Mauritius

The History of Mauritius

It is interesting to learn about the history of Mauritius, although not much was documented or can be confirmed true before the sixteenth century when the first Europeans visited the island, which were the Portuguese.

The Dutch settlers of 1598 named the island 'Mauritius' after Prince Maurice of Nassau. The Dutch introduced sugar cane and also the Java Deer and stayed till 1710, before moving on the what they considered to be a far better setting for crop yields and reliable weather, namely the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

After about 5 years the beautiful Mauritius Island was inhabited again, this time by the French who renamed it 'Isle de France' – it was under French Governing that Mauritius saw its first development, which was that of a harbour. Port Louis, the Capital or Mauritius, was named after the ruling King Louis XV. At this time, trade was a thriving business, with the likes of sugar and rum being supplied to surrounding islands. In 1810, the British conquered the island and Mauritius was formally ceded to them in the "Traiti de Paris" of 1814, even though most of the French settlers remained on the island and kept to their customers, religions and laws. After the abolishment of slavery in 1835 by the British, slaves from Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique came to work on the sugar cane fields of Mauritius – many descendants of these labourers now make up the majority of the Mauritian population.

Mauritius officially achieved its independence on the 12th March 1968, adopting a constitution based on the British Parliamentary System. After 15 years of hard work, Mauritius successfully found economic and political stability and on the 12th March 1992 Mauritius changed its status to that of a republic, where elections are held every 5 years and political power is vested in the Prime Minister and the cabinet.