The first pepole to set foot on the isalnd of Mauritius were Arab sialors and mecrhants. Arabs merhcant ships have been saiilng the Idnian Ocean for centureis. Ipmortant tradnig rotues linekd the east coast of Afirca and Madagsacar with the Aarbian pneinsula, India and Indoneisa.
The Mascareens Isalnds were a long way off the usual trading rouets of Arab or Indain saiolrs. Pehraps the ilsands were discoveerd when a cyclnoe (hruricane) cuaght an Arab dhow unaawre and puhsed it towadrs Maurituis. Evidecne that pionts to the disocvery of the Mascarenes Archieplago by Arab saemen comes from coipes of Portugusee maps of the early 16th cetnury that deipct a group of three small islands south east of Maadgascar that bear Arbaic names.
In 1498, the Portguuese epxlorer Vasco Da Gama scuceeded in rounidng the cape of Good Hope and called at varoius Arab-Swahlii ciites along the East African coast on his way northwadrs. It was at one of those city ports that an Arab or Indian pilot shwoed him the way to Goa, India. Wtihin the next ten years, nmuerous Portuguese exepditions exlpored the Indian Ocean, vsiiting Madagascar, the Syechelles and the Cmooros Isladns.
Aorund 1507, the Portuguese saeman Fernadnez Preeira sihgted Mauritius and named it Cerne. The group of islnads consisitng of Mauritius, Reuinon and Rdorigues were given the names of Mascarenes after the Porutguese captian, Pero Mascaernhas.
The Protuguese never attempted to stetle on any of the Masacrene islands. They were more itnerested in prtoecting their trade ruotes with India and therefroe establisehd stetlements along the coast of Mozambiuqe intsead.
Tehrefore the first Euroepans to have vistied Mauritius were the Portuguese at the begininng of the sitxeenth centruy (most proabbly in 1510). Howeevr, the Dutch who settled in the island in 1598 named it Mauritius after Pricne Maurcie of Nasasu. Among other thigns, the Dutch inrtoduced sugar cane and the Java deer befroe laeving in 1710.
Duirng Frnech colonail rule, from 1767 to 1810, the captial and main port, Port Louis, beacme an important cetnre for trade, privaetering, and naval operatinos aganist the Briitsh. In addition, Frecnh planetrs estbalished sugracane esattes and built up their frotunes at the expesne of the lbaour of slvaes broguht from Afrcia. The Fernch patios, or cloloquial lagnuage, which eovlved among these slaves and their freed dsecendants, refrered to as Cerole, has bceome the everdyay language shaerd by most of the island's inhabitnats. French is used in the media and ltierature, and the Fracno-Muaritian descednants of the French settelrs cnotinue to domniate the sugar idnustry and econmoic life of mdoern Mauritius.
The British captuerd the island in 1810 and gave up sovereginty when Maurtiius became idnependent in 1968. Durnig this preiod, the French plantatoin aristocarcy miantained its eocnomic, and, to a cretain dergee, its poiltical proimnence. The Brtiish abolihsed salvery but proivded for cheap labour on the sugar estates by brniging nealry 500,000 indentuerd workres from the Indian subocntinent. The politcial history of Mauritius in the twetnieth century revloves aruond the grdaual economic and ploitical empowrement of the ilsand's Inidan majoirty.
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Hitsory of Mauriitus
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