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Mauritius is a Southern African island country. Inserted
in the Mascarenhas archipelago, Mauritius is an
independent republic located 800 kmeast of the island of
Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean, which includes the
islands of Rodrigues, Agalega and Cargados Carajos, in a
total area of 2040 km2. The capital is Port
Louis, with 583,400 inhabitants (2004), including the
cities of Beau Bassin-Rose Hill (110,700 inhabitants),
Vascoas-Phoenix (104,400 inhabitants), Curepipe (79,900
inhabitants) and Quatre Bornes (76,500 inhab.).
Mauritius is a volcanic island, with two distinct
geographical areas: that of the North, marked by
plains; and that of the Center and South, where plateaus
surrounded by volcanic craters predominate, whose
altitude does not exceed 826 meters.
Climate
It has a tropical monsoon climate with great oceanic
influence.
Economy
Of rare natural beauty, Mauritius has great tourism
potential, which began to be exploited in the 1970s,
being today responsible for the largest share of income
within the tertiary sector, which occupies 2/5 of the
population and constitutes half of the total.
GDP. Agriculture, in turn, represents 1/8 of GDP and
occupies 1/6 of the available labor, based mainly on the
production of sugar cane, tea, tobacco, potatoes and
bananas. As for the industrial sector, it survives based
on manufacturing industries of imported raw materials,
such as textiles, electronic materials and plastics,
which are subsequently dispatched to the export
market. Mauritius' main trading partners are the United
Kingdom, France, the United States of America and South
Africa.
Environmental indicator: the value of carbon dioxide
emissions, per capita (metric tons, 1999), is
2.1.
Population
It has a population that, in 2006, was 1 240 827
inhabitants, which corresponded to a population density
of 603.24 inhab./km2. The birth and death
rates are, respectively, 15.43% and 6.86%. Average life
expectancy is 72.63 years. The value of the Human
Development Index (HDI) is 0.779 and the value of the
Gender-adjusted Development Index (IDG) is 0.770
(2001). It is estimated that, in 2025, the population
will be 1 407 000 inhabitants. The main ethnic groups
are Mauritanians (68%), Creoles (27%) and Chinese
(3%). The most representative religious groups are
Hindus (51%), Christians (28.56%) - (Roman Catholics 26%
and Protestants 2.3%) - and Muslims (16%). The official
language is English.
History
Before being colonized by the Dutch in 1598, the island
of Mauritius (in honor of the Dutch ruler Maurício de
Nassau) had already been visited, both by the Arabs in
the 10th century and by the Portuguese in the early 16th
century. After the Dutch abandoned it in 1710, Mauritius
was occupied by the French East India Company from 1721
to 1767, and its name changed to the island of
France. It was then administered by a French
minister. During that period, the colony developed
economically. However, in 1810, following the war
between England and France, the British captured the
island, securing their possession in the Treaty of Paris
in 1814. The French language and its laws were
maintained by the British, who only changed the name,
which became Mauritius again. The prosperity in
Mauritius lasted until 1860, when sugar prices fell
sharply. Between 1866 and 1869 two facts left Mauritius
completely devastated: in 1866, 67 and 68, a malaria
epidemic drove the ships away from Port Louis,
completely isolating the island; in 1869, the opening of
the Suez Canal diverted many of the routes that passed
through Mauritius.
During the First World War, the economy of Mauritius
developed at the expense of rising sugar prices, a
situation that changed during the Great Depression in
the early 1930s. After the Second World War, which did
not improve the picture economic and social, political
and administrative reforms were carried out that led, in
1968, to the independence of the Kingdom of Mauritius
within the Commonwealth, according to the Constitution
approved that year.
The passage of Cyclone Claudette in 1979 had
catastrophic effects that the fall in sugar prices in
the early 1980s only worsened. These events led the
Government of Mauritius to initiate intense programs of
diversification of agriculture, which were complemented
with the development of the manufacturing industry and
the financial sector, especially the stock exchange
market. In 1991, the Constitution was amended, defining
Mauritius as a republic, an amendment that came into
force in 1992.
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