513.

An official world map by Diego Ribeiro described from west to east, the first island, "Mascarenhas", the second, "Santa Apolonia" and the third, "Domingo Friz". The three islands (Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues) were discovered some years earlier by chance during an exploratory expedition of the coast of the Golf of Bengal lead by Tristan da Cunha. The expedition ran into a cyclone and was forced to modify course. Thus, the ship "Cirne" of the captain Diego Fernandez Pereira, came into view of Réunion island on 9 February 1507. They called the island "Santa Apolonia" in honour of that day's saint. Mauritius was discovered during the same expedition and received the name of "Cirne" and Rodrigues that of "Diégo Fernandez".

Five years later, the islands were visited by Don Pero Mascarenhas who left the name "Mascarene" for the whole region. The Portuguese took no interest in these isolated islands. They were already implanted in Asia in Goa, on the coast of Malabar, on the island of Ceylon (now Sri-Lanka) and on the Malaysian coast where their main establishments were located.

The Portuguese main African base was in Mozambique, and so the navigators preferred to use the Mozambican canal to travel to India. The Comoros at the north proved to be a more practical port of call. Thus no permanent colony was established on the island by the Portuguese.

Dutch Sailors (1598-1637)

In 1598, a Dutch expedition consisting of 8 ships set sail from the port of Texel (Netherlands) under the orders of admirals Jacques Cornelius Van Neck and Wybrandt Van Warwyck towards the Indian subcontinent. The 8 ships ran into foul weather after passing the Cape of Good Hope and were separated. Three found their way to the northeast of Madagascar whereas the remaining 5 regrouped and sailed in a south-easterly direction.

On 17 September, the 5 ships under the orders of Admiral Van Warwyck came into view of the island. On 20 September, they entered a sheltered bay which they gave the name of "Port de Warwick" (present name "Grand Port"). They landed and decided to name the island "Prins Maurits van Nassaueiland", after Prince Maurits (Latin version: Mauritius) of the House of Nassau, the stadtholder of Holland. From those days, the name Mauritius has remained.

From that date, the island's Port de Warwick was used by the Dutch as a stopover after long months at sea. In 1606, two expeditions came for the first time to what would later become Port-Louis in the northwest part of the island. The expedition, consisting of 11 ships and 1,357 men under the orders of Admiral Corneille came into the bay, which they named "Rade des Tortues" (literally meaning Harbour of the Tortoises) because of the great number of terrestrial tortoises they found there .

The Dutch sailors soon shifted their choice to Rade des Tortues as harbour. However, in 1615, the shipwrecking and death of governor Pieter Both, who was coming back from India with 4 richly laden ships in the bay, caused the route to be considered as cursed by Dutch sailors and they tried to avoid it as much as possible. In the meantime, the British and the Danes were beginning to make incursions into the Indian Ocean. Those who landed on the island freely cut and took with them the precious bark of the Ebony trees, then found in profusion all over the island.

Dutch Colonisation (1638-1710)

Dutch colonisation began in 1638 and ended in 1710, with a brief interruption between 1658 and 1666. Numerous governors were appointed at the head of the island during which it was inhabited, but the continuous hardships such as cyclones, droughts, pest infestations, lack of food and illnesses finally took their toll and the island was abandoned in 1710.

Slaves were not particularly well treated by the colonists the act of organising a revolt was severely repressed and punished. Some punishments consisted of amputation of various parts of the body and exposure in the open air for a day as example to others, eventually culminating in condemned slaves' execution at sunset.

French Rule (1715-1810)

Abandoned by the Dutch in 1710, the island became a French colony when, in September 1715, Guillaume Dufresne D'Arsel landed and took possession of this port of call on the route to India. He named the island "Isle de France", but it was only in 1721 that the French started their occupation.

The French governor, 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 and the Line Barracks. The island was under the administration of the French East India Company which maintained its presence until 1767.

During the Napoleonic wars, the Isle de France became 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. A preliminary attack was foiled at Grand Port in August 1810, but the main attack launched in December of the same year from Rodrigues, which had been captured a year earlier, was successful. The British landed in large numbers in the north of the island and rapidly overpowered the French, who capitulated. By the Treaty of Paris in 1814, the Isle de France (renamed Mauritius) was ceded to Great Britain, together with Rodrigues and the Seychelles. In the act of capitulation, the British guaranteed that they would respect the language, the customs, the laws and the traditions of the inhabitants.

British Rule (1810-1968)

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.

Mauritian Creoles traced their origins to the plantation owners and slaves who were brought to work the sugar fields, whereas Indo-Mauritians were descended from Indian immigrants who arrived in the 19th century as indentured labourers after slavery was abolished in 1833. As the Indian population became numerically dominant and the voting franchise was extended, political power shifted from the Franco-Mauritians and their Creole allies to the Indo-Mauritians.

Conflicts arose between the Indian community (mostly sugarcane labourers) and the Franco-Mauritians in the 1920s, leading to several deaths - mainly Indians. Following this, the Mauritius Labour Party was founded in 1936 by Dr. Maurice Cure to safeguard the interest of the labourers.

Independence

In 1965, the United Kingdom split the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius to create the British Indian Ocean Territory in order to use the strategic islands for defence purposes in co-operation with the United States. Although the Government of Mauritius agreed to the move at the time, subsequent administrations have laid claim to the islands stating that the divestment was illegal under international law.

Mauritius attained independence in 1968 and the country became a republic within the Commonwealth in 1992. Mauritius has been a stable democracy with regular free elections and a positive human rights record, and has attracted considerable foreign investment earning one of Africa's highest per capita incomes.

Mauritius aims to become the business hub of the Indian Ocean. New business opportunities in banking and the technology sector are being actively sought. Through the celebration of the Bicentenary of the Battle of Grand Port in 2010, Mauritius is aiming at rebuilding its maritime heritage and reclaiming its title of the Star & the Key of the Indian Ocean.