The Documented History Of Mauritius
Todays article will discuss the history of the island known as Mauritius. Mauritius is an island nation that exists in the Indian Ocean. It is off the eastern coast of Africa, & it is semi-close to the eastern areas of Madagascar. It is known for its beautiful beaches & active marine life. The main reason for this marine life, is their well kept coral reefs & sea grass meadows. It is a sovereign nation & the people primarily speak French. The French name for Mauritius is Maurice. It is tropical & is one of the most visited countries of all the African nations. It is approximately 1,017.47 Nautical / Marine miles off the coast of Africa. It is also approximately 2724.90 Nautical / Marine Miles off the coast of Antarctica. Additionally, the isle is approximately 2088.98 Nautical / Marine Miles off the coast of the continent known as Asia, specifically the country seagrass of India. The island is home to approximately 1,262,523 people. It has many thriving marine ecosystems which include coral reefs. The Mauritian government & the Mauritian people will take care of these coral reefs. This can be seen in many beach clean ups being conducted. This in attracts many marine animals. These species range from tropical fish, to dolphins, to even certain species of shark. Mauritius is a tropical country & their waters are warm & always at a comfortable temperature. There are very many recreational activities that take place around the island. These activities range from boating, to personal fishing, to swimming, to snorkelling. The oceans of Mauritius are most definitely one of their largest assets in term of the economy. Mauritius is also a very common place for eco-tourism due to their dense rainforest. Mauritius has a long & complex history with it changing hands approximately 4 times, including being a part of the large French & British empire. It also played a role in the development of the dutch east India company. Mauritius has also had many uses over the years depending on the empire that it was being used by, these uses will be further discussed in the historical section of my article. The island has an approximate population of 1,265,475, this number was found by a census in the year 2019. The island has an approximate land area of 2046.09 square kilometers (789.9997656 square miles). In this article we will discuss the discovery & documented history of the island known as Mauritius, The known aboriginals of Mauritius, the most destructive man caused & natural disasters that have affected Mauritius, & finally a segment on the economy of Mauritius. With that being said, let us delve into the island of gorgeous island of Mauritius.
The Documented History Of Mauritius
Before Colonization
The island was uninhabited & unknown before it was discovered. It may have been visited by Arab sailors in the middle ages, however that is not documented. The island does not have any original people & was completely untouched when first discovered by the Moors. There were no original people for this area, as it was completely disconnected from the main continent of Africa’s culture.
After Colonization
16th Century
The moors were the first to discover the island. It is unknown exactly when they found out about it, however it was first discovered on a map made by the Italian cartographer known as Alberto Cantino. This map was made in 1502 so it is safe to assume that the island was known about since 1502. In the map, Cantino depicts three isles which are thought to represent the Mascarenes (Réunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues) & refers to them as them Dina Margabin, Dina Arobi, & Dina Moraze. The medieval Arab world also called the Oceanic region of the Indian ocean, Waqwaq. This goes for any island in that region, not just Mauritius. It is also unclear how far exactly waqwaq extended. After this the Portuguese sailor Domingo Fernandez Pereira visited the island in the year 1511. He was most likely the first Western European sailor to land on the island. He was there for a very brief time period. After this point the island appeared on Portuguese maps with the name “Cirne”. It is sort of unclear what this translates into. Upon arrival, he found the dodo bird, which was a flightless bird in abundance on the island at the time. After this, another Portuguese sailor known as Don Pedro Mascarenhas may have visited the islands. After this point the portugese abandoned the islands as they took no interest in colonizing the island. In the year 1598, a Dutch colony landed on the island. This colony was ordered by Admiral Wybrand Van Warwyck, once the colonists landed they named the island “Mauritius” in order to honour Prince Maurice Van Nassau of Holland. They did not immediately settle the island.
17th Century
In the year 1638, an attempt was made to finally settle the island of Mauritius. This attempt was made by the Dutch. It was from this point that the famous Dutch sailor & navigator, Tasman, set out to explore the western areas of Australia. The very first Dutch settlement ended in failure, as it only lasted 20 years. Quickly after, several attempts were made to build another colonization, but unfortunately the settlements were never able to develop enough to produce dividends. This ended in the Dutch finally deciding to abandon all hope, & then leave Mauritius. They did so in 1710. They introduced sugar cane, & deer to the island via imports from mainland Africa.
18th Century
After being abandoned by the Dutch, the island became a French colony. It became like this when in September in the year of 1715, Guillaume Dufresne D'Arsel landed & took possession of this precious port of call on the route to India. This made it a sort of way station for ships going to India. D’Arsel named the island “Isle-de-france”. The french much like the Dutch, did not settle immediately. It took until the year 1721 in order for France to finally settle the island. The island was not developed much until 1735 either. It began due to the arrival of a certain french governor known as Mahé de La Bourdonnais, who established Port Louis as a ship-building center & a naval center. Port Louis is still surviving, & is in fact the modern capital of the island. Several buildings built under bis guise also managed to survive to modern day. The island was also under the administration of the French east India company at this time, the company remained on the island until 1767. From 1767 to 1810, the island was governed by french officials, these officials led the island. This was continuous except for a brief period of time during the French Revolution. During this period of time, the colonists on the isle set up their own government system, which was designed to be almost independent of France. At this point the island became somewhat of a constituent country. Amidst the Napoleonic wars, the “isle de France”, had become a base in which the french corsairs orchestrated successful raids & attacks upon the incoming British commercial ships. These raids would continue until the year 1810 when a group of British expeditors captured the island, this started the British colonialism period for Mauritius.
19th Century
A preliminary attack was launched on grand port however it failed, the attack was launched in August of 1810. This made way for the much larger attack in December of that same year, which would ultimately capture Mauritius. The British landed on the northern side of the island & quickly overpowered the French forces. The island was formally declared as captured on the 3rd of December, 1810. By the treaty of Paris in the year 1814 the islands name was changed from “Isle de France” to its former name “Mauritius”. The island was formally ceded to the British around this time as well. In the event of capitulation, the British assured the residents that they would respect the language, customs, traditions, & laws that were already in place. In the act of capitulation, the British guaranteed that they would respect the language, the customs, the laws and the traditions of the inhabitants. British administration was promptly established, the first significant sign of British development was adding the first governor of Mauritius, who was Robert Farquhar. Rapid social & economic changes soon followed his arrival. One of these economic & social changes, was the abolition of slavery on the 1st of February, 1835. This caused a decrease of crop development. Due to this, the planters received compensation of 2 million pound sterlings for the loss of these slaves. The loss of these slaves would cause many plantations to fall into a economic depression. These slaves were mainly imported from mainland Africa & Madagascar during the french occupation. The planters needed labourers to work the fields, so they attempted to recruit Malay, African, & Chinese indentured servants. The planters would ultimately turn to India, from which they would bring a large amount of indentured workers to work the sugar cane fields. These new Indian immigrants, would change the society in many ways both social & economic. They would later be joined by a few Chinese merchants. One of the economic changes that the Indians brought, was that they caused the cultivation of sugar cane to sky rocket on the island. This caused the island to flourish as they not only had an abundance of sugar cane for themselves, but they could import the sugar cane to England. Sir George Ferguson Bowen was the British governor of the island 1879 to 1883.
20th Century
During the 1920s, many conflicts arose between the Indians & the Franco-Mauritians. This led to many fights, which caused many Indians to die. Following close after this, the Labour party, a political party of Mauritius was founded. It was founded in 1936 by Maurice Curé, it was founded to protect & safeguard the interests of labourers. Curé was suceeded one year later by Emmanual Anquetil, who was attempting to gain the support of port workers. After Anquetils death, Guy Rozemont assumed the leadership duties of the party. The Mauritius territorial force was a military force that was comprised of coastal artillery units & infantry formations, was created in 1934. Due to the escalation of world war 2 as well as the British involvement in world war 2, it was expanded to be 2 battalions. It was later renamed the “Mauritius Regiment” in the year 1943. During the second world war, Mauritians volunteered to help the war effort by either being construction workers, infantry soldiers, or military labourers. Any of them served in the royal pioneer corps in the middle east & in southern Europe. Many Franco-Mauritians were killed while serving as agents of the special operations executive. In December of 1943, 1000 soldiers of the Mauritius regiment were mutinied on the east African island of Madagascar. They did this because they felt betrayed & disrespected as they were told they would only be serving in Mauritius. An independence movement in Mauritius gained momentum in the year 1961, this started when the British agreed to permit self governance to the colony. Between 1965 & 1968 many ethnic riots happened which could only be brought to control with assistance of British troops. This strife led to approximately 300 fatalities. The British rule formally ended on the 12th of March 1968 when the Mauritius independence act was passed. In December of 1991, the constitution of Mauritius was amended to make mauritius a republic within the commonwealth. Mauritius became a republic on the 12th of february of 1992, with the last governor general Sir Veerasamy Ringadoo as interim president.
The Aboriginals Of Mauritius
Unfortunately, there were no aboriginals of Mauritius. Mauritius was uninhabited for as long as we can tell. Arab sailors may have visited the island during the middle ages, but this is not proven.
The Most Destructive Man-Caused & Natural Disasters To Affect Mauritius
No. 1: The Wakashio Environmental Disaster
The Wakashio environmental disaster was an oil spill. It took place on the 25th of July 2020. The Wakashio, one of the worlds largest bulk carriers, was going on a trip from China to Brazil. While passing through the Indian ocean, it struck a large coral reef. This caused massive damage to the ship. Unfortunately, the ship was 17% understaffed so the damages were not noticed for a few days. The ship had only 20 working crew members during the initial crash. With a ship the size of Wakashio, the crew should have been at least 24. A few days later, the ship began leaking oil. The ship slowly began breaking apart due to damages, & unfortunately it was breaking on a whale nursing ground. It began breaking just south of Mauritius. As the oil leaked out, Mauritian shorelines became drenched in approximately 1,000 tons of toxic fuel. This destroyed many shallow coral reefs, which caused fish to leave or die. This ended up destroying the livelihoods of thousands of fisherman & tourism workers. The sands became contaminated as well which caused many issues for the people who made a living along the beaches. The Wakashio oil disaster can be attributed to approximately 50 dead whale carcasses. The Mauritian government choose to not release much information, so it is unclear exactly what type of oil leaked out. There is also no disclosure as to the necropsies that were conducted on the dead cetaceans who were killed as a result of the event.
No.2: Cyclone Emnati
Cyclone Emnati was a tropical cyclone that lasted from the 15th of February 2022 through the 26th of February 2022. It was only 2 weeks after the major cyclone known as Cyclone Batsirai. It was classified as an intense tropical cyclone as well as a category 4 tropical cyclone. The highest winds that it had were at 130 miles per hour (209.215 kilometers per hour). Ir ran through the islands of Mauritius, Reunion, & Madagascar. It cost approximately 1 million U.S.D. in damages, adjusted for inflation that would be approximately 1,022,261.71 in todays exchange.
The Economic State Of Mauritius
The economic state of Mauritius is stable. Mauritius currently has a 11.263 billion U.S.D. They rank 150th in economy. Their GDP by sector is 4% agriculture, 21.8% industry, & 74.1% services. Their inflation rate was 4.1% in 2020. Their main industries are currently food processing, textiles, clothing, mining, chemicals, metal products, transport equipment, nonelectrical machinery, & tourism. Their current public debt is 64% of their GDP which is 716,819,2384. Historically, they have relied heavily on sugar production, as a way to combat this, in the 1980s the government of Mauritius sought to diversify their economy. This endeavour has worked out quite well for them. Mauritius current currency is the Mauritian rupee. 1 U.S.D equates to 46.05 Mauritian rupees. Mauritius does have a stock market. It is called the Stock Exchange Of Mauritius. It has approximately 200+ securities.
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