History of Mauritius

Although still very young in certain respects, Mauritius has a fascinating and vast history of its own, reflected in today’s actuality. In fact the island has borne several names before being eventually called Mauritius.

It’s very likely that some Phoenician, Dravidian or Arabic sailors first discovered the island in the 15^th century. They called it Dina Robin, next to Dina Margabin (Reunion Island) and Dina Moraze (Rodrigues); the three islands being part of Tirakka, the Mascarenas archipelago. Yet the Portuguese were the very first to set foot on the virgin island. Some attribute this first landing to Don Pedro de Mascarenas in 1511, and others to Domingo Fernandez around the end of the same year.

In a very well researched work published in 1979, Dr.Alfred Coombes rather attributes the discovery of Mauritius to sailor Diego Dias, who would have landed on the island in July 1500, before setting foot on Reunion Island one month later. No matter what, the Portuguese who called the island Ilha do Cirne (Swan Island) were eager to develop it. They only introduced cattle and monkeys and were seemingly interested in it as shelter and food supply in case of storm.

The very first settlers willing to colonize the island of Mauritius were the Dutch, who landed almost a century later in September 1598. Pushed by a storm, a Dutch flotilla commanded by Vice-Admiral Wybrandt Van Warwyck, drew alongside Grand Port on the South East Coast, where major vestiges of the Dutch colonization still remain today. They called it Mauritius in the name of the stadhouder of Holland, Maurice de Nassau.

As from 1638, the Dutch really developed the colony by building dwellings and fortifications (namely in Mahebourg then called Port Warwyck), importing slaves, introducing species such as Java deer, deforesting and over-exploiting the island’s natural resources such as ebony wood. The talk goes that - rightly or wrongly - the Dutch were responsible for the extinction of the Dodo bird, which was too heavy to fly and which they consequently delighted themselves in. The dodo has since then become the emblem of the island and the true symbol of threatened species.

Later in 1710, upset with the harsh climatic conditions, epidemics, rat invasions and possibly slave rebellions, the Dutch deserted the island, leaving behind a few slaves and a crop that would become the backbone of its economy: sugar cane, imported from the East Indies earlier on.

Yet the island did not remain unoccupied for too long. Five years later, the French who had shown interest in the region by colonizing the neighboring islands of Madagascar and Bourbon (Reunion Island), took possession of Mauritius, represented by Guillaume Dufresne d’Arsel. He landed in Port North West (Port-Louis) on 20^thSeptember 1715, changing the name of Mauritius into Isle de France.

That period of French colonization over a whole century would be very dynamic. Not only were slaves imported from Africa and Madagascar to develop the agricultural sector, but the capital was also transferred from Grand Port to Port-Louis thus significantly boosting trade up.

The island was then managed by the East Indies Company, which appointed François Mahé de la Bourdonnais as Governor between 1735 and 1746. It was through his leading impetus that Port Louis was transformed into a major port and Isle de France became the headquarters of the East Indies Company in the Indian Ocean. Mahé de La Bourdonnais is also responsible for the construction of several important public monuments such as Government House which still exists, the development of public infrastructures and the introduction of major crops such as rice, indigo or cotton.

Furthermore, he developed the cultivation of sugar cane and the manufacture of sugar on an industrial scale, with the construction of the very first sugar mill in Villebague (North). Although opinions about him vary with most considering him as a remarkable hard worker, a man of great vision and a manager and some as an inhuman proslaver rather; it was through his outstanding drive that Isle de France became, as stated in the country’s motto: the star and the key of the Indian Ocean.

The East Indies Company then experienced financial difficulties, which led it to give the island back in 1765 to the French King, who appointed Pierre Poivre as administrator. As he was a passionate botanist, the latter introduced a variety of spices such as cinnamon, pepper, clove or nutmeg on the island. It is consequently under Pierre Poivre that the Pamplemousses Garden was built. Still considered as one of the most spectacular botanical gardens world-wide, it is there that the famous talipot tree grows, flowering only once every hundred years as the legend goes.

Life in the colony was then prosperous and Port-Louis was a place where memorable and sumptuous parties were thrown.

On the 13^th of January 1773, the first newspaper was published weekly on the island: Annonces, Affiches et Avis divers (A Variety of Classified Ads, Posters and Notices). In June 1790, further to the announcement of the French Revolution, a “colonial Assembly” was set up and new constitution introduced.

But at that time, the British were already longing to capture the island. Their attempt to do so in August 1810 however failed due to the French success in capturing their army after the most famous Grand Port Naval Combat, which figures among the greatest French naval victories on the Arc de Triomphe (Triumphal Arc) monument in Paris. Soon after in November 1810, the British came back with greater determination and landed in the north of the island. After very bitter combats in the vicinity of Port-Louis, the French capitulated on the following 3^rd December.

The Treaty of Paris, signed on the 30^th May 1814, made of Isle de France another British colony, which they called Mauritius and for which they swapped Bourbon Island with the French. Fortunately, that treaty enabled the inhabitants of the island to keep their traditions, customs, languages and religion. These conditions were very well respected by the successive British governors of whom Robert Townsend Farquhar was the first. The French language and the laws in force were likewise maintained so that Mauritius remained the only British territory to adhere to the Napoleon Civil Code. In January 1813, the British Colonial Administration published an order of abolition of slavery which would not however be applied until 1835. These measures, disapproved by the colons, resulted in the period of “indentured” labourers. Thus Indian workers were “imported” to work in the fields. Some 450 00 came to Mauritius over a period of 30 years, and they have become the majority of the local population since 1860.

The Indian labourers highly contributed to the agricultural development of sugar cane and export of sugar to England. The railway was introduced in Mauritius in 1862, the rupee (still used today) in 1877 and the very first electrical sugar mills in 1884, concurrently with the growing institutional development of the island.

The political aspect of Mauritius slowly found its way with the establishment of a Government Council in 1882, followed by the introduction of regional democracy in 1849, the first Municipal elections taking place in Port-Louis and the creation of a new Constitution in 1886 which accounted for the election of ten representatves.

In 1936, Dr.Maurice Curé created the Labour Party after his unsuccessful attempt to return Mauritius to France in 1921. Advocating claims from the most underprivileged sections of the population, this political party experienced an increasing success at the elections, with the use of universal suffrage as from the Constitution of 1959. In the scrutiny of 1967, some 56% of the population proved in favour of independence as put forward by the Labour Party then led Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who presided the solemn ceremony held on 12^thMarch 1968, after much debate with the British. At noon on the same day, the Union Jack flag was pulled down and replaced by the four-colour Mauritian flag in Champ de Mars.

Mauritius yet remained a member of the Commonwealth and the British Queen was represented by a Governor General until 1992, when he was replaced by a local president, appointed by the National Assembly after Mauritius had been granted the status of Republic.

Mauritius is now a mature and dynamic republic, a lively democracy with a population of some 1,2 million individuals.