[ Up ]

The first visitors to arrive were the Portuguese. In the course of their travels to the East Indies, they visited the island in 1510, but considered that it was of no immediate commercial interest to them.

The names then given to the islands of the South-Western Indian Ocean region were of European origin: Cirne or the Island of the Swan for Mauritius, Rodriguez for Rodrigues, and the Mascarenes for the archipelago comprising Mauritius, its neighbour Réunion Island and Rodrigues.

Though the Portuguese did not settle in Mauritius, they introduced and left animals on the island, as it was a port of call on the route to the Indies; unfortunately, these animals, including pigs, goats, oxen, dogs and rats, were to lead to the subsequent extinction of some indigenous animals.

 It was only in 1598 that there were settlers in Mauritius: a small Dutch colony arrived, with slaves of African origin. These settlers, who had come from the settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, appear to have suffered, along the years, a series of set-backs like cyclones, food shortage, run-away slaves, pirate attacks and shipwrecks like that of admiral Pieter Both, who was drowned in Tombeau Bay. They therefore left in 1710.

During their stay, they exploited local resources to a maximum, destroying wide ebony forests, and annihilating the dodos. It was the Dutch, however, who introduced a species of stags from Java, which still exist in significant numbers and constitute choice venison, as well as sugar cane, which has become the main crop of the island.

They also drew up the first maps of Mauritius, called one of its main districts Flacq, and named the island Maurice, after Prince Maurice de Nassau.

A small colony of Dutch and their slaves settled on the island in 1598 and left in 1710. 

It was after the French took over in 1715 that Mauritius, renamed Isle de France, started developing into the prosperous colony that it became. The master-mind behind this colonial endeavour was Bertrand François Mahé de Labourdonnais, who was appointed Governor in 1735 in the name of the East India Company, to which the island had been ceded. He not only built offices for the administration of the island, shops, barracks and shipyards, but also industries, as he promoted the exploitation of existing forests for timber, and the production of sugar cane. He also restored the country to order. Within a few years, Labourdonnais was to turn a wild and almost desert island into a productive and flourishing colony, and to create a busy French port on the Indian Ocean. Pierre Poivre and General Decaen were also major figures of the French period.

Pierre Poivre, who from 1767 to 1772 was Administrator of l’Isle de France and of Bourbon (the Reunion Island of today) under the governorship of both Dumas and Descroches, was a prudent and far-sighted manager who knew how to keep order and bring prosperity to Mauritius. Pierre Poivre was also known for his keen interest in fine spices, trees and plants. He successfully obtained some spices from Dutch possessions, namely Isle of Detroit and Isle de la Sonde (Sunda Isles), and attempted to cultivate them on the French islands in the Western Indian Ocean i.e Mauritius, La Réunion and Seychelles. The other great Frenchman was Governor Decaen, one of Napoleon's Generals. He was Captain-General of l’Isle de France and of l’Isle Bonaparte, the then name of Bourbon, now Reunion Island. When he left, he had earned a reputation for introducing a legal system and also as an Administrator who, by using a combination of firmness, skill and astuteness, had managed to bring to the attention of the French Government Mauritius, its dependencies, Isle Bonaparte and the Seychelles, all of which, during the years following the Revolution, had been cut off from France and were being run almost autonomously.

The first Assembly of the then 'Isle de France', The General Assembly, was organised even before the French National Assembly gave permission for such assemblies. This assembly, and those which came after it, the famous Colonial Assemblies, were, in effect, poor imitations of the French one, and they lasted until General Decaen achieved order with authority from the Empire.

These successive assemblies, so attached to rights and constitutional liberties, were loath in providing equal rights to certain sections of the population, namely the free Coloured and the slaves. It was undoubtedly unconceivable, indeed impracticable, to give certain rights to slaves, who were mere chattels without any civil status, but these rights should at least have been granted to the Coloured, born free and emancipated.

All this said, two prerogatives of these Assemblies proved to be beneficial to the island's population: the first one ensured the maintaining of food supplies to the 'Isle de France', separated from the Motherland, itself busy with the aftermath of the Revolution, and later with war in Europe and the English blockade; the second one consisted in the relatively successful effort to cope with the island's health problems, in particular the smallpox epidemic of 1792.

The danger to English supremacy in India, represented by Mauritius and the other French islands of the Western Indian Ocean such as Reunion, Rodrigues and the Seychelles, prompted them to take possession of these islands and get rid of the French, a job which turned out to be relatively easy for them given their naval military might; this happened in spite of the illustrious French victory at the Battle of Grand Port in August 1810.

After the blockade and the landing of a British expeditionary force, far larger in numbers than the French troops, Mauritius surrendered in 1810, with General Decaen as its last French Governor. The Treaty of Paris, in 1814, decreed that Mauritius and its dependencies, including Rodrigues and the Seychelles, were to become British, whereas Reunion, which had also been invaded by the British, was to return to France.

Mauritius became British under its old Dutch name, but remained surprisingly French, keeping the French language, culture and legal system. More or less left to their own style of life, ruled under the same laws as previously, the former French settlers and their descendants were able to keep their French life-style.

The colony first thrived on entrepot trade, and subsequently on agriculture. Sugar cane plantations were started during the French period, but sugar production really took off during the British period, and grew to the point of becoming a virtual monoculture. Along the years, other crops were introduced for local consumption with plants such as tea, tobacco and aloe. Also, certain import-substitution industries were started after World War II and were given a boost as from 1963. They led to the local production of food, beverages and articles such as edible oil, beer, soap and shoes. The textile and garments industry started to expand as from the setting up of export processing zones in 1970.

Mauritius, during the British period, remained the strategic point on the Spice route, at least until the opening up of the Suez Canal in 1869. The most important event of the British rule was, without doubt, the abolition of slavery in 1835. The colonists had been opposed to the emancipation of the slaves for economic reasons. The sugar industry was, by then, expanding and therefore in need of manpower. When slave emancipation was brought about, it turned out to be less bad than what had been forecast. Not only did the colonists receive more than adequate compensation, but the problems which they had expected never materialised. However, to find the required manpower, the country had to start importing labourers from India.

A missionary priest, Father Jacques Desiré Laval, carrying out his Ministry in Mauritius between 1841 and 1864, and now affectionately known as 'The Saint of Mauritius', was to have a deep influence on the newly emancipated slaves, and it was thanks to his devotion and engagement that the transition from slavery to liberty went smoothly.

The first attempts to import labourers from India were made in 1829, but it was really after the abolition of slavery that the importation of Indian manpower increased appreciably and resulted in a rapid growth of the sugar industry and a wave of prosperity for the island as from 1850. Prosperity was also due to an acceleration of commercial activities, which had already been beneficial to the island during the French period.

A Town Committee was instituted in Port-Louis in 1840; this was followed in 1850 by the setting up of a Municipality and the election of Municipal councillors. This Municipality, which is still in existence, was the most democratic institution on the island during the 19th century. In 1885, profound constitutional changes took place with the setting up of a Government Council, comprising Civil Servants, Members nominated by the Government, and deputies elected by a limited number of qualified voters, they being the rich colonists forming the island's oligarchy.

During the election period of 1921 there was a move to have Mauritius retrocede to France. This did not come about, as those supporting the move were defeated at elections.

The Constitution remained practically unchanged from 1885 to 1948, with important numbers of the population being denied the right to vote. 

Constitutional progress was further achieved as from 1937. Worker’s claims led to the foundation of the Labour Party, which was composed of Coloureds and of some intellectuals of Indian origin. The party was immediately recognised by the local trade-union movement as one defending its cause.

In 1948, a new Constitution was adopted, and about two-fifths of the adult population was entitled to vote in the elections held that same year. The 1953 elections constituted yet another step towards democracy in Mauritius, with the Labour Party increasing its total number of elected members in the Legislative Council.

In 1957, the ministerial system was introduced in Mauritius, with Dr. Seewoosagur Ramgoolam becoming the leader of the Labour party.

Then, following the Constitutional Conference of 1965 in London, general elections were held in 1967; a majority of Mauritians voted in favour of independence, which was granted to the island on 12th. March 1968. Mauritius remained a Sovereign State within the Commonwealth, with the Queen as its Head, until 1st of July 1992, when it turned into a Republic. 

Mauritius became a republic on the 1st of July 1992.

His excellency Mr Cassam Uteem is the current president of the independent Republic of Mauritius.