Created 10/14/07
The first record of Mauritius comes from Arab and Malay sailors as early as the tenth century. The Portuguese sailors first visited it in 1505, and established a visiting base leaving the island uninhabited. Three ships of the eight Dutch Second Fleet that were sent to the Spice Islands were blown off course during a… (more) cyclone and landed on the island in 1598, naming it in honour of Prince Maurice of Nassau, the Stadtholder of the Netherlands. In 1638, the Dutch established the first permanent settlement. Because of tough climatic conditions including cyclones and the deterioration of the settlement, the Dutch abandoned the island some decades later. The French who controlled the neighbouring Bourbon island (now Réunion) moved in to seize Mauritius in 1715 and later renamed it Ile de France (Isle of France). The French got the economy well underway with a prosperous sugar production industry. One of the great initiators of this economic leap was St-Malo born governor François Mahé de Labourdonnais. The French however harboured the outlawed "corsairs" (privateers or pirates) who frequently took British vessels as they sailed between India and Britain, laden with valuable trade goods. In the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815)the British set out to gain control of the island (less)
mauritius,
island,
indian oean,
tropical,
exotic