Mauritius History

It seems that the Arabs sailors were the first people having discovered Mauritius which was at of course at this time an inhabited island with a dense forest and had no name. But there are no documents that can prove that there have not been other nations that discovered the island before them. Mauritius was discovered by the Arabs around the ninth century. After a short visit of the Arabs sailors who were not interested in the island, the Portuguese adventurers discovered Mauritius; this was around the year 1507.

The Portuguese sailor Fernandez Pereira saw the island and called it Cerne and called the group of islands, Mauritius, Rodrigues and Reunion the Mascarenes after Pero Mascarenhas a Portuguese captain. When the Portuguese discovered Mauritius they were not interested in taking possession or settle on the island, their trade routes with India was more important to them as this period, so they preferred to settle along the Mozambique coast.

The colonisation of Mauritius was first made by the Dutch who settled in the island as from 1598. They arrived in the island by a bay in the south-east which nowadays is known as Grand Port, at this time the bay was given the name of Warwyck haven, VanWarwyck was the commander of fleet that took possession of Mauritius at this time. It was only then that Mauritius got its name which was given after Prince Maurice Nassau, stadtholder of Holland. The Dutch left the island Mauritius starting 1652 and till 1710 they were all gone but before they had introduced sugar cane, the java deer, crops and monkeys. The Dutch found another point of settlement which was the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. But the Dutch also left the island with almost no dodos anymore. When the Dutch settled in Mauritius one of their main sources of food was the famous dodo, now extinct, which could be found in the island in a large quantity. The dodo was bird very easy to capture, they were also not afraid of human beings; it was a passive and flightless bird which was an easy prey for lazy hunters as the Dutch settlers. The rest of the dodos left on the island were most of them the prey of the animals as monkeys, pigs and rats, introduced on the island by the sailors. The last dodo was dead in the year 1681. But during the period the Dutch had settled on the island, the Danish also arrived in the island it was during 1622, as the island was full of ebony trees they wanted to exploit it but it was too late as the Dutch took already possession of Mauritius.

As soon as the Dutch had settled in Mauritius they imported slaves from Madagascar and there were convicts sent to Mauritius from Java. When the last Dutch left Mauritius they also left the slaves who ran away from their masters and were living in the forest. After the Dutch left Mauritius in1710, it was only in 1715 that the French took possession of the island and called it “Ile de France”. It was Guillaume Dufresne d'Arsel who took ownership of the island in name of King Louis XV of France. In 1722 arrived the first settlers and landed at Warwyck bay (now Grand Port) and named it Port Bourbon but left the area for the north-west Harbour as they considered Port Bourbon not a sure place to settle. And the harbour was called Port Louis.

For the first fourteen years it was not easy to survive for the French colony, it was the same for the Dutch when they were in the island that is why they decided to leave Mauritius.

Bertrand Mahé de Labourdonnais is known as the founder of Port Louis and its harbour. As from 1721 he started the development of Port Louis. He was an aristocratic captain from St Malo. At this period there were more blacks on the island than whites; most of the blacks were from Madagascar and Africa and little were Indians from Malabar and Coromandel. Mahé de Labourdonnais was also a person who made the work of the slaves easier. When he imported slaves, he also imported ox carts to help them in their job. He planted sugar cane on his estates. He told the new settlers to plant coffee, manioc, indigo and cotton on their land. In 1744 the first sugar industry was opened at Villebague. Labourdonnais did a lot for Mauritius for Mauritius Island; he built roads and bridges and made of Port Louis a naval base. He also constructed the Government House, Chateau de Mon Plaisir found in the Pamplemousses Gardens and the Line Barracks in Port Louis. In thank to the founder of Port Louis there is a statue of Mahé de Labourdonnais facing the harbour of Port Louis.

In 1810 Mauritius was in possession of Britain and it was Robert Farquhar who was declared as first English Governor of Mauritius. But the battle between French and English started much earlier. It started already in 1746. During this year Mahé de Labourdonnais sent nine ships in expedition to India.  In India they conquered a British squadron and captured Madras who were very important outpost for the British and Mahé de Labourdonnais knew it and was sure that British would pay a ransom to get back Madras. Due to what he did, Mahé de Labourdonnais was confronted to his commander in India Dupleix who accused him to be corrupted. Mahé de Labourdonnais was replaced as Governor and was sent to France where he was directly sent to the Bastille.

But in 1751 he was declared innocent and died two years later at the age of fifty four. The battle went on during seven years between 1746 and 1763; each of France and England wanted to have control of the French East India Company and the Indian Ocean. When French lost battle in India they accused the company of corruption which resulted to handle over Mauritius to the King of France. The Royal Government was created in 1767; at this period the population was a little over eighteen thousand which were Europeans, free blacks, Hindus and slaves. Most of the population at this time were slaves.Pierre Poivre who became the administrator of Mauritius introduced variety of plants in the island.

The Vicomte de Souillac was named as Governor from 1779 to 1787. During this period Port Louis became known for gambling, dancing, duelling and corruption was common and no care was taken for public affairs.

Napeléon Bonaparte appointed Charles Decaen who was the last French Governor of Mauritius and his job was to bring the colony back to order. The General Charles Decaen constructed primary schools and the Lycée Colonial which nowadays is known as the Royal College. Charles Decaen was also the one who inserted the Napoleonic laws which is still in force now.

General Charles Decaen founded Mahebourg and when the island was under his control Port Louis was named as Port Napoleon and Mahebourg was Port Imperial.

During 1810 there has been a surprise attack organised by the British in the North of the Mauritius and the Governor General Charles Decaen surrendered.

At this time Mauritius got under the control of British and the Port Napoleon and Port Imperial regain their respective name that they had formerly, Port Louis and Mahebourg.

The soldiers were allowed to leave the country and those who did want to stay on the island were also free to go back to France.Under the control of Robert Farquhar the Governor of the island the production of sugar cane grew up, he made Port Louis a free port. The laws of the island were conserved as well as the customs, religion and language.

The abolition of slavery was official in 1835. After that there was a large number of Indians from Calcutta Bombay and Madras who were influenced to emigrate to Mauritius. They were promised to have a work contract with a salary and a place to stay. But after their arrival they were not so well treated as promised and were paid a very little salary and needed to work very long hours.

When an Immigration Department in the middle of the nineteenth century was founded things changed a little for the Indian workers.

During the year 1907 Mahatma Gandhi at this period known as Mohandas Gandhi, came on visit to Mauritius. Seeing how the Indian workers were treated he sent an Indian lawyer, Manillal Doctor to Mauritius during the same year to help them as they had no word to say in politic and civil rights. A Labour Party was established in 1936.

The British built the airport at Plaisance and a telecommunication station in Vacoas, this was done during the Second World War, and it was a period with a lot of developments in Mauritius.

But the first telephone cable which was underwater cable was laid in 1901 and connected South Africa to Australia.

Doctor Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who became later on Sir, was the leader of the Labour Party and became after the election of 1959 the Chief Minister. In 1965 Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam became for the first time Prime Minister of Mauritius until 1982.

In 1968 Mauritius was still under the control of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, Mauritius became independent within the Commonwealth.

After the election of 1982 Aneerood Jugnauth became the Prime Minister of Mauritius and Paul Berenger as Minister of Finance.

Mauritius became a republic in 1992 and is now known as Republic of Mauritius.

Aneerood Jugnauth is now (2006) the president of the Republic of Mauritius and Navin Ramgoolam son of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Mauritius.