MAURITIUS BRIEF HISTORY

Discovery

It has been frequently suggested that Mauritius was first discovered by the Arabs, who named the island Dina Harobi. The first historical evidence of the existence of the island is on a map produced by the Italian cartographer Alberto Cantino in 1502. Cantino shows three islands which are thought to represent the Mascarenes (Reunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues) and calls them Dina Margabin, Dina Harobi and Dina Morare. What is known is that the medieval Arab world called the Indian Ocean island region Waqwaq.  Portuguese (1507–1513)   Mauritius was discovered and visited by the Portuguese between 1507 and 1513. The three islands Reunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues were discovered some years earlier by chance during an exploratory expedition of the coast of the Gulf of Bengal led by Tristão da Cunha. Mauritius was discovered during the same expedition and received the name of Cirne. Five years later, the islands were visited by Dom Pedro de Mascarenhas who left the name Mascarene for the whole region. The Portuguese took no interest in these isolated islands. Dutch (1598–1637) In 1598 a Dutch expedition consisting of eight ships ran into foul weather after passing the Cape of Good Hope and was separated. Five re-grouped and sailed in a southeasterly direction and came into view of the island. They entered a sheltered bay which they gave the name of Port de Warwick (present name is Grand Port). They landed and decided to name the island Prins Maurits van Nassaueiland, after Prince Mauritis of the House of Nassau the stadtholder of Holland. 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 came into the bay which they named Rade des Tortues (literally meaning Harbour of the Tortoises) because of the huge number of terrestrial tortoises they found there. In 1615 the shipwrecking and death of governor Pieter Both 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 abundance all over the island.  Dutch Colonization (1638–1710)         Dutch colonization started in 1638 and ended in 1710, with a brief interruption between 1658 and 1666. Continuous hardships such as cyclones, droughts, pest infestations, lack of food and illnesses finally took their toll, and the island was definitively abandoned in 1710.  Legacy of the Dutch   Providing the name for the country and for many regions over the whole island. Some examples include the Pieter Both Mountain, the Vandermeersh region near Rose Hill as well as many other names. Introduction of sugar cane plants from Java. Decimating the local dodo and giant tortoise population for food and by introducing competing species and pests, sometimes involuntarily. Clearing of large swaths of forests for Ebony bark exploitation.  French (1710–1810) Abandoned by the Dutch the island became a French colony when, in September 1715, Guillaume Dufresne D'Arsel landed and took possession of this port of call. He named the island Isle de France, but it was only in 1721 that the French started their occupation. However, it was only from 1735, with the arrival of the most illustrious of French governors, Mahe de La Bourdonnais, that the Isle de France started developing effectively. Mahé de La Bourdonnais established Port Louis as a naval base and a shipbuilding centre. The island was under the administration of the French East India Company which maintained its presence until 1767. From 1806 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. 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, which was 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 (1810–1968) Mauritius was captured on 3 December 1810 by the British under Commodore Josias Rowley. French institutions, including the Napoleonic code of law, were maintained. The French language was at that moment still used more widely than English. The British administration, which began with Robert Townsend 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 who had been imported from Africa and Madagascar during the French occupation.  Indentured Labour When slavery was abolished in 1835, an attempt was made to secure a cheap source of adaptable labour for intensive sugar plantations in Mauritius. Indentured labour began with Chinese, Malay, African and Malagasy labourers, but ultimately, it was India which supplied the much needed labourers to Mauritius. This period of intensive use of Indian labour took place during British rule, with many brutal episodes and a long struggle by the indentured for respect. 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 nineteenth century. Included in the Indo-Mauritian community are Muslims (about 17% of the population) from the Indian sub-continent. The Franco-Mauritian elite control nearly all of the large sugar estates and are 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 Indo-Mauritians. Conflicts arose between the Indian community (mostly sugarcane labourers) and the Franco-Mauritians in the 1920s, leading to several - mainly Indian - deaths. Following this the Mauritius Labour Party was founded in 1936 by Maurice Cure to safeguard the interest of the labourers. Independence Elections in 1947 for the newly created Legislative Assembly marked Mauritius’ first steps toward self-rule and were won by the Labour Party, headed by Guy Rozemont. It was the first time the elite Francophones were ousted from power. An independence campaign gained momentum after 1961, when the British agreed to permit additional self-government and eventual independence. A coalition won a majority in the 1967 Legislative Assembly election. The contest was interpreted locally as a referendum on independence. Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam became the first prime minister after independence, on 12 March 1968.