Isle de France (Mauritius)

Isle de France was a French colony in the Indian Ocean from 1715 to 1810, comprising the island now known as Mauritius and its dependent territories, and forming part of the French colonial empire. Governed by the French East India Company, the island witnessed major changes under French rule: the increasing importance of agriculture led to the 'import' of slaves and the undertaking of vast infrastructural works that transformed the capital, Port Louis, into a major port, warehousing and commercial centre. According to Lougnon, 156 ships called at Mauritius between 1721 and 1735, before the arrival of Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, most of them Company ships; slave traders brought a total of 650 slaves to Mauritius from Madagascar, Mozambique, India and West Africa in those years. International trade, in particular long-distance trade, grew through the eighteenth century. During the Napoleonic Wars Isle de France became a base from which French navy squadrons — including those under Rear Admiral Linois and Commodore Jacques Hamelin — and corsairs raided British shipping, until the British took the island in 1810; it was thenceforth governed as Mauritius.