The Phoenicians - Little is known of the origins of this group of traders, though their roots are in the eastern Mediterranean. Driven by the desire to acquire new and more cost-effective sources of raw materials and to sell their products to markets other than in their homeland, the Phoenicians covered enormous distances. They were among the first to trace routes to the western Mediterranean and beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar) toward the Atlantic coasts of Africa and Europe.

At the end of the seventh century B.C., the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II, who reigned c. 615-595 B.C.commissioned Phoenician sailors to sail around the continent of Africa. Accordingly, he commissioned a number of ships manned by Phoenicians for the task. These sailed down the Red Sea and down the east coast of Africa. Every year they settled for a while on the coast, cleared a strip of land, planted a crop and, when they had harvested it, continued on their journey. In the third year they sailed through the Pillars of Hercules and back to Egypt again. They reported that as they sailed around Africa they had the sun on their right.

This statement, which those early voyagers of the 7th century B.C. could not have made up, indicates that the Phoenician sailors did indeed circumnavigate the continent of Africa, well before any European. Archaeologists have discovered that the Phoenicians used coastal and deep-water routes for both trade and voyages of discovery. Coastal sailors only sailed during the day, from one village to another, always keeping land in sight. Deep-water sailors took routes farther away from the coastline but still kept sight of land.

When sailing at night, sailors kept their ship in the right direction by observing constellations and the North Star, or what the ancient world called the "Phoenician Star." There were other voyages undertaken by Phoenician explorers. Although there is no evidence of human habitation on Mauritius before the early seventeenth century, Phoenicians probably visited the island about 2000 years ago.

The Malays - Among the major ethnolinguistic groups in the world, the nusantarian family (also called "Malayo-Polynesian" or "Austronesian" by western authors) undeniably occupied the largest geographical territory prior the modern era. From east to west, this vast territory covered the area from Rapa-nui (Easter Island) to Madagascar, approximately 60% the circumference of the earth. From north to south, it included the island of Taiwan (Pekan, for the Nusantarian natives), the archipelago of Hawaii (from "Hava-iki" or "Little Java", to recollect the ancestral homeland of the Polynesian), and New Zealand (Aotearoa in Maori language).

Beyond this heartland, other regions were frequented by Nusantarians navigators, including the major part of the Pacific Ocean (to South America) and the Indonesian Ocean, as far as East Africa.

The Indonesian voyaged the wide Pacific from Africa to Easter Island, from China to the coral seas of the south. The wanderings of these early Malays were remarkable achievements of navigation. They brought the sail into the Pacific nineteen centuries ago. The reading of the stars was known to them, as was the making of charts. That these voyages took place at an early date is suggested by the fact that as early as BC 2300 the Chinese had charted the heavens to pave the way for the navigator.

The Arabic "Book of Miracles" describes a voyage of three hundred ships made to Madagascar in 945. It is possible that the African coast was reached at this early date.

In all likelihood, the island was discovered in the first centuries of the common era by seafarers from central Indonesia, related to the ancestors of the present people of Southeast Kalimantan. One wonders what drove them so far to the west. In the current state of knowledge, there is obviously no answer to that question. However, it is likely that those people were not the only Nusantarians who frequented the western part of the Indonesian Ocean during that era.

In fact, the Melayu traders (namely, the Melayu speaking Nusantarians kingdoms, the most prominent being one named "Funan" by Chinese authors) traded between the Sea of China and the coastal countries of the Indonesian Ocean, as far as the Roman empire, to the northwest.

And probably, presence of Melayu in that region might have contributed to the process of hinduization of Southeast Asia. While the Merina's ancestors slowly undertook the exploration and colonization of Madagascar, others Nusantarians traded actively with the African coasts and the Middle East. The items traded were mostly spices, ivory, cowries, pearls, hides, slaves, and perhaps silk. It is highly probable (as referenced in some Arabic texts) that Melayu trading posts were established on the coasts of Africa. Mauritius was visited, but not settled, by early Malay mariners.

The Arabs - Arab traders traveled through the Red Sea and Indian Ocean in ships called dhows. These double-ended ships had lateen sails and carvel construction. They were strong enough to withstand the seasonal monsoons, the storms that swept in from the Indian Ocean.

The routes to India and China via the Moluccan Islands were controlled by the Arab fleets from the seventh century through the time of Vasco da Gama's Portuguese exploration of the India Ocean. This monopoly allowed the Arabs to control much of the commerce in silk, spices, and other exotic merchandise. The invasion into Indian Ocean waters by the Portuguese marked the decline in Arab sea power. Arab merchant ships have been sailing the Indian Ocean for centuries. Important trading routes linked the east coast of Africa and Madagascar with the Arabian peninsula, India and Indonesia.

Perhaps the Mascarene islands were discovered when a cyclone (a very severe storm of the tropics) caught an Arab dhow unaware and pushed it towards Mauritius. The traveller Suhliman seems to have given the name of TIRAKKA to the Mascarene arcipelago.

In 1502 Alberto Cantino reproduces an Arab map and creates the first "European" map mentioning Mauritius with it's Arab name. This map depicts a group of three small islands south east of Madagascar that bear Arabic names: Dina Mozare, a corruption of Diva mashriq, (Eastern Isle).for Rodrigues, Dina Margabim, a corruption of Diva maghrebin or Western Isle, for Reunion, Dina Arobi, from Diva harab, ("Desert Isle" - Others transate this as "Square Isle") for Mauritius. Other maps list the island under the names Dinarobin and Dina Margabin. It is also unclear whether it is Mauritius that was called Dina Arobi or Rodrigues and vice-versa for Rodrigues.

Later Portuguese maps of the early 16th century are further evidence of the discovery of the Mascarenes Archipelago by Arab seamen.Due to lack of documentary evidence, it is difficult to say with certainty when Arab seamen first landed on the island. Historians point to the end of the 14th century or the beginning of the 15th century as the most likely period for the discovery of the island by Arabs and Malays.

In 1598 Heyndrick Dirrecksen Jolinck, a member of the first Dutch crew to land on Mauritius, wrote: On 24 (September) 1 and my companions were about six or seven miles from the ship in the ship's boat and going ashore we found a ship's yard lying on the beach and it was 44½ feet long and the middle 8 palms thick and at the top 6 palms and it was cedar wood of the sort which grows in the Indies, so that it was obvious that a ship had been wrecked here, because along the beach we found more than 200 pounds of wax on some of which Arabic inscriptions were written. But it was difficult to read, because it probably had been drifting at sea for a long time and it was badly battered and rubbed.

Jolinck thought the inscription was Arabic ("Arabische schrift"). However, this does not seem to be the case and it's content has yet to be interpreted. It is unclear to whom this wax belonged. The crew was convinced it belonged to a Portuguese vessel. Barnwell and Toussaint surmise that it was two thousand years old and had once belonged to Phoenician traders. It is difficult to believe that a piece of wax would just lay around for 2000 years.

The Arabs never attempted to settle for several reasons. Firstly, Mauritius was too far removed from their usual trade routes and devoid of populations with whom to trade with and secondly the journey to and from the islands was far too dangerous for Arab dhows.

When Vasco da Gama had sailed along Africa's east coast, according to a myth he was guided by an Arab pilot, Ahmad ibn Majid, who used an Arab map then unknown to European sailors. This theory has now proven to be incorrect. Recently the Omani Foreign Minister claimed to have evidence that Mauritius in fact formed part of their kingdom in the 15 th century and as such was occupied by them.

Ahmad Ibn Majid - one of the most famous Arab navigators (mu'allim) in history, was born at Julfar in northern Ras al-Khaimah around 1432-1437. He became famous in the West as the navigator who has been associated with helping Vasco da Gama find his way from Africa to India, for in a work by the Meccan writer Qutb al-Din al-Nahrawali (1511-1582) entitled al-Barq al-yamani fi'l-fath al-'Uthmani, published in 1892, we read that, having reached East Africa, the Portuguese 'continually sought information regarding [the crossing of] this sea [Arabian Sea] until a skilful sailor named Ahmad ibn Majid put himself at their disposal'.

This is now known to be incorrect. But Ibn Majid's fame in the Arabic speaking world was far greater, for he was the author of nearly 40 works of poetry and prose. The first of these, his Hawiya, is a poem of some 1082 verses dating to 1462 which is a veritable compendium of navigational theory. Ibn Majid's Fawa'id, the full title of which translates as 'the book of profitable things concerning the first principles and rules of navigation', is perhaps the greatest work on Arab navigation ever written. Not only does it provide unrivalled detail on the Indian Ocean, the routes to be used in crossing it, and the region's chief ports, but he provides a history of Arab navigation prior to his time as well.

The Portuguese - In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama succeeded in rounding the cape of Good Hope and called at various Arab-Swahili cities along the East African coast on his way northwards.

It was at one of those city ports that an Arab or Indian pilot showed him the way to Goa, India. Within the next ten years, numerous Portuguese expeditions explored the Indian Ocean, visiting Madagascar, the Seychelles and the Comoros Islands.

Around 1507, the Portuguese seaman Domingo Fernandez Pereira sighted Mauritius and named it Ilha do Cerne. (Island of the Swan). The group of islands consisting of Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues were given the names of Mascarenes after the Portuguese captain, Pero Mascarenhas.

The Portuguese never attempted to settle on any of the Mascarenes islands. They were more interested in protecting their trade routes with India and therefore established settlements along the coast of Mozambique instead. The Portuguese used the island as a reserve of fresh food for the ships directed to India.

The Dutch - The first Dutchman visiting the island was in 1598, Wybrant Warwijck that renamed the island after the Dutch stadholder Maurits.

During the first 40 years of Dutch activity in the East, Mauritius was often used by the VOC ships in search of fresh food as a call station, but they never built, during these years, a permanent settlement. The greatest raw materials of the island were ebony and wild animals like the notorius Dodo, pigs, goats and tortoises.

In the 1630s. the presence of a permanent Dutch settlement in Mauritius was judged necessary by the VOC to prevent the occupation of the island by the French or the English companies. Finally the Hollanders settled on the East coast of the island in the south-eastern harbour which they called "Haven van Warwijck", where the town of Vieux Grand Port now stands.

Here, in May 1638, they built a square wooden fort with bastions and cannons at each corner, which was named Fort Frederik Hendrik. This fort was garrisoned, at first, by a force of 25 Dutchmen under the command of the first governor: Cornelis Gooyer. The fort was finished on 29 August 1638.

In 1639 a new governor was appointed, he was Adriaen van der Stel, the father of the then famous governor of the Cape of Good Hope: Simon van der Stel, that was born in Mauritius during his father government of the island. The new governor rebuilt the fort and armed it with 14 cannons, the garrison was enlarged to 80 men, the first slaves were imported from Madagascar and in order to develop this "trade" in 1642 a Dutch factory was established in the Bay of Antongil (N-E Madagascar) this factory was closed at the end of the year 1646. During van der Stel government, were also did several attempt to develop agricolture (sugar cane, vegetables, fruit trees), but because of rats all they failed.

In 1645, Adriaen van der Stel was transferred and Jacob van der Meersch became the new governor, during his government the wood-cutting of ebony trees was developed, a five km road was built in Flacq in order to improve it, and several burghers settled in the island. In 1655, during the government of Reiner Por there were, in the three settlements of the island (Grand Port Bay, Flacq and Trou d'Eau Douce), 100 peoples amongst planters with theirs families and slaves, and 60 VOC employes, a new attempt to introduce agricolture in a bigger scale was done, but too this time the cultivations were destroyed by the rats, this was the coup de grace to the weak economy of the island, actually, in 1658 the VOC decided to abandon the colony.

The last governor Abraham Evertsz in 1658 destroyed the fort Frederik Hendrik and with the remaining 40 inhabitants abandoned Mauritius.

Between 1658 to 1664 Mauritius was uninhabited, except for several shipwrecked victims.

In 1663, the VOC ordered the governor of the Cape colony to restablished the Dutch settlement in Mauritius. In the summer of the 1664, a ship under the new governor Jacobus Nieuwlant anchored in the "Haven van Warwijck" were there were the ruins of the old fort Frederik Hendrik. Nieuwlant government was short, he died at the end of May 1665. George Wreede was appointed as governor, he start again the ebony-cutting and attempt were made to develop farming.

In 1673, after the dead of Wreede, Hubert Hugo became governor, he was an excellent commander, he developed farming, repaired the fort, built a new church, a saw mill, a tannery and 16 km of road (in Flacq). The population of the island incresed. The Burghers had settled around the island: in the present area of Flacq (the main settlement), Black River and Port Louis.

In 1677, Isaac Lamotius was appointed as new governor of Fort Frederik Hendrik, the garrison was 55 soldiers and slaves, the Burghers were 32. During the Lamotius government were killed the last Dodos. In 1692, Roelof Diodati became governor, he was of Swiss-Italian descent.

In 1695, a big hurricane devasted the island, several of the Burghers lost all theirs crops, many left the island. In 1703, was appointed the last Dutch governor of Mauritius: Adriaan Momber van der Velde, during his government, the island economy tried by misfortune was reduced in extreme poverty, the VOC, in 1706 finally decided to evacuate the island, at that time the Dutch population was of 48 VOC servants, 32 Burghers (5 were living in Black River, 15 in the North-Western harbour and 12 in Flacq) with 24 wives and 69 children, there were also 71 slaves; in total 244 persons.

In February 1710, the last Dutchman left Mauritius.

In May 1638, the Dutch built a square wooden fort with bastions and cannons at each corner in Grand Vieux Port.. This fort was garrisoned, at first, by a force of 25 Dutchmen under the command of the first governor: Cornelis Gooyer. The fort was finished on 29 August 1638.

It served as their primary fort in the colony as well as their seat of administration. It is the first VOC (Dutch East India Company) fort in the eastern hemisphere and is particular in that it was built as a defense from the sea – all the other forts were primarily to defend the Dutch from the native inhabitants of the land.

The Dutch, of course, were the first and original inhabitants of Mauritius. Today, this fort no longer stands, but its foundations are under the ground. The fort was attacked by escaped slaves and set on fire by slaves, on different occasions, and is thus a symbol of freedom fighting and active resistance by slave towards their “owners”. 

On the morning of 18th June, 1695, Aaron of Amboina, Antoni alias Bamboes, Anna of Bengal, Paul of Batavia and Esperance conspired to set fire to Fort Frederik Hendrik, after months of careful preparation. Over a period of more than six months, these slaves, who came from different parts of the Indian Ocean, worked together and planned to weaken Dutch rule in Mauritius by burning down Fort Frederik Hendrik.

On that fateful morning, in 1695, the Dutch fort was burnt to the ground, with the Dutch governor and his subordinates barely escaping with their lives. The Dutch governor of Mauritius wrote to his counterpart in the Cape Colony that « these are matters of very dangerous consequences, tending to ruin this island. »

In their confessions, after their capture, the slave rebels clearly acknowledged that they had decided to destroy the fort months before the actual act was carried out. Their chief objective according to their confessions, was to burn the commander and all the employees of the Dutch East India Company and afterward, the houses of the Dutch free burgers in order to become masters of the island. This historic site thus represents the early slave resistance in Mauritius, as the island’s main fort was put to the torch by a band of maroon slaves. These maroons of T’Eylandt Mauritius were the first freedom fighters on Mauritian soil and this was the site of the first major slave revolt in Mauritius. Fort Frederik Hendrik was also a site where many slaves probably lived during the period of Dutch occupation of Mauritius.

An archaeological investigation was carried out on this site and a museum also exists there.

The French Period (1715-1810) - In 1710 the Dutch abandoned for good the island after two unsuccessful attempts at colonisation.

In September 1715, Guillaume Dufresne d'Arsel took possession of Mauritius in the name of King Louis XV of France. He named it the Isle de France, placed the French flag near what is now Port Louis, drew a document witnessed by his officers declaring the island French and sailed away after three days.

The first colonists landed at Warwick Bay (Mahebourg) in 1722. The area was exposed to winds and dangerous reefs, so they moved to the safety of the North West harbour. Warwick bay was renamed Port Bourbon and the North West Harbour became known as Port Louis. For the first 14 years, the French colony followed the dismal experience of the Dutch. Only the most desperate and toughest of the settlers survived. Their appallingly treated slaves also escaped and lived in the forests and sabotaged the plantations.

The transformation of Port Louis from a primitive harbour to a thriving seaport was largely due to the efforts of Bertrand Mahé de Labourdonnais, an aristocratic sea captain, 38 years of age, from St Malo. The wretched conditions of the settlers dismayed Labourdonnais. There were 190 whites in the island and 648 blacks, most of them from Africa and Madagascar and a few Indians from the Coromandel and Malabar coasts. Labourdonnais transformed the island from a colony of malcontents into "the star and key of the Indian Ocean". The thatched hovels were demolished and in their place rose forts, barracks, warehouses, hospitals and houses. Government house was built of coral blocks, roads were opened throughout the island and a ship building industry commenced.

Although he had to import slaves, Labourdonnais made their lot easier by also importing ox-carts so that slaves could be utilised for more skilled tasks. He turned many of them into artisans. He also started an agriculture programme that concentrated on feeding the islanders and on marketable products. On his own estates, he grew sugarcane and encouraged new settlers to start plantations of cotton, indigo, coffee and manioc. The first sugar factory was opened at villebague in 1744.

In 1746, with England and France at war, Labourdonnais led an expedition of nine ships from the Ile de France to India. There they defeated a British squadron and captured Madras, the most important British outpost. Labourdonnais' actions resulted in a conflict with Dupleix, his superior in India. Dupleix wanted Madras razed to the ground but Labourdonnais refused because he knew the British would pay a ransom to get Madras back. He was accused of accepting a bribe to preserve Madras and was replaced as Governor of Ile de France. On his return to France, he was thrown in the Bastille and even though in 1751, he was found innocent, he died a broken man two years later, aged 54. His statue stands in Port Louis facing out across the harbour. The town of Mahebourg (started in 1805) is also named after him.

During the seven years war (1756-1763) France and England continued to battle over control of the Indian Ocean and the French East India company enlisted privateers. When the French lost the wars in India, they blamed the company and accused its officials of corruption. This resulted in the official handling over of Mauritius to the French King.In 1767, the Royal Government was established on the island. At that time, there was a population of 18,773 which included 3,163 Europeans and 587 free blacks, mostly Hindus. The rest were slaves.

Pierre Poivre (Peter Pepper) was picked as administrator. He introduced varieties of plants from South America, including pepper, and even offered tax incentives to planters to grow them. Under his influence, the colony developed as an agricultural and trading centre. He improved the harbour facilities and the accommodation for both colonists and slaves.

When the French East India Company was wound up, and their monopoly broken, private enterprise became the fashion. Everyone was trying to make profits. In 1785 the Ile de France was declared the seat of government of all French possessions east of the Cape. A French nobleman, Vicomte de Souillac was made governor (1779-1787) bringing an era of extravagance to the colony. Port Louis became renowned for its bright social life with dancing parties for the young and the old, duelling, gambling, drinking and hunting. At the same time, public affairs were neglected; fraud, corruption and dishonesty were common-place and land speculation and scandals were rife.

On the last Sunday in January 1790, a packet-boat arrived in the Port Louis harbour from France, flying a new flag, the Tricolour. It brought news of the revolution in France. The colonists' enthusiasm for the revolutionary principles of liberty, equality and fraternity faltered when in 1796, two agents of the Directoire, wearing splendid orange cloaks, arrived from France and informed the colonists that slavery was abolished. The news was received with anger and the agents had to flee for their lives. 

The last French governor of Ile de France was appointed by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803 to bring the colony back to order after 13 years of autonomy. With such a task, it was inevitable that the governor, General Charles Decaen, would be unpopular.

Charles Decaen curried favour with the elite by allowing slavery and privateering, which were both hugely profitable, to continue.

Decaen founded primary schools and the Lycee Colonial which became Royal College. He extended Government House, created Mahebourg near Grand Port and encouraged intellectual societies and agriculture development. He also codified the Napoleonic laws which are still in force.

Under his governorship, Port Louis became Port Napoleon and Mahebourg became Port Imperial..

Decaen found himself increasingly isolated from France. The British were expanding their influence in the Indian Ocean.On the 3 December 1810, the British, under General Abercrombie, marched into Port Napoleon where the French surrendered. Ile de France, Port Napoleon and Port Imperial was reverted to their former names, Mauritius, Port Louis and Mahebourg. Soldiers were to be treated as civilians, not as prisoners of war and were allowed to leave the island. Settlers who did not want to stay under a British administrator were permitted to return to France with all their possessions.

The British Period (1810-1968) - During the Napoleonic Wars, the British invaded Mauritius in 1810. The British Occupation of the island lasted till 1968 when they granted the country independence.

The only reason for the British to be interested in the island was that it lay along the sea route from England to British India and that the French presence in Mauritius was a threat to British shipping. Indeed, a number of French navy vessels and corsairs harassed British vessels en route to India or to England. The British Admiralty of the time viewed Mauritius as the key to the control of the Indian Ocean and possession of the island became a military imperative.

Once Mauritius taken over, the control of the Indian Ocean by the British Empire can be said to have been complete and remained virtually unchallenged till the entry of Imperial Japan into the Second World War in 1941.

Just as the French presence was determinant in the making of Mauritius, the British Occupation has shaped tremendously the destiny of this country. Mauritius is one of the few countries in the world to have been colonised by the French and the British successively. Like the French, the British left behind the English language and a system of laws.

But just as important when they departed they left behind a Westminster-type of Government, a Civil Service, a Constitution, a British based educational system and an embryonic welfare system. It goes to the credit of the British coloniser to have also permitted and to a certain extent encouraged the development of a working democracy.

Fortunately for Mauritius, during World War II the island was never attacked by Axis forces. However on several occasions, Japanese or German submarines and surface ships prowled the waters around Mauritius and managed to sink a few merchant ships rendering the sea lanes unsafe.

At the height of Japanese Imperial Power in 1942, the British Colonial authorities did fear a Japanese invasion of either Madagascar or Mauritius itself. But the Japanese defeat at Midway most probably dispelled all fears of imminent invasion.

Independence - Mauritius became an independent country within the Commonwealth of Nations in 1968, Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State represented by a Governor General.

In 1971, social and industrial unrest led by the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM) resulted in a state of emergency. The party's leaders, including Paul Berenger, a Franco-Mauritian born in 1945, were jailed for a year.

In the election of 1982, the MMM with Paul Berenger as General Secretary and a 53 year old Hindu British-trained lawyer, Anerood Jugnauth as President, captured all 62 directly elected seats. Anerood Jugnauth became Prime Minister with Berenger as his Finance Minister.

In 1992, Mauritius became an independent republic with the Commonwealth.

Since independence, Mauritius has changed drastically from a sugar-producing island to a newly industrialised nation. For many, Mauritius was synonymous with the dodo. Much of its success is attributable to a policy of diversification from its traditional one crop industry, sugar to tourism, textile and agriculture. Mauritius has now the distinction of being one of the most stable countries in the developing world.

Mauritius is also promoted in holiday brochures as one of those faraway places associated with the dodo and desert island dreams. It is a country of diverse cultures justifying the tourist office's claim to being " the most cosmopolitan island in the sun" with a smiling, natural and charming people. Mauritius has an almost perfect year round climate and hotels with excellent service, comfortable accommodation and a full range of water and land sports, dazzling white beaches, deep blue lagoons and an enchanting mountain scenery.