ABSTRACT
Mauritius had a turbulent colonial history. It was uninhabited before it was occupied by the Dutch in the 17th Century, who then left it again. Afterwards the French made it their colony, who lost it to the British during Napoleonic times. With a mixed French and English language culture (and most people speaking a French-based Mauritian creole) but added to that a very varied mix of people (from East Asia, India, Madagascar, and the African mainland) it is a cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic island community. Mauritius received self-rule in 1965, and independence in 1968. But it declared itself an independent republic in 1992 under a left-wing government that was close to the local labor unions.
