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| *Travel Tips>>>Mauritius Travel Tips |
Does anyone know anything about mauritius? |
Travel Info im from there and would like to know a bit more about the island thanx Travel Tips Ok, so let's see if it's possible for me to keep it short!!! Mauritius has been discovered by arabs and called Dinarobin, but the nature beeing too dense, and thus not very 'friendly', at that time, they chose not to keep this island. Then came the dutch... they called the island Mauritius after their prince, Maurice de Nassau. The legend says they killed all the dodos for their flesh, and also cut all the ebony trees for the excellent quality of the wood. It has been recently prooved that the dodos were 'lazy' birds, they had only one egg per year and there were predators that were fond of these eggs... this was the real reason why the dodo is now an extinguished specie. The dutch left the island unoccupied after some years, and the french arrived. The french were the 'good guys' they changed the island's name to Ile de France, developped the country, and constructed the first roads and sugar factories, one of which can still be seen at Pailles... in many places, the chimneys (made of stone) of the sugar factories can still be seen in the middle of the sugar cane fields. The French needed the island for the fresh water on their 'route des indes' as well as to repair their boats... But some other people wanted the island too, and for the same reason.... the British... so they tempted to take the island twice, and succeeded at the second attempt. The first french victory can be seen on the 'Arc de Triomphe' in France. When the British took the island, a deal was agreed by the leaders of the two nations present on the island... Three points: the French were authorised to stay in the island, they were authorised to keep all their belonging (slaves included) and they were authorised to keep french as their language... Shortly after the island had a change of name, and was called Mauritius again. The second important change was the abolition of slavery in 1835. This change has caused one of the most bloody part of our history. The slaved were really illtreated, so there were lots of marroons (runaway slaves) who went real far on the Morne mountain to stay away from their 'masters', cause there, the europeans did not dare to fetch them, as it was such an innacessible area. 1836, When the slaves saw the english soldiers approaching, they did not know about the fact that they were all free... and they prefered to kill themselves than to go back to their state of slave. It is said that, until now, bones can be seen on the mountain where the slaves jumped and kill themselves. The Morne mountain is nearly classified as a monument, as it has applied to be in the 'patrimoine mondial'. After the abolition of slavery, there was a huge demand for workforce, in the fields particularly. So came the labourers from India. They arrived at Port Louis (Capital city of Mauritius) where can be seen the 'apraavasi ghat', the place where they first landed. This site has just been classified as a monument part of the 'Patrimoine Mondial', and is being restored. Then people came for trade, the arabs with their spices and fabrics, the chinese with their very famous 'la boutik sinoi' (the grocer round the corner) etc... You can imagine that at that time, each people brought with them they habits, religion, food, culture etc... This is the reason why today, the population of Mauritius (Momo is the cute name for Mauritius) is so well mixed, with different foods at each street corner, with so many different holidays (The Chinese Spring festival, the Eid ul fitr, Christmas, Maha Shivaratree etc...) and you can understand how people can have chinese name but look african, or look indian and have a christian name... I am proud to say that I have such a rich culture, and I'm also proud to say that I'm a citizen of Mauritius... Source(s): I had a good history teacher in Junior school... Check the link below to have a glimpse of all that: http://www.servihoo.com/loisirs/photogal... Other Travel Tips http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mauritius... Mauritius (pronounced: IPA: [m蓹藞晒瑟蕛蓹s]; French: Maurice /m蓴蕗is/; Mauritian Creole: Moris), officially the Republic of Mauritius (French: R茅publique de Maurice), is an island nation off the coast of Africa in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometers (560 mi) east of Madagascar. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the republic includes the islands of St. Brandon, Rodrigues and the Agalega Islands. Mauritius is part of the Mascarene Islands, with the French island of R茅union 200 kilometers (125 mi) to the southwest. The first record of Mauritius comes from Arab and Malay sailors as early as the 10th century.[citation needed] The Portuguese sailors first visited it in 1505, and established a visiting base leaving the island uninhabited. The Dutch Second Fleet to the Spice Islands visited the island in 1598 and named it in honour of Prince Maurice of Nassau, the Stadtholder of the Netherlands.[2] In 1638 the Dutch established the first permanent settlement. Because of climate changes, cyclones and the deterioration of the settlement, the Dutch abandoned the island some decades later. The French controlled the island during the 18th century and named it Ile de France (Isle of France). Despite winning the famous Battle of Grand Port, Napoleon's only naval win over the British, the French were defeated by the British in the north of the island, at Cap Malheureux (Hapless Cape) three months later, and thus lost possession to the British in 1810. The latter reverted the island to its former name. In 1965, the United Kingdom split the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius to create the British Indian Ocean Territory in order to use the strategic islands for defence purposes in co-operation with the United States. Although the Government of Mauritius agreed to the move at the time,[citation needed] subsequent administrations have laid claim to the islands stating that the divestment was illegal under international law - a claim recognised by the United Nations.[citation needed] Mauritius attained independence in 1968 and the country became a republic within the Commonwealth in 1992. Mauritius has been a stable democracy with regular free elections and a positive human rights record,[3] and has attracted considerable foreign investment earning one of Africa's highest per capita incomes.[4] Mauritius aims to become the business hub of the Indian Ocean. New business opportunities in banking and the technology sector are being actively sought. Through the celebration of the Bicentenary of the Battle of Grand Port in 2010, Mauritius is aiming at rebuilding its maritime heritage and reclaiming its title of the Star & the Key of the Indian Ocean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mauritius... I went there a few weeks ago if you ever visit it you should go to l'adventure du sucre in the north, it is a great museum with the history of the island |
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