History of Mauritius
"[3] The three islands (Réunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues) were encountered some years earlier by chance during an exploratory expedition of the coast of the Bay of Bengal led by Tristão da Cunha.
In 1615, the shipwreck and death of governor Pieter Both, who was coming back from India with four richly laden ships in the bay, led Dutch sailors to consider the route cursed, and they tried to avoid it as much as possible.
Numerous governors were appointed, but continuous hardships such as cyclones, droughts, pest infestations, lack of food, and illnesses in the end took their toll, and the island was definitively abandoned in 1710.
In 1664, a second attempt also ended badly, as the men chosen for the job abandoned their sick commander, van Niewland, without proper treatment, and he died.
From 1666 to 1669, Dirk Jansz Smient administered the new colony at Port de Warwick, with the cutting down and export of ebony trees as the main activity.
When Dirk Jansz Smient left, he was replaced by George Frederik Wreeden, who died in 1672, drowned with five other colonists during a reconnaissance expedition.
Some punishments consisted of amputation of various parts of the body and exposure in the open air for a day as example to others, eventually culminating in condemned slaves’ execution at sunset.
Under his governorship, numerous buildings were built, a number of which still stand today: part of Government House, the Château de Mon Plaisir at Pamplemousses and the Line Barracks.
[14] In 1806, the Governor General, Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen, created the city of Mahébourg, named in honour of Mahé de La Bourdonnais.
During the Napoleonic wars, the "Isle de France" became a base from which French corsairs organised successful raids on British commercial ships.
In late November 1810 the British landed in large numbers in the north of the island near Cap Malheureux and rapidly overpowered the French, who capitulated on 3 December 1810.
[15] By the Treaty of Paris in 1814, the "Isle de France", which was renamed "Mauritius" was ceded to Great Britain, together with Rodrigues and the Seychelles.
Despite the only French naval victory (during the Napoleonic Wars) of Battle of Grand Port on 19 and 20 August 1810 by a fleet commanded by Pierre Bouvet, Mauritius was captured on 3 December 1810 by the British under Commodore Josias Rowley.
The British administration, which began with Robert Townsend Farquhar as governor, was followed by rapid social and economic changes.
The planters received compensation of two million pounds sterling for the loss of their slaves who had been imported from Africa and Madagascar during the French occupation.
When slavery was abolished on 1 February 1835, an attempt was made to secure a cheap source of adaptable labour for intensive sugar plantations in Mauritius.
This period of intensive use of Indian labour took place during British rule, with many brutal episodes and a long struggle by the indentured for respect.
Indo-Mauritians are descended from Indian immigrants, most of whom arrived between 1835 and 1924 via the Coolie Ghat to work as indentured labourers after slavery was abolished in 1835.
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.
He stayed on the island for two weeks, and urged the Indo-Mauritian community to take an interest in education and to play a more active role in politics.
[19] The meeting of a mosaic of people from India, China, Africa and Europe began a process of hybridisation and intercultural frictions and dialogues, which poet Khal Torabully has termed "coolitude".
[20] This social reality is a major reference for identity opened to otherness and is widely used[clarification needed] in Mauritius where it represents a humanism of diversity.
During the World War II, thousands of Mauritians volunteered or were conscripted as military labourers, construction workers or infantry soldiers.
[34] In 1990 Seewoosagur's son, Navin Ramgoolam, succeeded him as leader of the party which was defeated at the 1991 elections, which saw Sir Anerood Jugnauth QC re-elected under a MMM-MSM government.
Dr. Navin Ramgoolam led a MLP-MMM coalition to victory at the 1995 general elections, replacing Sir Aneerood Jugnauth QC as prime minister, a post the latter had occupied for 13 years.
The 2010 general elections saw the victory of a MLP-MSM-PMSD coalition (known as "L'Alliance de l'Avenir") and the maintaining of Dr. Navin Ramgoolam as prime minister.
A year or so later, Sir Anerood Jugnauth QC left the presidency and was replaced by Kailash Purryag, an attorney at law and politician, who has served the country as senior minister on many occasions under the leadership of Dr. Navin Ramgoolam.
[39] In November 2019, Mauritius’ ruling Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) won more than half of the seats in the 2019 elections, securing incumbent Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth a new five-year term.
[40] On 25 July 2020, Japanese-owned bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the coast of Mauritius, leaking up to 1,000 tonnes of heavy oil into a pristine lagoon.
[41] Its location on the edge of protected fragile marine ecosystems and a wetland of international importance made the MV Wakashio oil spill one of the worst environmental disasters ever to hit the western Indian Ocean.
