History Mauritius

Have you ever seen a native Mauritian? There is no! Until the 16h century there was no population at all in Mauritius.

First humans touching the island were some Arabs, but they didn’t stay for very long. Around 1500 the first people staying on the island were some Portuguese leaded by Pedro Mascarenhas. Until now the group of islands is called the Mascareignes. The Portuguese arrived and stood but they didn’t’ want to make Mauritius a colony, they just used it as a base. Nevertheless, after a while they moved away and the next guys arriving were the Dutch. They at least tried to colonize Mauritius and stood for more than 100 years. By the way, it was the Dutch who made the local famous bird, the dodo, disappear together with some ebony trees. Once there was nothing interesting on the island any more they left and Mauritius was unpopulated again. Shortly after there was the next nation arriving in Mauritius. The French arrived and gave the island a new name: Ile de France”. At this moment the history of Travel Mauritius changed totally. Before just known for some specialists as from the moment of the arrival of the French the island becomes a key role in the Indian Ocean. Culture developed, the population moved to the center of the island as it was cooler there and no malaria, sugar cane was introduced and for this lots of labour was needed. Slaves were imported, mostly from the African continent or India. It took almost one hundred years and the arrival of the British together with some tough fights until the time of the French was over. The French were gone, but the French influence was still there: the British had no problem in letting the population continuing speaking the French language and using their own law, the “Code Napoleon”. Since the British stopped slavery in 1835, the migration of Indian labourers began. In nowadays almost 70 per cent of the Mauritian population have Indian origins. The British influence is still seen in the judicial system (all contracts and laws nor are written in English) and on the streets: cars are driving on the left side of the road. Until now you find the mixture of different languages: Newspapers, TV and radio are mostly in French, official speeches, letters or texts are in English language. Since 12. March 1968 Mauritius is independent and 1992 Mauritius became republic.