HISTORY

pp. 437 illusts #271124

The known and sometimes formally documented history of Mauritius begins with its possible discovery by Austronesians (not documented) under the Austronesian expansion from pre-Han Taiwan, circa 1500 to 1000 BC, and then by Arabs, (documented on Portuguese maps), followed by Portuguese and its appearance on European maps in the early 16th century. Mauritius was successively colonized by the Netherlands, France and Great Britain, and became independent on 12 March 1968.

Mauritius was first officially discovered by the Portuguese as corroborated by Portuguese maps. This is evident in the earliest existing historical evidence of the island on the Cantino Planisphere which was purloined by the Italian diplomat/spy Alberto Cantino from Portugal in 1502. Cantino shows three islands which represent the Mascarenes (Réunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues) and calls them Dina Margabin, Dina Arobi, and Dina Moraze. The Cantino planisphere also shows the Cargados Carajos shoals (St. Brandon) as baixos (shallows). The medieval Arab world called the Indian Ocean island region Waqwaq.

Mauritius was later rediscovered and visited by the Portuguese between 1507 and 1513. Mauritius and surrounding islands were known as the Mascarene Islands (Ilhas Mascarenhas) after Pedro Mascarenhas.

An official world map by Diogo Ribeiro described “from west to east, the first island, ‘Mascarenhas’, the second, ‘Santa Apolonia’ and the third, ‘Domingo Froiz.’  The three islands (Réunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues) were encountered some years earlier by chance during an exploratory expedition of the coast of the Bay of Bengal led by Tristão da Cunha. The expedition ran into a cyclone and was forced to change course. Thus, the ship Cirne of the captain Diogo Fernandes Pereira, came into view of Réunion island on 9 February 1507. They called the island “Santa Apolonia” (“Saint Apollonia“) in honor of that day’s saint. Mauritius was encountered during the same expedition and received the name of “Cirne” and Rodrigues that of “Diogo Rodrigues”.^[4] Five years later, the islands were visited by Pedro Mascarenhas.^[5] who left the name “Mascarene” for the whole region. The Portuguese took no interest in these isolated islands. They were already established in Asia in Goa, on the coast of Malabar, on the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and on the Malaysian coast.

Their main African base was in Mozambique, therefore the Portuguese navigators preferred to use the Mozambique Channel to go to India. The Comoros to the north proved to be a more practical port of call. Thus no permanent colony was established on the island by the Portuguese.