Mauritius History

The island of Mauritius is situated 855 kilometres off the east coast of Madagascar with Africa being the nearest continent and Perth being some 7 hours flying distance.

The island occupies a choice section of the Indian Ocean situated just north of the Tropic of Capricorn, 20 sough in latitude and 57 longitude east of Greenwich.

Mauritius is a volcanic island approximately 10 million years old and only 1865 kilometres in area. The central plateau reaches 800 metres in altitude with the highest peak Le Piton de la Riviere Noire, hitting 828 metres. The magnificent coastline of 321.5 kilometres is almost entirely surrounded by one of the largest unbroken coral reefs in the world.

The island was known to the early Arab traders and can be found marked on their maps, but the first visitors to land were the Portuguese who landed in 1510 but did not settle, only using the island as a victualling stop on the way to Goa and Malacca. The Dutch were the first to attempt colonisation arriving in 1598 naming the island Mauritius after the Prince of Nassau, Prince Maurice. The Dutch, although introducing the main export to Mauritius, namely sugar, brought with them slaves from Malagasy and a herd of Javanese deer. However, they were guilty of the needless destruction of the magnificent ebony forests and the extinct Dodo bird. Having destroyed the island they departed in 1710 after which the French arrived in approximately 1715 and renamed the island Isle de France hence many of the names today are remnants of that era.

Mahe de Labourdonnais, who took over as governor of the East India Company in 1735, and to whom the island was handed over, transferred the capital from Grand Port in the south, which was subject to trade winds therefore not suitable for navigation, to a port in the north west which became Port Louis. He was responsible for the buildings of stores, barracks and public building (many of which can be seen today including Line Barracks). He was responsible for the development of industry with forestry and sugar refining and actually built the first sugar mill. Dealing with slave uprising, he re-established order and in a few years had transformed the island into a flourishing colony and port in the Indian Ocean.