History of Mauritius

While Arab and Malay sailors knew of Mauritius as early as the 10th century AD and Portuguese sailors first visited in the 16th century, the island was not colonized until 1638 by the Dutch. Mauritius was populated over the next few centuries by waves of traders, planters and their slaves, indentured laborers, merchants, and artisans. The island was named in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau by the Dutch, who abandoned the colony in 1710.

The French claimed Mauritius in 1715 and renamed it Ile de France. It became a prosperous colony under the French East India Company. The French Government took control in 1767, and the island served as a naval and privateer base during the Napoleonic wars. In 1810, Mauritius was captured by the British, whose possession of the island was confirmed 4 years later by the Treaty of Paris (1814). French institutions, including the Napoleonic code of law, were maintained. The French language is still used more widely than English.

Mauritian Creoles trace their origins to the plantation owners and slaves who were brought to work the sugar fields. Indo-Mauritians are descended from Indian immigrants who arrived in the 19th century to work as indentured laborers after slavery was abolished in 1835. Included in the Indo-Mauritian community are Muslims (about 15% of the population) from the Indian subcontinent. The Franco-Mauritian elite controls nearly all of the large sugar estates and is active in business and banking. 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 Hindus.

Elections in 1947 for the newly created Legislative Assembly marked Mauritius' first steps toward self-rule. An independence campaign gained momentum after 1961, when the British agreed to permit additional self-government and eventual independence. A coalition composed of the Mauritian Labor Party[?] (MLP), the Muslim Committee of Action[?] (CAM), and the Independent Forward Bloc[?] (IFB)--a traditionalist Hindu party--won a majority in the 1967 Legislative Assembly election, despite opposition from Franco-Mauritian and Creole supporters of Gaetan Duval[?]'s Mauritian Social Democratic Party[?] (PMSD). The contest was interpreted locally as a referendum on independence. Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, MLP leader and chief minister in the colonial government, became the first prime minister at independence, on March 12, 1968. This event was preceded by a period of communal strife, brought under control with assistance from British troops. On March 12, 1992 Mauritius became a republic while retaining membership in the British Commonwealth.

See also : Mauritius

Common misspelling and questions (FAQ)

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And some on the jellied quarl, that flings They cut the wave with the living oar To guard their realms and chase away His hope is high, and his limbs are strong, And throws his feet with a frog-like fling; At his breast the tiny foam-beads rise, And the wake-line foam behind him lies. To check his course along the tide; And hem him round on every side; The quarl's long arms are round him roll'd, And the squab has thrown his javelin, And the crab has struck with his giant claw; He strikes around, but his blows are vain; Fairy! nought is left but flight. XV. He turned him round and fled amain He twisted over from side to side, The strokes of his plunging arms are fleet, But the water-sprites are round him still, They bade the wave before him rise; And they stunned his ears with the scallop stroke, Oh! but a weary wight was he - Gashed and wounded, and stiff and sore, He blessed the force of the charmed line, For he saw around in the sweet moonshine, Giggling and laughing with all their might From the sorrel leaf and the henbane bud; And with cobweb lint he stanched the blood. It cooled the heat of his burning brow, As he drank the juice of the cal'mus root; .