Mauritius History Guide

Discovery
In the 10th Century, Mauritius was discovered by Arab traders, who travelled routes to Africa, India and China with spices and silk. The traders didn't settle because the islands were far from their trade routes, the coral made the approach to the island dangerous and it is believed a number of dhows were shipwrecked on the reefs.

By around 1500 Mauritius was being identified on early maps (originals can befound in the Blue Penny Museum) and was known as Dina Arobin (Square Isle) , at this time the neighbouring islands of Rodrigues and Reunion were known as Dina Mozare (Eastern Isle) and Dina Margabim (Western Isle). The Portuguese also didn't settle in Mauritius but the Portuguese sailor, Don Pedro Mascarenhas, gave the name Mascarenes to the group of islands now known as Mauritius, Rodrigues and Reunion.

Early Settlers - The Dutch
Between 1598 and 1710, the Dutch occupied the island. They first arrived in Mahebourg under the command of Vice-Admiral Wybrand Van Warwyck. Their arrival in a cyclone led them to stay for a short period on the uninhabited island, long enough to repair their ship and name the island Mauritius, after Prince Mauritz of Nassau, the son of the founder of Holland.

The Dutch introduced sugar cane, tobacco and deer during an early settlement lasting about 20 years, however they also began to harvest the forests and famously exterminated all the Dodo's, with the giant tortoises that also roamed the island also nearly being hunted to extinction. In 1710, they fled to the more hospitable Cape of Good Hope, at Africa's southern tip.

Early Settlers - The French
A short five years after the Dutch left, the French claimed the island, and renamed it Isle de France.

The French were much more successful than the Dutch in harnessing the potential of the island. They maintained law and order and laid the foundations for administration of society. After 1735, under the celebrated French Governor, Bertrand Mahé de Labourdonnais, real nation building began. He moved the port from Mahebourg, then known a the Grand Port to Port Louis, named after King Louis XV, and established a centre for shipbuilding and a Naval Base.

The French brought in more African slaves and expanded further the commercial farming of sugar cane. They also laid out some social and economic infrastructure to support the settlers. Port Louis became the capital of Mauritius and the country's position as a key stop on the trade routes between Africa and the east was born.

The Napoleonic wars led toMauritius being used by French Corsairs as a base, from which many successful raids were launced against the British ships. The smaller island of Rodrigues had been captured in 1809 and in 1810 a fleet of British ships were sent from there to break the stranglehold on the key trade routes and to capture Mauritius. Despite an earlier defeat, a successful battle took place in the old Grand Port (Mahebourg)and these are described in detail in the Blue Penny Museum. In the 1814 Treaty of Paris, the British - magnanimous victors indeed, allowed the French settlers to remain in Mauritius. They too were allowed to retain their property, language, religion and legal system. The British reverted to the name the Dutch had given the island, but Port Louis retained its name.

British Rule
Because of it's strategic importance on the route from Europe to India, the British, under the first governor Robert Farquhar sought to develop the island further. This meant the use of slaves to work in the sugar cane fields. Over the years that followed, freed slaves refused to go back to working in the fields and developed other trades and careers, slavery was eventually abolished in 1835.

This meant the introduction of nearly half a million immigrants from India and China who then also turned to trade and other manufacturing careers.

Mauritius became an island supported by a strong sugar economy,which allowed the island to propser. Over this period, the integration of the different races and religions took place to create the current tolerant culture where those Indian, Chinese, Franco Mauritian and Creole heritages communicate in English, Frenchor Creole.

British rule formally ended on March 12th 1968 when Independence was granted with the Island becoming a republic on March 12 1992.