However, during the Napoleonic Wars, despite the French naval victory in the Battle of Grand Port on 20–27 August 1810, Mauritius was captured on 3 December 1810 by the British under Commodore Josias Rowley.

Around 3,000 Franco-Mauritian planters received their share of the British government's compensation of 20 million pounds sterling (£20m) for the liberation of about 20,000 slaves, who had been imported from Africa and Madagascar during the French occupation.

Indo-Mauritians are descended from Indian immigrants who arrived in the 19th century via the Aapravasi Ghat in order to work as indentured labourers after slavery was abolished.

As the Indian population became numerically dominant and the voting franchise was extended, political power shifted from the Franco-Mauritians and their Creole allies to the Indo-Mauritians.

Curé was succeeded a year later by Emmanuel Anquetil, who tried to gain the support of the port workers and was thus exiled to the island of Rodrigues in 1938.