Mauritius is a secure and affluent Indian Ocean archipelago.
As soon as depending on sugar exports, the island has constructed up a powerful outsourcing and monetary providers sector, in addition to an vital tourism business, and now boasts considered one of Africa’s highest per capita incomes.
Mauritius claims sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, in a dispute with Britain that noticed a whole lot of islanders deported to make manner for a US navy base on the island of Diego Garcia within the Sixties.
The Chagos archipelago, 1,280km to the north-east, had been administered as a part of Mauritius from the 18th Century onwards. In 1965, three years earlier than Mauritian independence, the UK separated the islands, together with Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches from the Seychelles, to kind the British Indian Ocean Territory – the latter had been returned to Seychelles in 1976 on its independence.
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Capital: Port Louis
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Space: 2,040 sq km
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Inhabitants: 1.2 million
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Languages: English, French, Mauritian Creole
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Life expectancy: 71 years (males) 78 years (girls)
President: Prithvirajsing Roopun
Arts and Tradition Minister Prithvirajsing “Pradeep” Roopun was elected to the largely ceremonial put up of president in December 2019.
Prime minister: Pravind Kumar Jugnauth
Pravind Kumar Jugnauth succeeded his father, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, as prime minister in January 2017, he subsequently gained the November 2019 basic election.
Till he stepped down, Sir Anerood had been the longest-serving prime minister since Mauritius gained independence from Britain in 1968.
Mr Jugnauth is chief of the Militant Socialist Motion occasion.
State-owned Mauritius Broadcasting Company (MBC) radio and TV usually replicate authorities pondering. MBC is funded by promoting and a TV licence charge.
Tv is the preferred medium.
Some key dates within the historical past of Mauritius:
tenth Century – Malay, African and Arab sailors go to island however don’t settle.
1510 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Mascarenhas visits the island and names it Cirné however the Portuguese don’t set up a everlasting settlement.
1598 – Dutch declare the uninhabited island and rename it after their head of state, Maurice, Prince of Orange and Rely of Nassau.
1664-1710 – Dutch withdraw after repeated makes an attempt at colonisation. By this time the dodo – a novel fowl discovered solely on Mauritius – has turn into extinct.
1710-1810 – French take possession, establishing a sugar business based mostly on slave labour.
1796 – Settlers break free from French management when the federal government in Paris makes an attempt to abolish slavery.
1810 – British forces land in Mauritius after defeating French forces.
1814 – Mauritius, Seychelles and Rodrigues ceded to Britain below Treaty of Paris.
1834 – British abolish slavery.
1835 – Indentured labour system launched. In subsequent a long time a whole lot of 1000’s of staff arrive from India.
1966 – Britain expels some 2,000 residents of the Chagos archipelago, many to Mauritius, and leases islands to the US for 50 years. US builds a navy base on the biggest island, Diego Garcia.
1968 – Independence declared.
1992 – Mauritius turns into a republic.
2008 – British Home of Lords upholds authorities enchantment in opposition to 2000 UK Excessive Court docket court docket ruling that households expelled from the Chagos Islands are entitled to return dwelling.
2010 – Mauritius and France comply with collectively handle Tromelin, a tiny Indian Ocean island owned by France however claimed by Mauritius.
2012 – European Court docket of Human Rights rejects declare by Chagos Islanders in opposition to Britain over their expulsion.
2016 – Britain extends the lease on Diego Garcia to the US until 2036.
2019 – UN Worldwide Court docket of Justice says Britain ought to finish its management over the Chagos Islands as quickly as potential, in a non-binding authorized opinion that they weren’t lawfully separated from Mauritius in 1965.
2020 – Japanese-owned bulk provider MV Wakashio runs aground on a coral reef, spilling as much as 1,000 tonnes of heavy oil – one of many worst environmental disasters to hit the western Indian Ocean.
