MAURITIUS

	CLIMATE
	Mauritius has a hot season lasting from December to April and a cooler season from June to September. The west coast is driest; annual rainfall on the central plateau can be five times that at Port Louis on the northwest coast. Tropical storms called cyclones are common.

In the Indian Ocean

Today Mauritius (maw-RIH-shuhs) is a very crowded island, but for thousands of years it was uninhabited. The first human visitors were probably Arab merchants in the 900s C.E., whose big, wooden sailing ships crisscrossed the Indian Ocean in search of trade.

The Portuguese reached the island in 1507 and used it to resupply for their voyages to Asia. They stocked the island with pigs and cattle to provide passing crews with food. By 1539 the Portuguese had abandoned the island. The next arrivals were the Dutch, who claimed the island as their own. Traders of the Dutch East India Company settled the island between 1638 and 1658, felling the ebony forests and exporting the timber. They planted sugarcane, importing slaves from Madagascar to work in the fields.

The Dutch colony declined as many settlers left to seek an easier life in what is now South Africa, and it was abandoned by 1710. The island was left to escaped African slaves and European and North American pirates, who attacked Indian Ocean shipping.

The French East India Company claimed the island in 1715 and developed its plantations, importing many more African slaves. The pirates were officially licensed to attack the ships of France’s trading rivals, especially the British. In 1810 the British captured the island, and although British rule was confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1814, the French way of life continued. The British were happy just to have the threat of pirates removed from their trading routes with Asia.

Slavery was abolished in 1835. Virtually all the former slaves refused to work on the plantations as indentured laborers, so the planters began to import workers from India. These people were treated little better than slaves and were poorly paid. The island was rife with malaria and other illnesses. By 1860 Indians made up over 65 percent of the population, which then stood at 300,000, and they continued to arrive until 1909, when the indentured labor scheme was ended.

The economy wavered during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 enabled ships to by-pass the shipping lanes around southern Africa. Fewer ships needed to anchor off Mauritius, thus the island’s sales decreased.

World War I (1914–1918) saw a steep increase in world sugar prices, and Mauritius was by now a big sugar producer. However, the sugar profits did not find their way into the pockets of the Indian plantation workers. They remained poor and were denied most of their civil rights. Amid increasing labor unrest in the 1930s, the Mauritius Labour Party (MLP) was formed, with the support of the plantation workers. Major strikes occured in 1937 and 1943. After World War II (1939–1945), the British were forced to reform the way Mauritius was governed. Home rule was granted in 1957, with elections held in 1959. The MLP’s Seewoosagur Ramgoolam became the first prime minister.

Full independence came in 1968. The independence years have been largely peaceful, and old scourges such as malaria have finally been defeated. Mauritians have a passion for politics. Mauritius can count on the highest turnout of voters for any country in the world where voting is not compulsory. Despite many problems faced at independence, such as a rapidly rising population, by the beginning of the twenty-first century it was clear that Mauritius was managing and developing its economy with considerable success.