Dutch Mauritius
| Dutch Mauritius | ||||||||||
| Mauritius | ||||||||||
| Dutch colony | ||||||||||
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| Capital | Port de Warwick (Mahébourg) | |||||||||
| Languages | Dutch | |||||||||
| Political structure | Colony | |||||||||
| Opperhoofd | ||||||||||
| • | 1638-1639 | Cornelius Gooyer | ||||||||
| • | 1639-1645 | Adriaen van der Stel | ||||||||
| • | 1673-1677 | Hubert Hugo | ||||||||
| • | 1703-1710 | Abraham Momber van de Velde | ||||||||
| Historical era | Imperialism | |||||||||
| • | Arrival of troops for Fort Frederik Hendrik | 29 August 1638 | ||||||||
| • | Decision to abandon the island | February 1710 | ||||||||
| Currency | Dutch rijksdaalder, Dutch guilder | |||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Mauritius
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Coordinates: 20°12′S 57°30′E / 20.2°S 57.5°E
Mauritius was an official settlement of the Dutch East India Company on the island of Mauritius between 1638 and 1710, and used a refreshing station for passing ships. It was already frequented by Dutch ships from 1598 onwards, but only settled in 1638, to prevent the French and the British from settling on the island.
It has been frequently hypothesized that Mauritius was first discovered by the Arabs, who named the island Dina Harobi. The first historical evidence of the existence of an island now known as Mauritius is on a map produced by the Italian cartographer Alberto Cantino in 1502. It is sure that Mauritius was visited by the Portuguese between 1507 and 1513. The Portuguese took no interest in this isolated island, however. Their main African base was in Mozambique, and therefore the Portuguese navigators preferred to use the Mozambique Channel to go to India. The Comoros at the north proved to be a more practical port of call. Thus no permanent colony was established on the island by the Portuguese.
In 1598, a Dutch expedition consisting of eight ships set sail from the port of Texel (Netherlands) under the orders of admirals Jacob Cornelisz van Neck and Wybrand van Warwijck towards the Indian subcontinent. The eight ships ran into foul weather after passing the Cape of Good Hope and were separated. Three found their way to the northeast of Madagascar while the remaining five regrouped and sailed in a southeasterly direction. On 17 September, the five ships under the orders of Admiral Van Warwyck came into view of the island. On 20 September, they entered a sheltered bay which they gave the name of "Port de Warwick" (present name is "Grand Port"). They landed and decided to name the island "Prins Maurits van Nassaueiland", after Prince Maurits (Latin version: Mauritius) of the House of Nassau, the stadtholder of Holland, but also after the main vessel of the fleet which was called "Mauritius". From those days, only the name Mauritius has remained. On 2 October, the ships took to the sea again towards Bantam.
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Wikipedia