The island of Mauritius (Mascarenes Islands) (pronounced: IPA: [məˈɹɪʃəs]; French: Maurice/mɔʀis/; Mauritian Creole: Moris), officially Republic of Mauritius. Agalega Islands, St. Brandon, La Réunion and Rodrigues form the Mascarene archipelago, this volcanic, mountainous archipelago remained undiscovered until the end of the 14th century. Mauritius was discovered by merchants and Arab sailors.
The Arabs sailors were the first people to discover Mauritius in 19th century, Which there were no documents that can prove that there have been any other nations that discovered the island before the Arabians. At that time Mauritius were an inhabited island with a dense forest and had no name. After that Portuguese adventurers discovered Mauritius in year around 1507.
The Portuguese famous sailor Fernandez Pereira discovered this island and called it “Cerne” and called the group of islands, Mauritius, Rodrigues and Reunion the Mascarenes. Those names were 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 Portuguese famous sailor Fernandez Pereira discovered this island and called it “Cerne” and called the group of islands, Mauritius, Rodrigues and Reunion the Mascarenes. Those names were 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 habitation of Mauritius was first made by the Dutch’s who settled in the island in 1598. They arrived in to the island by the bay in south-east which now known as the Grand Port, at that time the bay was named as Warwyck haven (VanWarwyck was the commander of fleet that took possession of Mauritius at that time). The name “Mauritius” was given after the Prince Maurice Nassau, stadtholder of Holland. Dutch left Mauritius starting 1652 and till 1710, before going they introduced sugar cane, the java deer, crops and monkeys. Dutch also left the island with almost no dodos anymore. When the Dutch settled in Mauritius their main sources of food was the famous dodo, (now extinct) which could be found in the island in a large quantity. 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 rest of the dodos left on the island were the preys of animals such as monkeys, pigs and rats, introduced on the island by the sailors. The last dodo was dead in the year 1681. 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, India and there were convicts sent to Mauritius from Java. When the Dutch left Mauritius they also left the slaves who ran away from their masters and lived in the forest. The Dutch left Mauritius in1710. And in 1715 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 place to settle. And the harbour was called Port Louis after the name of their King Louis XV.
For the first fourteen years it was not easy to survive for the French colony, 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 a gallant captain from St Malo. At this period most of the people were from Madagascar and Africa and little were Indians from Malabar and Coromandel. Mahé de Labourdonnais imported slaves; he also imported ox carts to make easier to the slaves for 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. Mahé de Labourdonnais did a lot for Mauritius. 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 was in 1746. During this year Mahé de Labourdonnais sent nine ships in expedition to India. In there they conquered a British squadron and captured Madras which was very important outpost for the British, 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 Duplex who accused him to be corrupted. Mahé de Labourdonnais was replaced as Governor and was sent to France directly 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 for 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. 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 now 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 named as 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 was 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 their home country 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 nourish as well as the customs, religion and language.
The break-up of slavery was official in 1835. After that there was a large number of Indians from Calcutta, Bombay and Madras who were influenced to immigrate to Mauritius.
In middle of nineteenth century a Immigration Department was
During the year 1907 Mahatma Gandhi also 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 the leader of the Labour Party and became the Chief Minister in 1959. In 1965 Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam became the first 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