This post discusses the political history of Mauritius from their early history to the colonization, independence and politics of Mauritius.
The known history of Mauritius begins with its discovery by Arabs and Malays, followed by Europeans and its appearance on maps in the early 16th century. Mauritius was successively colonized by the Netherlands, France and Great Britain, and became independent in 12 March 1968.
Mauritius was first discovered by the Moors as corroborated by Portuguese maps. This is evident in the earliest existing historical evidence of the island on the Cantino_planisphere which was purloined by the Italian diplomat/ spy Alberto Cantino from Portugal in 1502.
PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES (1507–1513)
Mauritius was later rediscovered and visited by the Portuguese between 1507 and 1513.
An official world map by Diogo Ribeiro described “from west to east, the first island, ‘Mascarenhas’, the second, ‘Santa Apolonia’ and the third, ‘Domingo Froiz.’ ” The three islands (Réunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues) were encountered some years earlier by chance during an exploratory expedition of the coast of the Bay of Bengal led by Tristão da Cunha. The expedition ran into a cyclone and was forced to change course. Five years later, the islands were visited by Pedro Mascarenhas. who left the name “Mascarene” for the whole region. The Portuguese took no interest in these isolated islands. They were already established in Asia in Goa, on the coast of Malabar, on the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and on the Malaysian coast.
Read: SENATE OF LIBERIA
Their main African base was in Mozambique, therefore the Portuguese navigators preferred to use the Mozambique Channel to go to India. The Comoros to the north proved to be a more practical port of call. Thus, no permanent colony was established on the island by the Portuguese.
DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY ERA (1598–1710)
In 1598, the second Dutch Expedition to Indonesia consisting of eight ships, under the orders of admirals Jacques Cornelius van Neck and Wybrandt van Warwyck, set sail from Texel, Netherlands, towards the Indian subcontinent. On 17 September, the five ships under the orders of Admiral van Warwyck came into view of Mauritius. On 2 October, the ships again took to the sea towards Bantam.
From then on, the island’s Port de Warwick was used by Dutch ships as a stopover after long months at sea. In 1606, two expeditions came for the first time to what would later become Port-Louis in the northwest part of the island.
In 1615, the shipwreck and death of governor Pieter Both, who was coming back from India with four richly laden ships in the bay, led Dutch sailors to consider the route cursed, and they tried to avoid it as much as possible. In the meantime, the British and the Danes were beginning to make incursions into the Indian Ocean. Those who landed on the island freely cut and took with them the precious heartwood of the ebony trees, then found in profusion all over the island.
Read: POLITICAL HISTORY OF IVORY COAST
Dutch colonization started in 1638 and ended in 1710, with a brief interruption between 1658 and 1666 (the year of Great Fire of London). Numerous governors were appointed, but continuous hardships such as cyclones, droughts, pest infestations, lack of food, and illnesses in the end took their toll, and the island was definitively abandoned in 1710. On 7 January 1702, the pirate John Bowen foundered his ship called the ‘speaker’ onto a ‘Swarte Klip’ beach (a black rock beach?) on the East of Mauritius. A hundred and seventy pirates armed to the teeth against a poorly armed and frail Dutch population of fifty meant the ‘crafty’ Diodati had no choice but to sell them a small sloop for them to enlarge so as to leave Mauritius.
Eventually discouraged, Diodati gave up and his replacement was Abraham Momber van de Velde. The latter fared no better but remained the last Dutch governor of the island until it was abandoned in 1710, again. Slaves were not particularly well treated by the colonists, and revolts or the act of organizing one were severely repressed and punished.
FRENCH RULE (1715–1810)
Abandoned by the Dutch, the island became a French colony when, in September 1715, Guillaume Dufresne d’Arsel landed and took possession of this port of call on the route to India. He named the island “Isle de France”. Six years later, in 1721, the French started their occupation. However, it was only from 1735, with the arrival of the French governor, Mahé de La Bourbonnais, that “Isle de France” started developing effectively. In early 1729 Indians from Pondicherry arrived in Mauritius aboard the vessel La Sirène. Work contracts for these craftsmen were signed in 1734 at the time when they acquired their freedom. The island was under the administration of the French East India Company which maintained its presence until 1767. In 1796 the French settlers broke away from French control when the government in Paris attempted to abolish slavery, and the local colonists expelled government envoys Baco and Burnel. During the French rule slaves were brought from parts of Africa such as Mozambique, Madagascar and Zanzibar. As a result, the island’s population rose dramatically from 15,000 to 49,000 within 30 years.
In 1806, the Governor General, Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen, created the city of Mahébourg, named in honor of Mahé de La Bourbonnais. It was originally known as Bourg Mahé. From that year until 1810, the island was in charge of officials appointed by the French government, except for a brief period during the French Revolution, when the inhabitants set up a government virtually independent of France.
BRITISH RULE (1810–1968)
Despite the only French naval victory (during the Napoleonic Wars) of Battle of Grand Port on 19 and 20 August 1810 by a fleet commanded by Pierre Bouvet, Mauritius was captured on 3 December 1810 by the British under Commodore Josias Rowley. Their possession of the island was confirmed four years later by the Treaty of Paris (1814).
The British administration, which began with Robert Townsend Farquhar as governor, was followed by rapid social and economic changes. In 1828, the color bar was officially abolished in Mauritius, but British governors gave little power to colored persons, and appointed only whites as leading officials. Rémy Ollier petitioned to Queen Victoria to allow coloreds in the council of government, and this became possible a few years later. One of the most important events was the abolition of slavery on 1 February 1835. The planters received compensation of two million pounds sterling for the loss of their slaves who had been imported from Africa and Madagascar during the French occupation. Sir George Ferguson Bowen was governor from 1879 to 1883.
Mauritian Creoles trace their origins to the plantation owners and slaves who were brought to work the sugar fields. When slavery was abolished on 1 February 1835, an attempt was made to secure a cheap source of adaptable labor for intensive sugar plantations in Mauritius.
Indo-Mauritians are descended from Indian immigrants, most of whom arrived between 1835 and 1924 via the Coolie Ghat to work as indentured Laboure’s after slavery was abolished in 1835.Included in the Indo-Mauritian community are Muslims (about 17% of the population) from the Indian subcontinent. The Franco-Mauritian elite controlled nearly all of the large sugar estates and was active in business and banking. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 reduced the number of ships transiting via Mauritius. This had a detrimental impact on the local economy.
Conflicts arose between the Indian community (mostly sugarcane labourers) and the Franco-Mauritians in the 1920s, leading to several – mainly Indian – deaths. Following this, the Mauritius Labour Party was founded in 1936 by Maurice Curé to safeguard the interest of the labourers.
MAURITIUS WAR
The Mauritius Territorial Force, comprising coastal artillery and infantry formations was created in 1934. Due to the escalation of the Second World War, the force expanded to comprise two battalions. It was renamed the Mauritius Regiment in 1943.
During the World War II, thousands of Mauritians volunteered or were conscripted as military labourers, construction workers or infantry soldiers. In December 1943, the 1000-strong Mauritius Regiment mutinied on Madagascar when the soldiers felt betrayed for being sent abroad, as they had enlisted for service only in Mauritius. Elections in August 1948 for the newly created Legislative Council (under the revised 1947 Constitution) marked Mauritius’s first steps toward self-rule.[26] It was the first time that women were represented and a significant number of Indo-Mauritians and Creoles were elected. The previous Council of Government was replaced by the new Legislative Council composed of 19 elected members, 12 members nominated by the Governor and 3 ex-officio members. The first sitting of the Legislative Council took place on 1 September 1948.
INDEPENDENCE
An independence campaign gained momentum after 1961, when the British agreed to permit additional self-government and eventual independence. A coalition composed of the Mauritian Labour Party (MLP), the Comité d’Action Musulman (CAM), and the Independent Forward Bloc (IFB) – a traditionalist Hindu party – won a majority in the 1967 Legislative Assembly election, despite opposition from Franco-Mauritian and Creole supporters of Sir Gaetan Duval QC’s and Jules Koenig’s Mauritian Social Democratic Party (PMSD). The date of 12 March was specifically chosen to coincide with Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt March which occurred on 12 March 1930 Between 1965 and 1968 there were various ethnic riots which could only be brought under control with assistance from British troops who flew in from South-East Asia. The communal strife that preceded independence led to around 300 deaths.
British rule ended on 12 March 1968 with the Mauritius Independence Act 1968. The British monarch, Elizabeth II, remained nominal head of state as Queen of Mauritius. Her constitutional roles were delegated to the Governor-General of Mauritius. The last governor, Sir John Shaw Rennie served as the first governor-general until 27 August 1968.
In 1969, the Mouvement Militant Mauricien led by Paul Bérenger and Heeralall Bhugaloo emerged. The first MMM MP (Dev Virahsawmy) was elected in 1970 at a by-election of Constituency No. 5 following the death of IFB MP Lall Jugnauth.
In 1982, the coalition of Mouvement Militant Mauricien/Parti Socialiste Mauricien (MMM-PSM) came to power in a landslide electoral victory, with Sir Anerood Jugnauth QC as prime minister and Harish Boodhoo as the Deputy Prime Minister. The coalition split in 1983, with Sir Anerood Jugnauth QC forming the Mouvement Socialiste Mauricien (MSM), which became the governing party, with Jugnauth as prime minister.
Boolell was president of the Labor Party (Mauritius) from 1984 to 1991. In 1990 Seewoosagur’s son, Navin Ramgoolam, succeeded him as leader of the party which was defeated at the 1991 elections, which saw Sir Anerood Jugnauth QC re-elected under a MMM-MSM government.
The Republic of Mauritius was proclaimed on 12 March 1992. Following the abolition of the monarchy, the last Governor General of Mauritius, Sir Veerasamy Ringadoo became the first President of Mauritius, functioning as a ceremonial figurehead
REPUBLIC (1992-PRESENT)
In December 1991, the Constitution was amended to make Mauritius a republic within the Commonwealth. Mauritius became a republic on 12 March 1992, with the last governor general, Sir Veerasamy Ringadoo, as interim president. He was succeeded by Cassam Uteem on 30 June 1992. At the next elections in 2000, Sir Anerood Jugnauth’s MSM, in coalition with Paul Bérenger’s MMM was returned to power, with Sir Anerood Jugnauth QC appointed as prime minister. The 2010 general elections saw the victory of a MLP-MSM-PMSD coalition (known as “L’Alliance de l’Avenir”) and the maintaining of Dr. Navin Ramgoolam as prime minister. A year or so later, Sir Anerood Jugnauth QC left the presidency and was replaced by Kailash Purryag, an attorney at law and politician, who has served the country as senior minister on many occasions under the leadership of Dr. Navin Ramgoolam. The 2014 general elections saw the victory of a MSM-PMSD-ML coalition (known as “L’alliance Lepep”) and Sir Aneerood Jugnauth became Prime Minister while Kailash Prayag remained the president until 2016 when Mrs Ameena Gureeb Fakim became the first female president. However, she resigned over a financial scandal in March 2018.
On 5 December 2022, Yu Feng 67, a Taiwanese long liner based in Port Louis and authorised by the Mauritian Fisheries Planning and Licensing Division ran aground on the reefs of St. Brandon with 70 tonnes of diesel, 1 tonne of heavy oils and 30 to 40 tonnes of baitfish on board. This was the fourth Taiwanese shipwreck in Mauritius in 2022
POLITICS OF MAURITIUS
Politics of Mauritius takes place in a framework of a parliamentary democracy. The separation of powers is among the three branches of the Government of Mauritius, namely the legislative, the executive and the Judiciary, is embedded in the Constitution of Mauritius. Being a Westminster system of government, Mauritius’s unicameral house of parliament officially, the National Assembly, is supreme. It elects the President and the Prime Minister. While the President is voted by a single majority of votes in the house, the Prime Minister is the MP who supports a majority in the house. The President is the Head of State while the Prime Minister has full executive power and is the Head of Government who is assisted by a council of Ministers. Mauritius has a multi-party system. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Mauritius a “full democracy” in 2022.
