HISTORICAL PROFILE
Rescue of Paul and Virginie by Dominique
Paul and Virginie crossing the river.
Mauritius is famous as the island where the dodo once existed and where lived Bernardin de St. Pierre romantic heroes, Paul and Virginie.
Mauritius has long been known because of an early and rare postage stamp.
Post Office Stamps 1847 - 1997
It was after Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 that Portuguese navigators first visited Mauritius, which apparently had always been so. The Portuguese named Mauritius the 'Island of Swan".
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Dutch, French and British were rivals for the use of the island as a place of call, but it was the Dutch who first showed an interest in colonization when they formed a settlement in 1638 naming the island "MAURITIUS" in honor of the Stathoulder, Prince Maurits Van Nassau . The Dutch introduced domestic animals, Javanese deer, and various crops in the island. But this first settlement, numbering a few hundred at the very most, who never turned into a permanent colony and the Dutch finally left in 1710.
Scene of Dutch Occupation (1638 - 1710)
Owing to the strategic position of the island on the route to India, a second settlement was formed in 1722, this time by the French "Compagnie des Indes Orientales". Within forty years, the Ile de France (as the French named the island) became a prosperous colony of 40,000 inhabitants. The early development of the island was largely due to the vigorous administration of one of the first Governor, Mahé de la Bourdonnais. Not only did la Bourdonnais encourage agriculture but he greatly developed the harbor of Port Louis. In wartime, Port Louis became an important base for naval operations against the British. Indeed, it was from Port Louis that la Bourbonnais himself sailed, with a fleet, in 1746 to capture Madras.
Rivalry between the French and the British in the Indian Ocean lasted during the whole of the eighteenth century. Even after the battle of Trafalgar, when Britain gained complete control of the seas, French corsairs operating from Port Louis remained a serious threat to British commerce. Consequently, in 1810 , a British fleet was sent to capture the island, but it was defeated at the battle of Grand Port off the south-east coast of the island. A few months later, however, the British landed an expeditionary force in the north of the island and quickly overcame the French defense. By the treaty of Paris, signed in 1815, Ile de France was ceded to the British and re-named Mauritius.
Battle of Grand Port (1810)
Landing of the British - Nov 1810
The British conquest was followed by rapid social and economic changes. Mauritius, which had hitherto produced no exports worthy of the name, became a relatively important producer of sugar. After the abolition of slavery in 1833, when an acute shortage of manpower was felt on sugar-cane plantations, immigration from India and, to a lesser extent, China was organized so as to remedy the situation. These early population movements account for the fact that to-day Mauritian society is multi-racial.
Abolition of Slavery
Moi égale à toi
Couleur n'est rien, le coeur est lourd,
n'est tu pas mon frère
Indian Immigrants in Mauritius (1835)
The island's history in the twentieth century was marked by a further development of the sugar industry and, since 1945, by a population explosion which resulted from the eradication of malaria.
Eradication of Malaria
On 12 March 1968, Mauritius became an independent country within the Commonwealth and a member of the United Nations. But on 12 March 1992, Mauritius acceded to the status of Republic.
Mauritian Flag