HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION: FROM SEA TO SUGAR

Mauritius today is made up of the main island of the same name (20-15S.57-35E.) — 1,865 sq. km, 1.2 million inhabitants; of the island of Rodriguez — 110 sq. km, 35,000 inhabitants and 560 km to the east; the small islands of Agalega — 260 inhabitants and 1,250 km to the north; and Saint Brandon — 8 sq. km, no permanent inhabitants, 390 km to north-east. Historically, the island of Réunion, 150 km to the west, now a French Département d'Outremer, and the Seychelles, were also part of Mauritius. Over the years, the islands entity has been dismembered to suit the interests of the colonial rulers. The most recent dismemberment of Mauritius was the hiving off of the Chagos archipelago on the eve of its independence. Diego Garcia, the main atoll of the Chagos, is now the pivotal military base of the United States in the Indian Ocean. Mauritius claims the Chagos and the island of Tromlin. France uses Tromlin as a meteorological station administered from Réunion. Although the total land area (2,040 sq. km) is small, Mauritius, with its outlying islands, has a very large Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 1.9 million sq. km of the Indian Ocean. Were the claims to Chagos and Tromlin to be successful, its EEZ would be further extended.

The islands are referred to as African islands, Africa being the nearest continent. However, the islands are quite distinct from the continent and are truly oceanic islands. Among the islands of this part of the Indian Ocean, however, a categorical distinction must be made between Comoros, Madagascar, and Maldives on the one hand, and Mauritius, Réunion and Seychelles on the other hand. While the islands in the first category have been peopled from countries on the rim of the Indian Ocean and have developed cultures of their own well before the arrival of European colonizers in the Indian Ocean, those in the second category had no human inhabitants when the Europeans arrived.