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1. Mauritius
- A Picture Perfect Beach Destination
Mauritius has successfully managed to
position itself as an exotic beach destination. With
beach destinations so plentiful, this has been sustained
not by mere hype, but by the substance there is to this
claim. Visitors are drawn to Mauritius by the reputation
of its 140 km of white sand beaches, and the superb
opportunities for water sports. Swimming, beach combing,
sailing, surfing, kayaking, diving and deep-sea fishing
- there is a sport for almost everyone.
Arab traders discovered the then uninhabited
island in the 10th century. But they were not charmed
sufficiently to consider permanent settlement. The Portuguese
early in the sixteenth century landed, but they too
passed over the chance to lay claim for their king.
But in 1598 the Dutch finally seized the opportunity.
The island was grabbed for and named after Maurice,
Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau -then ruler of
the Netherlands.
In the century that followed, the Dutch
established settlements and devised means to live off
the land. They introduced sugar and tobacco, which they
farmed using African slave labour. Sugar is today still
an important part of the economy. The Dutch were insensitive
to the extremely fragile ecosystem that makes up an
isolated island such as Mauritius. On their watch, most
of the islands' indigenous forests were felled, and
lost. The bird known as dodo was also shot to extinction.
Thus did the trigger-happy Dutch give life to the expression
"as dead as a dodo".
The Dutch courage that had made them
pioneers was however not to last. They were subjected
to many trials by the forces of nature - cyclones, droughts
and floods. And also by the forces of man, for pirates
were a constant headache. In 1710, they fled to the
more hospitable Cape of Good Hope, at Africa's southern
tip. A short five years after the Dutch left, the French
claimed the island, and renamed it Isle de France.
The French were much more successful
than the Dutch in harnessing the potential of the island.
They maintained law and order and laid the foundations
for administration of society. Under the celebrated
French Governor, Mahé de Labourdonnais, real
nation building began. The French brought in more African
slaves and expanded further sugar farming. They also
laid out some social and economic infrastructure to
support the settlers. Port Louis, named after King Louis
XV, and today the capital of Mauritius, dates back to
this period.
Though the French had introduced systems
of law and order, Port Louis turned out to be a favourite
of corsairs. Corsairs were mercenary marine who specialised
in the plunder of ships on behalf of a client country.
The British, a great sea power at the time, had a vested
interest in terminating the power of these mercenaries.
And that is how Mauritius, so far away from Europe,
got involved in the Napoleonic wars. In 1810, the British
backed by superior force of arms, persuaded the French
to leave the island.
In the 1814 Treaty of Paris, the British
- magnanimous victors indeed, allowed the French settlers
to remain in Mauritius. They too were allowed to retain
their property, language, religion and legal system.
The British reverted to the name the Dutch had given
the island, but Port Louis retained its name. But in
the century and a half that the British ruled, they
were never really as grounded as the French had been.
Franco-Mauritians prospered on an agrarian
economy based on slave labour. But in 1835, they felt
the capricious hand of a great power when slavery was
abolished. This is perhaps the single most important
measure carried out under British rule, and the consequences
had a far-reaching effect on the evolving demographics
of the nation. India, a British colony greatly abundant
in human resources was the answer to the labour problem
that arose. In the years that followed, the descendants
of the Indian labourers who came to work the sugar fields
greatly multiplied. The Chinese also came -as labourers
and traders.
Today, Indo-Mauritians constitute close
to 70% of the population. As in other colonies in that
historic period, and upto the 1930's in Mauritius, non-whites
had very limited say in the running of the country.
And that is why Gandhi - that great liberator of men's
minds, came to Mauritius in 1901, in particular to give
heart to Indo-Mauritians. After years of protracted
concessions to democratic rule, the British finally
bowed out in 1968, when finally granted independence.
The events we talk about above are however
very recent. About eight million years ago, the island
emerged from the depths of the sea as result of volcanic
activity. Occupying 1860 sq km, it is situated just
above the Tropic of Capricorn, 890 km to the east of
Madagascar. Rising from the sea, the central plateau
formation is about 400 m above sea level. There are
mountains scattered in the island, and a few peaks,
the highest of which reaches 820 m.
Page 2 Article on Mauritius Travel
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