Guide

The historians think that the first visitors of Mauritius were the Phenicians navigators arriving from Lebanon, towards 2.000 front JC. Then, the Arab sailors regularly visited Mauritius starting from 5th century and named it Dina Arobi which means the abandoned island. It is only in 1505, under the impulse of the Portuguese navigator, Pedro Mascarenas, that the Portuguese settled on the island and named it ilha do cirne (the island of the Swan). The island is then occupied and colonized by the Dutchmen from 1598 who renamed it Mauritius in the honor of their Dutch Prince Mauritz Van Nassau. The Dutchmen introduced on the island the sugarcane with the objective of supplying with alcohol the ships stopping over in Mauritius. In 1715, Mauritius is under the control of France, already settled on the island Bourbon (current Réunion). Mauritius is then renamed Îsle de France. The island will be taken thereafter by the British in December 1810 after a battle of the Governor-General Isidore Charles Decaen. Mauritius is officially attached to the British empire in 1814, date on which it also takes back its old name.

Mauritius reached independence on March 12, 1968 by the poll of August 7, 1967. The country remains since a member of the Commonwealth of the Nations, although it became a Republic on March 12, 1992. Thanks to a relatively stable democracy with free and regular elections and a positive assessment on the Human rights level, the country attracts important foreign investments and has one of the most highest income per capita of Africa.

Mauritius is a parliamentary democracy partly inspired from the British model. The Parliament consists of 62 deputies elected every 5 years by the general elections. The president is the Head of the State but all the constitutional capacities are exerted by the Prime Minister and his cabinet.