the Meeting is a island of ic formation Volcan of the Indian Ocean in the Archipel of the Mascareignes. It is located at approximately 700 km in the east of Madagascar and at 200 km in the south-west of the island Maurice.

Uninhabited until in 1665, this current ultraperipheric Area of the European Union of 2  512 km ² account today, three centuries and half later, close to 800  000  inhabitants, of European origins , Malagasy, African and Asian, often very métissées.

The Meeting is at the same time a Région of overseas and a overseas department (number 974) French.

She knows a Economic growth dynamic, but structurally fragile and still insufficient vis-a-vis a rate of Chômage which was higher than 30% until November 2006.

Called the “intense island”, the Meeting offers natural Paysage S to the impressive reliefs and a cultural diversity, which constitute its tourist principal assets .

Its inhabitants is called Réunionnais (be).

History

See also: History of the Meeting

The Meeting is one of the only islands of the area whose first inhabitants were Europeans. Indeed, the island was completely uninhabited before being discovered on the way by European ships towards the Indies. If one dates his discovery at 1500, it should be known that Arab explorers seem to have already located it avant.
A navigator Portuguese, Diogo Dias, would have unloaded in July 1500 there. Another Portuguese navigator, Pedro de Mascarenhas unloads there the February 9th 1512 or 1513, day of the Holy-Apolline, whereas it is on the road of Goa. The island appears then on Portuguese charts under the name of Santa Apolonia . Towards 1520, the Meeting, Maurice and Rodrigues are called archipelago of Mascareignes , of the name of Mascarenhas. Today, these three islands are usually called the Mascareignes .

At the beginning of the 17th century, the island is a stopover on the Route of the Indies for the boats English and Dutch. The March 23rd 1613, the Dutch admiral Pieter Willemsz Verhoeff ( Pierre-Guillaume Veruff ), of return of Java, made stopover with the Meeting and baptizes the still uninhabited island England' S forest .

The French then unloaded there to take of it possession in the name of the king in 1642 and baptized it island Bourbon , of the royal surname. In 1646, twelve driven out mutineers of Madagascar are abandoned with the Meeting. Other people come to populate it in 1665. Francoise Chatelain of Cressy arrived for this period and is at the origin of several known families of Bourbon. As from 1715, the island knows an important economic advancement with the development of the culture and the export of the Café. This culture, unfortunately, was at the origin of the considerable development of slavery in the colony. Bertrand-François Mahé of Bourdonnais, governor of the island of 1735 with 1745, brought a strategic dimension to the development of the island, become provider in vivres of the island of France (today Mauritius) and French fleet committed in the Franco-English war of the Indies. Also let us quote the role of the intendant Pierre Poivre (1719-1786), which considerably enriched the flora local and diversified the agricultural resources by the introduction by very many tropical species, and in particular the Girofle and the Nutmeg whose trade was flourishing with and beginning of the 19th century.

The March 15th 1793, during the Revolution, its name becomes “island of the Meeting” in homage to the meeting of federate of Marseilles and of the national guards Parisian, at the time of walk on the Palais of Tileries, the Journée of August 10th, 1792, and to erase the name of the dynasty of the Bourbons. September 26th, 1806, the island takes the name of Bonaparte and finds itself in first line in the Franco-English conflict for the control of the Indian Ocean.

During the Napoleonean Wars, in 1810 the island passes under British domination, then is reassigned with the French at the time of the treated of Paris in 1814.

After the climatic catastrophes of 1806-1807 (cyclones, floods), the culture of the Café declines quickly to see itself substituting the culture of the Canne for sugar, whose metropolitan request increases, because of loss, by France, of Saint-Domingue, and soon of the island of France (Maurice). Because of its cycle of growth, the cane with sugar is indeed insensitive with the effect of the cyclones. Occurred in 1841, the discovery of Edmond Albius on the manual Pollinisation of the Fleur S of the Vanille makes it possible soon the island to become the first world vanilla producer. Rise also of the culture of the géranium whose gasoline is very much used in perfumery.

From 1838 to 1841, the rear-admiral Anne Chrétien Louis de Hell is governor of the island. A deep change of the company and mentalities related to the ten last years events lead the governor to approach the colonial Council concerning three projects of emancipation.

The December 20th 1848, the abolition of the Esclavage is finally proclaimed by Sarda Garriga (on December 20th is a Bank holiday with the Meeting). Louis Henri Hubert Delisle becomes its first creole governor the August 8th 1852 and remains at this station until the January 8th 1858. The Europe has more and more recourse to the Betterave to fill its requirements in Sucre. In spite of its policy of installation and the recourse to the Engagisme, the economic crisis broods and becomes obvious as from the years 1870. Thereafter, the boring of the Suez Canal leads the commercial traffic to move away from the island. This economic depression does not prevent however the modernization of the island, with the development of the highway network, the creation of the railroad, the realization of the artificial harbor of the Point of the Rollers. These large building sites offer a welcome alternative to the agricultural workers.

Second half of the 19th century sees the population réunionnaise evolving/moving, by the massive arrival of Indian volunteers of which a part settles definitively in the island, and by the release of immigration in 1862. Many Chinese and Indian Moslems settle then, and form two important communities which take part in ethnic and cultural diversification. Starting from the end of the 19th century, the sources of engagements are dried up little by little. Many landowners rent then their grounds (practical share-cropping), from where the emergence of a population of independent agricultural workers.

The participation of the Meeting in the war of 1914-1918 results in the sending of many Réunionnais to the engagements in the metropolis and on the Greek face. The aviator Roland Garros covers glory and dies in full sky in 1918. The admiral Lucien Lacaze is appointed Minister for the Navy then Minister for the War of 1915 to 1917. The war has consequences economic favorable for the Meeting: the production of sugar strongly increases and the courses climb, the metropolis being private of its beet grounds, theater of the engagements.

During the inter-war period, modernization continues: electricity appears in the easy hearths, and ensures the public lighting of Saint-Denis. The telegraph (1923) and the radio (1926) put réunionnais them in contact with the world. In 1939,1500 privileged hearths are subscribed on the telephone. One sees appearing automobile and planes. The sugar industry concentrates and the public limit companies replace the individual owners of sugar refineries. This progress benefits the hearths primarily from landowners, industrialists, frameworks, great merchants, and population masses it remains poor. Another big change of the inter-war period: mortality drops and the birthrate, very strong, increases, from where an exponential growth of the population, growth which continues nowadays.

The Second world war is a very hard test: although the Meeting is saved by the engagements, she suffers terribly from the quasi total stop of her provisioning. November 30th, 1942, the Meeting passes from the Vichyist mode to that of the free France.

March 19th, 1946, the Meeting becomes a overseas department French then, in 1997, one of the seven ultraperipheric areas of the European Union.

With the departmentalization, the Meeting is in ruins. But the metropolis is brought to agree of large efforts for the rebuilding of the economy and the social progress. Obligatory education constitutes a decisive progress. The installation, with a light shift, hexagonal security system social brings a considerable greater comfort. With the beginning of the year fifty, paludism, major epidemy for one century, have been éradiqué. The number of hospital beds triples in ten years. It follows an important improvement of the public health, a considerable fall of mortality… and an increase which gallops in the population, the birthrate culminating on a level record close to 50 per thousand. As of the end of the war, regular air links put the Meeting at three days only of the metropolis. Another consequence of the departmentalization: an considerable increase of the number of civils servant, remunerated well, who generate a new commercial flow causing the emergence of a middle-class living of the trade, liberal activities and functions of framing. The election of Michel Debré to the delegation, in 1962, brings a considerable asset to the development, because of dimension of the character and of its political weight in metropolis.

In years 1970 and 80, the Meeting really reaches modernity. A university appears and develops, as well as technical education. Television supplants the radio. The tradesmen give up their " shops chinois' and " bazaar zarabs" to create mini-markets and supermarkets. Tourism starts to develop. The densified highway network and of modernizes, but the car fleet evolves/moves more quickly still! The habitat improves, and the housing construction, doped by tax incentives specific to the DOM, is very active. The economy changes. In agriculture, the market gardenings and fruit-bearing, the breeding develop to satisfy the needs for a population which increases and consumes. The cane with sugar, however, maintains its row of first agricultural production. The BTP goes well. But it is from now on the tertiary sector which draws the economy: trade, services, and, more and more, tourism. Today, tourism is the first activity of the Island, with construction.

Policy

See also: Political of the Meeting

The political parties réunionnais are with few things close the subsidiary companies or the counterparts of those of metropolis, the PCR (Communist party réunionnais) has nevertheless some claims separatists; one finds the same reflection for the trade-union organizations. The political life, like the protest movements, is narrowly determined by the expiries, the governmental measures and the mobilizations of the metropolis.

Administration

See also: Common of the Meeting

The Meeting is a administrative area French composed, with the image of the other areas of overseas, of a single department. The general advice, the district council and the prefect sit at the chief town Saint-Denis of the Meeting. It was question more for reasons of electoral tactic that of effectiveness in the administrative organization to divide the island into two departments: to see Bidépartementalisation .

The Meeting is a base accommodating the infrastructures of the Frenchelon and of the mobile Ensemble listens to and seeks automatic emissions.

Like Mayotte, the island is member of the Commission of the Indian Ocean.

The flag

Whereas the feudal period installed many Drapeau X and blazons in Metropolitan France, the Meeting forever had official flag other than that of the nation.

However a blazon was created for the island by the former governor, Merwart, at the time of the colonial exposure of 1925, organized in Small-island. Merwart, member of the Company of Sciences and Arts to desired gathering all the history of the island on this blazon. Its currency “quocumque Florebo ferar” is that of the Company of the Indies Orientales and means “I will flower everywhere where I will be carried”. The plank in vanilla lianas honors a culture then flourishing. In top on the left: the virgin island. " MR. Mr. M" is a Roman numeral which points out the altitude of the more high summits. In top on the right: The ship the Saint-Alexis who ensured the first taking possession of the island. In bottom on the left: Flowers of lily of the royal time. In bottom on the right: The imperial bee. In the center the French republican flag. In 2003, Réunionnais were invited to propose a flag and this one was selected by Association réunionnaise of Vexillologie. It physically represents the Volcan Piton of the Furnace on a bottom azure and the rays of the Sun. Moreover, it symbolizes the arrival of the populations which converged towards the island during the centuries. One notes a certain resemblance to the logo of the area of the Meeting which shows also the sun behind the Piton of the Furnace.

Note that it has only one value of regional identity and the Tricolor French does not replace.

Geography

See also: Geography of the Meeting

The Meeting is a ic island Volcan of the Indian Ocean.

It was born, a few 2 million years ago, with the emergence of a mountainous solid mass culminating with the Piton of Snows which is, with an altitude of 3070.50 m, the highest top of the Mascareignes and Indian Ocean (taken measurement GPS in May 2003 by the Order of the expert geometricians of the Meeting) .

This solid mass forms the western part of the island, whereas the east consists of a volcano much more recent, hardly old 60000 years, one of most active of planet: the Piton of the Furnace.

The old solid mass, whose volcanos are currently inactive, shelters three vast circuses: circuses of Salazie, Mafate and Cilaos, dug by erosion. The old solid mass is separated from the solid mass of the Furnace by one perforated formed of the Plaine of the Cabbage trees and the Plaine of the Kaffirs, way of passage between north and the south of the island. Erosion gave to these volcanic formations reliefs precipice, with vertiginous peaks, canyons, multiple cascades, which give to the island a great beauty and made it call “the island with large spectacle”.

The magnificence of the landscapes is increased by the diversity of the vegetations which thrive in these sites.

The emerged part of the island represents only one small percentage (approximately 3%) of the underwater mountain which forms it.

The climate tropical, is moderated by the oceanic influence. Temperatures varying of 20°C (August) with 30°C (January). Strong precipitations in north and the east, drier climate in the west and the south. Prevalence of winds of trade winds. Cyclones (January-March) sometimes devastators, with winds exceeding 200 km/h and torrential precipitations.

Environment

The island of the Meeting has a varied fauna and a flora, but contrary to the French Guiana, one finds no large wild Mammifère there (jaguar or other deer for example).

On the other hand, of many endemic species is indexed there. Often threatened by the expansion of town planning, they are the subject of protection plans.

Fauna

Flora

See also: Geography of the Meeting

The island of the Meeting to the characteristic to present a very varied flora. Indeed one counts more than 1.000 species of plants on the island of the Meeting. The various migrations largely contributed to it to the wire of the centuries.

The Pond-Long natural reserve of Saint-Philippe is one of the primary last hygrophile forests mégathermes basic altitude of the archipelago of Mascareignes.

See also the List of the trees and indigenous shrubs of the Meeting by scientific name

Transport

See also: Transport with the Meeting

In the island

The island of the Meeting counted in 2004 nearly 300.000 particular vehicles, that is to say approximately a car for two inhabitants. In spite of the importance of the car fleet, the equipment of the households remains appreciably lower than that of the metropolitan France. One estimates that at the horizon 2020, the car fleet with the Meeting could reach approximately 500.000 vehicles, for a level of equipment of the households close to that of the Metropolitan France in 1999.

Mountainous topography, the urban development, the concentration of the human activities on the Littoral make Highway network a constant subject of concern for the economic development of the whole of the island. On the initiative of the District council and with the assistance of the State and European Union two projects of scale were launched in 2005 for an amount estimated at more than two billion euros, the Route of Tamarins, transverse highway axis connecting to middle height north in the south, and the Tram-Train for definitively making safe and unchoking the north-western connection of the chief town.

Airports

The island of the Meeting has two Aéroport S international:
  • the airport the Roland-Garros , largest, is located at Sainte-Marie close to Saint-Denis, in the north of the island;
  • the Airport of Pierrefonds located at Saint-Pierre, in the south, for the time being has only one capacity limited to the function of shuttle towards the principal airport and air terminal for the regional insular flights, in direction of Mauritius in particular.

Economy

See also: Economy of the Meeting

The Meeting experiences a strong economic development since ten years, with an average of about 5% per annum, double annual growth rate of that of the metropolis, which puts it at the head French areas, included overseas (source: INSEE Meeting). The growth is mainly due to the importance of the investments and creations of companies.

The incomes of the Tourisme constitute the first economic resource of the Meeting, in front of those drawn from the production and of the transformation of the Canne to sugar, at the origin of the development of great groups réunionnais like Groupe Bourbon, large international company quoted on the stock exchange but based today out of the island and having given up the sugar sector, or French Quartier. With the reduction in the subsidies, this culture is threatened. Also, the development of the fishing in the southern and antarctic Lands French seems the welcome. In particular commercial tertiary sector is developed the most by far, the importation-distribution having taken a notable rise in the middle of the years 1980 with the wire of contracts of affiliation and frankness with metropolitan groups. The arrival of the franchized distribution transformed the commercial apparatus historically characterized by a geographical dissemination of small units of the grocers type; rare the " shops chinois" still in activity are confined in the villages with middle height and, like one completed time old vestiges, they have a tourist and teaching attraction rather even if they keep a role of breakdown service.

In spite of an unquestionable economic dynamism, the island does not manage to reabsorb its important Chômage, which is explained in particular by a very strong population growth. Many Réunionnais are obliged to emigrate in metropolis for their studies and/or to find work.

The population of the Meeting is made up of populations resulting from Madagascar, the east of the continental Africa (the Cafre S ), of the west and the south-east of India, the Gujarat (the Zarabe S ) and the Tamil Nadu (the Malbars ) as well as south of the China in particular of Guangzhou (Canton) and of course of Europe, all arrived in the island during the various phases of the colonization and the development of the island.

The first colonists, at the 17th century, are Europeans, primarily of French, sometimes accompanied by Malagasy wives and servants by the same country (one cannot designate them yet as slaves). Starting from the rise of the culture of the coffee (1718), the recourse to slavery intensifies and drains towards the Bourbon island of the considerable flows of controlled primarily come from Madagascar and Eastern Africa, but also from India, Malaysia… The slaves constitute the three quarters of the population at the end of the 18th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, slavery is disputed, as well from the moral point of view as from the point of view of economic efficiency, and it appears a weak current of immigration of committed (“free” workers which are committed working a certain number of years in a Master).

After the abolition of slavery, in December 1848, the owners turn to the engagement, which primarily brings an important flow of workers from India (of the coast of Coromandel, precisely of the Tamil Nadu, in the south-east of the sub-continent, and not of the Malabar Coast, in south-west from where one drew by error local name " malbars" indicating this ethnicity), of Madagascar, of Southeast Asia, of China… Moreover, the end of the 19th century sees arriving of the province of Guangdong of the peasants confined who, fleeing the Japanese poverty and later bombardments, work initially in agriculture before settling in the retail business. All these communities tend to melt themselves in a crucible, from which an interbreeding results which makes emerge a " type; créole" , and also a creole culture…

The slave period constituted one time of exacerbated racism, and strong antagonism between communities. The racial prejudices remained long-lived until after the second world war. The population réunionnaise then quickly changed, with the generalization of education, democratization resulting from the departmentalization, the economic progress which benefitted the members from the various communities, made emerge new advantageous branches of industry at the various communities, completely changed the social scale. An increased interbreeding makes that one distinguishes the ethnos groups less and less. A population especially, within which the racial prejudices practically disappeared. If the Meeting constitutes a model for the ethnic harmony, the disparities remain strong in the plan of the incomes, the formation, the inheritances. If the free lances and the employees have correct incomes, even comfortable, the mass of the unemployed (30%, and 50% in the young people), of RMIstes (more: 60000, 8% of the population) constitute the main issue with which the island is confronted. The emigration, although activates, cannot with it only solve the problem. The strong economic growth does not have that an effect limited in terms of fall of unemployment.

Daniel Vaxelaire, journalist, historian, writer, author of various works on the Meeting, explain in his Histoire of the Meeting of the origins with 1848 , that the interbreeding is one of the features characteristic of the island, as of the arrival of the first colonists. Those indeed married shortly after their installation in the island, of the women come from Madagascar and mongrel Indo-Portuguese, with which they designed the first newborns with the Meeting. Thus, the first newborns on this green and not inhabited island were already mongrel.

This early interbreeding probably made it possible more quickly to attenuate the pains of the slave period, which was completed the December 20th 1848 with the Meeting, a date fériée since 1981, locally commemorated under name Fêt Kaf (“Festival of the Kaffirs”).

Culture - Personalities

See also: Culture of the Meeting

The island saw being born from numerous Poète S, among which Leon Dierx, Leconte de Lisle, Auguste Lacaussade, Évariste de Parny and Antoine Bertin. It inspired Charles Baudelaire, " With a Créole" Lady; , " In Malbaraise" , or this is Mauritius which the poet at greater length visited at the time of his stay in the archipelago. What is sure they is that the Meeting counts a Goncourt price in the person or rather in the people of Georges Athénas and Aime Merlo, two critic art cousins and graduates of the Sorbonne which wrote with four hands under the pseudonym Marius and Ary Leblond: they accepted celebrates it price in 1909 for their novel " In France". In connection with novel, let us recall that one of the novelists more in sight in this beginning of 21e century, Michel Houellebecq, was born in the island in February 1958.

For those which would still believe that Roland Garros was a large French tennis player, is it good to recall that he was an aviator réunionnais hero of the First World War and that he was in addition highly skilled cyclist; the international airport of the island bears its name today. The island counts another hero, more exactly a heroin in the person of Juliette Dodu, which, made rare, accepted at the same time the legion of honor and the military decoration for these acts of courage as a clever telegraphist during the war of 1870. The Meeting is also the native soil of Raymond Barre political professor of economy and Prime Minister of France of 1976 to 1981 deceased on August 25th, 2007 in Paris. He was also the mayor of Lyon of 1995 to 2001.

Let us add to this list of celebrities the names of Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), celebrates collector and merchant of tables which made much for the success of the impressionist painters and fauvists, Jean d' Esme (1893-1966), journalist, novelist and director realizer of six large films of 1925 to 1939, initiator of the French law on the literary property and the social coverage for the writers, Blanche Pierson (1842-1919), one of the largest actresses of her time… and still Joseph Bedier (1864-1938) medievist with whom one owes the modern writing of the Roman of Tristan and Yseult , it Admiral Lacaze (1860-1955), Minister for the War during the First World War, François-Gédéon Bailly de Monthyon (1776-1850), general of Empire, chief of staff of the Large army of Napoleon…

Language

The official language is the French, even if the vernacular Language is the Créole réunionnais which is a language with whole share, structured on French dominating but born from the linguistic concessions of the various migrant people to include itself/understand. The language réunionnaise will have been the first vector of the unit of this multicultural population.

Religion

See also: Religion with the Meeting

Because of the various origins of the population réunionnaise, principal the Religion S practiced in the island is the Christianisme (primarily catholic Roman, but also protesting), the Hindouisme (tamouls), the Islam mainly sunnite and the Judaism. Chinese community venerating for its part the warlike hero become god, Guan Di.

A long time shaded by the official religion, the other worships open out today in a full legitimacy, sealing the attachment of the people to his remote roots and completing the plural identity of the company réunionnaise; various spiritual demonstrations mark out today the calendar year, Dipavali, Christmas, Ramadan, Pandialé, Lent, sacrificial commemorations of the sheep and of the CABRI, the saints of the Vatican and let us panthéons them of the East cohabit in an exemplary oecumenism for this island at the multiple New Year's Days.

Media

The free radios exist in the island since 1981, the first to have diffused on the tape FM, being Radio Relaxation on the heights of Brittany (Saint-Denis). Will come then on July 14th, 1981 Radio Freedom and since one counts more than 45 private radios which emit for some of enters on the whole of the island.

Music

The Maloya is a typical style of music of the island. From there rise the electric maloya, the sega and the creole, malogué rap (mixture of reggae and maloya) and the creole ragga.

The maloya was ignored very a long time and little expressed. This music was disturbing, because she pointed out too the period of slave system that had known the island of the Meeting. Indeed the maloya was born for the period from slavery. Like the blues in the United States, they are the black workers, who it evening after work, started to sing while being accompanied while typing on bamboos, by agitating seeds in dry marrows (“water-bottles”), while making vibrate a wire tended like an arc. These instruments evolved/moved mainly worms of the " rouler" and of the " cayamb". The maloya is generally danced in round around a fire. The dancers évertuent themselves to find the swaying walk most expressive, while taking again with keep silent head each sentence of the singer of the group.

The séga, is a music more “living room”. He generally dances himself in couple. The instruments are more traditional of a colonized Meeting: accordion, harmonica, battery, guitar, saxophone…

Among the musical groups emblematic of the Meeting, one can quote: Folk group of the Meeting, Kalou Crushed, Baster, Ousanousava, Ziskakan, Pat' Yellows, Danyèl Waro, Tisours, etc One can quote also, one of largest the singer of maloya: Lo Rwa Kaf. Born with Holy-Suzanne, it is one of the first to have sung the maloya. With its death in 2004, there were enormously people present for its funerals.

Literature

; Authors: ; Contemporary authors:

Codings

The Meeting has as codes:

See too

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