Isle de France (1715-1810)

1715: taking possession

Five years after the Dutch left, France took an interest in this empty island near its colony of Bourbon (Réunion). In September 1715 the island was claimed in the name of the King of France and renamed Isle de France. Actual occupation began only a few years later.

The East India Company in charge

In 1719 the Compagnie perpétuelle des Indes was formed by merging several trading companies. In April 1721 the Crown handed Isle de France over to it, and the Chevalier Denis Denyon was named first governor. His orders: check that the island was unoccupied, build docks and a fort at the north-west harbour, distribute land and make the colony self-sufficient.

A small party from Bourbon landed on Christmas Eve 1721 to prepare the way. The main expedition, aboard the Atalante and the Diane from Lorient, anchored in the north-west harbour at the end of March 1722, and the passengers went ashore on 7 April. On board were 210 Swiss soldiers, along with workers, women and children.

Mahé de La Bourdonnais and Port Louis

The real builder of the colony was Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, governor of Isle de France and Bourbon from 1735 to 1740. Port Louis was founded around 1736 as a port of call for ships rounding the Cape of Good Hope on the way to Asia, and it became the seat of government instead of Grand Port. La Bourdonnais also founded the island's first Catholic church, at Vieux Grand Port, in 1737.

His career ended badly. After military successes in India, including the capture of Madras in 1746, he fell out with Dupleix, was recalled, and was held for more than two years in the Bastille before being acquitted in 1751. He died in Paris in 1753.

The Company went bankrupt and handed the island back to the Crown in 1764.

A society built on slavery

The economy of Isle de France depended on forced labour. Enslaved people arrived with the first settlers, and by 1740 they outnumbered white residents by almost seven to one. A royal decree in 1769 opened trade to all French nationals, which accelerated the slave trade from Madagascar and East Africa (Kilwa, Zanzibar). According to the UNESCO nomination file for Le Morne, the enslaved population grew from about 15,000 in 1767 to about 49,000 in 1797; by the late 18th century, enslaved people made up 80 to 85% of the population.

The age of the privateers

During the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, Port Louis became the base for French privateers who preyed on British shipping in the Indian Ocean. The most famous was Robert Surcouf (1773-1827) from Saint-Malo. Leaving Port Louis on 10 May 1800 aboard La Confiance, he raided the Bay of Bengal, seized among others the Kent, a large British East India Company ship, and returned on 16 November 1800. The feat became part of French naval lore.

The end of Isle de France

This threat pushed the British to neutralise the base. In 1810, after the Battle of Grand Port, they took the island, which went back to the name Mauritius. But the French legacy, from language to law, largely outlived the change of flag.