James Baquet

Like many of the world’s smaller entities, the island nation of Mauritius passed through the hands of several colonizers before gaining independence in 1968. From 1638-1710 it belonged to the Dutch, and from then until 1810, to the French, at which time — after Napoleon’s defeat — it became a British possession until independence.

The country lies about 2,000 kilometers east of the African continent and is made up of two main islands, Mauritius (near the French overseas department of Reunion) and, 560 kilometers to the east, Rodrigues. Those three islands (including Reunion) are the Mascarenes (named after a Portuguese sailor, Dom Pedro Mascarenhas). Several small “outer islands” also belonging to Mauritius lie to the north, including the St. Brandon archipelago and the twin islands of Agalega. The Chagos Archipelago, excised by the U.K. before independence, is still disputed; the Seychelles were once part of Mauritius, but became a separate colony in 1903 and are now independent.

The country is named after its largest island. The Dutch called the island “Maurice” in honor of Prince Maurice van Nassau, a Dutch official. The French renamed it “Isle de France” — French Island — and at last the British reverted to Mauritius.

The capital city, Port Louis, lies on Mauritius Island. It is the country’s largest city with a mere 150,000 people. The island has about 1.2 million, and the nation just 65,000 more than that, making it the 152nd out of 195 in the world. Rodrigues has less than 42,000; the remainder are on scattered islands.

Mauritius has a multicultural and multilingual population, with the highest Human Development Index (a measure of longevity, knowledgeability and standard of living) in Africa. While there is no official language, English and French are the national languages; a Creole is widely spoken, and other languages (including Hindustani, French and Chinese) are also found.

Solid statistics on ethnicity are not available, but there are known to be significant populations of Indian, African, Chinese and European (mainly French) people. Hinduism dominates at nearly 50 percent; one third are Christians, and about a sixth Muslim.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. racial or cultural background

2. disagreed upon

3. group of islands

4. spread out

5. length of life

6. mathematical data

7. having many languages

8. went back to

9. amount of knowledge possessed

10. cut off