Mauritius History
A short history of the island
Mauritius was named by the The Dutch Admiral, Van Warwyck who landed at Grand
Port Bay 1598. He named the island "Mauritius" after Prince Mauritius Van
Nassau, the stadtholder of Holland.
Between 1638 and 1660 the Dutch introduced slavery, sugarcane, and tobacco and also managed to exterminate the Dodo and destroy much of the island's ebony forests. They left in 1710.
For the next hundred years Mauritius was a French posession, eventually ceeeded to the British in 1810. The british ended slavery but then decided to bring half a million Indians to the Island.
Mauritius took major steps toward independence in the 1960s and eventually
became a republic in March 1992.
