go to global-rooms.com -OR- Simply CLICK HERE and close this NEWLY opened window if you opened it from global-rooms.comAbout Mauritius
Information about Mauritius Africa
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, French: République de Maurice, is an island nation off the coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometres (560 mi) east of Madagascar. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the republic includes the islands of St. Brandon, Rodrigues and the Agalega Islands. Mauritius is part of the Mascarene Islands, with the French island of Réunion 200 km (125 mi) to the southwest and the island of Rodrigues 570 km to the northeast.
The first record of Mauritius comes from Arab and Malay sailors as early as the 10th century. The Portuguese sailors first visited it in 1507, and established a visiting base leaving the island uninhabited. Three ships of the eight Dutch Second Fleet that were sent to the Spice Islands were blown off course during a cyclone and landed on the island in 1598, naming it in honour of Prince Maurice of Nassau, the Stadtholder of the Netherlands. In 1638, the Dutch established the first permanent settlement. Because of tough climatic conditions including cyclones and the deterioration of the settlement, the Dutch abandoned the island some decades later. France, which already controlled the neighbouring Ile Bourbon (now Réunion) seized Mauritius in 1715 and later renamed it Ile de France (Isle of France). Under French rule, the island developed a prosperous economy based on sugar production. This economic transformation was initiated in part by governor François Mahé de Labourdonnais.
Mauritius, infos taken from Wikipedia. - (close page)
