Maurice

Maurice ( Mauritius in English), officially the Republic of Maurice , is a State of the Indian Ocean in the Archipel of the Mascareignes. It is located at the south-east of the Africa to approximately 900 Kilomètre S in the east of Madagascar, 250 km of the Réunion and further in the south of the Seychelles.

The island called Mauritius represents 91  % of the surface of this State, with 1.865 km ² out of 2.040 km ² on the whole. The remainder is formed by moreover small islands of which Rodrigues.

Coordinates: 57°35' E, 20°15' S. Emblem: the dodo.

Geography

See also: Geography of Maurice

The formation of this Archipel results from underwater ic eruptions Volcan which occurred million years ago. Mauritius itself was formed around a central plate, whose highest point, the Piton of the Small Black River, culminates to 828 m in south-west. Around this plate, one rather easily distinguishes the crater Kanaka from the many mountains which surround it.

The local climate, of tropical type, is moderated by the trade winds of south-east. Two seasons ago: the season dries from May to November called also wintering , and the wet season from November to May - called cyclone season .

Located in the North-West, Port-Louis is the capital of the island and more the big city. The other important cities are Curepipe (in the center), Vacoas-Phoenix, Four Terminals, Rose-Hill and Beautiful-Basin. Mahébourg (in south-east) is not a big city, nevertheless it is closest to the international airport of Pleasure-Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam .

History

See also: History of Maurice

The historians think that the first visitors of Mauritius were the navigators Phénicie NS arriving of the Lebanon, towards 2000 av JC. The Arab sailors regularly visited Maurice as from the 5th century and gave him the name of Dined Arobi. It is only at the beginning of the 16th century that Portuguese navigators started to circulate in the area. Portuguese settled there for the first time in 1505 (it is reproduced despite everything on Arab charts going back to before the discovery by the Portuguese, under the name of Cirné ). The island occupied then is colonized by the Dutch starting from 1598. She is baptized Maurice in the honor of Dutch Prince Maurice de Nassau. The Dutchmen are the first to introduce slaves on the island, the most slaves are brought of Africa and Madagascar. Their descendants, more or less métissés, constitute the population known as creole. There exist also Indians slaves, present in the island at the sides of the first Europeans, and free Indians of considerable social status. They will bring also the stags of Java, which are driven out today.

In 1715, Maurice passes under the control of the France, when Dufresne d' Arsel asserts it, and is famous Ile de France . The island is taken by the Britanniques in December 1810 after a defense of the Governor-General Isidore Charles Decaen. In August of the same year took place the single naval victory of Napoleon: the battle of the Large Port. The island is officially attached to the British empire in 1814, date on which it finds its old name.

Independence was obtained the March 12th 1968 by the poll of the August 7th 1967. The country remained since member of the the Commonwealth of the Nations, although it became a République the March 12th 1992. Thanks to a punctuated Democracy relatively stable of regular free elections and with an positive assessment on the level of the Human rights, the country knew to attract important overseas investments and has one of the most important incomes per head of Africa.

Policy

See also: Political situation of Maurice

Mauritius has a legal system of mixed duty. Apply to it, the right of French origin and in particular the civil code and Common Law English. The legal procedure corresponds to the procedure rules English mainly with a certain alternative. The hierarchy of the courts is thus top with low: the legal committee of the the private Council of the Queen, then supreme court of Maurice (including/understanding a jurisdiction of first authority and call) and courts of magistrates.

The political system and institutional corresponds to a parliamentary mode.

The Head of the State of Maurice is the Prime Minister. The President does not have decisional capacity, but symbolizes the Republic of Maurice abroad. He is elected for one five years period by the National Assembly. The Parlement consists of a single room (unicaméral). Of the 66 members of the assembly, 62 are elected directly by a popular poll (including 2 representative Rodrigues), while 4 are indicated to represent the ethnic minorities. Their choice depends on the results of the elections. The Parliament is directed by the Prime Minister, chief of the parliamentary majority and the Council of Ministers. The mode functions according to the British model called " westministérien".

The country counts 225 Prison niers for 100.000 inhabitants, that is to say an high rate taking into consideration rate other noted in the world.

Population

The population of Mauritius is the result of several waves of immigration, initially the French colonists, then the slaves from Africa, the Chinese as tradesman and finally, the brought Indians of liking or force in the island to work in the fields of cane with sugar.

Districts and dependences

detailed Article: Districts and dependences of Maurice

Mauritius includes/understands 10 districts:

  1. Black River
  2. Flacq
  3. Large Port
  4. Mocha coffee
  5. Flat Grapefruits
  6. Wilhems
  7. Port-Louis
  8. River of the Rampart
  9. Savanna
  10. Rodrigues

Rodrigues, the islands Agalega and the shelves of Cargados Carajos (also called Saint-Torch) constitute the dependences of Maurice. The Archipelago of Chagos (Diego Garcia) and the island Tromelin are asserted by Maurice.

Economy

See also: Economy of Maurice

Since its independence acquired in 1968, Maurice knew a fulgurating economic evolution. The island passed from a statute of country to low incomes, whose economy rested on agriculture, with a statute of country known as emergent , with the intermediate incomes whose diversified economy rests on sectors industrialist and financier in full growth and on the Tourisme. During this period, the annual growth was about 5  % with 6  %. This remarkable result results in an improvement of the life expectancy, a fall of infant mortality and a great development of the infrastructures.

The Canne with sugar is planted on 90  % approximately of the surface cultivated, and constitutes 25  % of the incomes of the Foreign trade. A historical Sècheresse however damaged hard the sugar harvest of 1999. The development strategy of the government is centered on the overseas investments. Maurice attracted more than 9000 companies offshore oil rig , of which much is devoted to the trade in India and South Africa. Maurice is also a Flag of convenience. The banking sector carried out more than one billion dollar of investments. The economic performances during time 1991-99 remained strong, with a rate of limited Chômage.

However, the economy Mauritian is likely to resort to a strong reorganization in the years to come. Indeed, the reforms of the European Union concerning the sugar market heavily will affect the export of the country. Thus, other sectors remain to be developed to constitute new pillars of the economy (data processing departments, in particular).

The island counts in addition enormously on tourism industry to generate more richnesses and to create jobs. In 2006, Mauritius accommodated 788.000 tourists, whose majority comes from France. There exist currently 99 hotels in operation in the country, including 42 with more than 80 rooms. To attract more tourists, the country started to liberalize the air access and of the lines as Corsairfly can now serve the destination. Soon, it will be with the turn of Virgin Atlantic.

The construction of villas of luxury sold under Integrated Resort Design has to become a new pole of economic growth. Thanks to this new type of installation combined with the opening of the country the abroads, Maurice later on starts a new era of development, which bears already its fruits in term of direct overseas investment and created jobs and which has to change the face of the country. The IRS well quickly aroused the interest of tens of local and foreign promoters; for proof the authorities received more than one score of projects of this type representing of the investments of Rs 100 billion and with a potential creation for 12.000 employment. On the whole, only with these projects, more than 1700 villas of luxury should be born in both to five next years.

Cybercity

The development of Cybercité wanted by the government of Paul Bérenger, located at Ébene in the south of the capital must allow the development of the sector of information technologies Maurice. The final goal being to make of the latter a “Cyber Island” and thus to find an alternative to the sugar activity threatened by the international agreements. The possible activities thanks to the jet lag of GMT +4 thus allowed the emergence of centers of call and sites of Disaster Recovery.

The underwater cable SAFE was to offer to the project its technical base but dysfunctions within the BPML in load of Cybercité followed by the lack of a doubled bloom such as MAURISAT (satellite mutualized solution) on the site and in general on Mauritius being able to make safe connections towards the international one and Of many breakdowns into 2006 charged to Mauritius Telecom or its suppliers could reduce the passion of certain companies interested by a delocalization of part of their activities in Maurice.

Since 2006 with the signature of an agreement for the deployment of the underwater cable EASSY, Maurice is on the way to catch up with this gap but pushes back at least at 2008-2010 the sedentary expiry of the project.

Situation demonstration-linguistics

See also: Demography of Maurice

The constitution of Maurice does not mention any official language for the country. Nevertheless the English is used by the administration. On the other hand, the French is used the most in the business world. Tinted contributions of the two European languages, the creole is the native tongue of more than 90  % of the population. Various Eastern languages are also spoken, among which the créol Mauritian, the bhojpuri (mixture of créol and Hindi), the Hindi, the Ourdou, the Tamil and the Hakka, a Chinese dialect.

These last are spoken by the descendants about the immigrants from India and from China. The majority of the Indo-Mauritians are Hindu and constitute 70  % of the population. The other practiced religions are the Christianisme, the Islam and the Bouddhisme. The remainder of the population is of origin Chinese, African, French or mongrel.

French is in progression, but the Creole adopts English words more and more.

Culture

See also: Culture of Maurice

The Cuisine Mauritian is a mixture of kitchens Indian, Creole, Chinese and European. In the same way, the Séga Mauritian is a music with the various influences.

In 1847, Maurice became the fifth country in the world to emit postal stamps, after Great Britain in 1840, Switzerland and Brazil in 1843, the United States in 1846, Mauritius will have been the third territory in the world to emit stamps and the first authorized to do it by the British empire of which it was a colony in 1847. The two types of stamps, the series of the Post Office (the Red Penny and the Blue Penny ), are among most famous and the dearest stamps of the world.

At the time of its discovery, Mauritius sheltered a species of bird which was unknown before. The Portuguese called it the dodo (simpleton), because of its appearance nonchalante. However, in 1680, for the Dutch period, this species had completely disappeared. In the books of stories the disappearance of the dodo a long time was allotted to the abuses Dutch colonists. But the recent studies show rather than it was due to predatory which devoured their eggs. The dodo became the emblem of Maurice.

The September 9th, a pilgrimage gathers each year between 100.000 and 200.000 Mauritians, not only of catholic faith, with the tomb of the happy Jacques-Desired Laval (1803 - 1864), with Holy-Cross, in the outskirts of the city of Port-Louis.

There exists a famous declaration of Mark Twain, often quoted to describe the incomparable beauty of the island: “ God created initially Mauritius then was inspired some to make its terrestrial Paradise. ”

Principal artists and Mauritians authors

Codes

Maurice has as codes:

Others

External bonds

  • Encyclopædia Mauritiana
  • Directory DMOZ: sites on Mauritius
  • Site of the government

References

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