The British Period
After the capture of the island from the French the British re-named Ile de France 'Mauritius' and Port Louis was retained as the principal harbour. British administration started with Robert Farquhar as the first Governor. In terms of economic development the British took over from where the French left.
In the years to come Mauritius witnessed marked economic and social changes. One of the most important events, which had major repercussions on the socio-economic and demographic fields, was the abolition of slavery in 1835. The British Government granted the sugar cane planters a compensation of two million pounds sterling for the loss of their slaves which had been imported from Africa and Madagascar during the French occupation.
With no slaves to work in the sugar cane plantations the planters imported indentured labourers in large numbers. The Indian immigrants( mainly Hindus, Muslims and Tamils) were later joined by a small number of petty chinese traders.
It can be said that Mauritius, like Ile de France, was a success story under the rule of different British Governors. However during the 1930s and 1940s Mauritian nationalism became active in the political arena. Mauritius got its independance from Britain on 12th March 1968. Click here to find out more about modern Mauritius.
After the departure of the Dutch 1n 1710, Guillaume Dufresne D'Arsel, while on the route to India, landed in Mauritius in September 1715 and claimed the island for France. He named Mauritius 'Ile de France'. However it was only in 1721 that the French started their occupation of the island.
In 1598 the Dutch came into the scene when Vice Admiral Vybrant Van Warwick claimed the island for the Netherlands and named it Mauritius in honour of his ruler, Prince Maurice of Nassau (Pictured on the left). However it was not until 1636 that the Dutch established the first settlement on the southeast coast of the island where they built the first harbour. Today that location is part of one of the major flourishing towns of the country, called Mahébourg.