Isle de France (Mauritius)
| Isle de France | ||||||||||
| Colony (Kingdom of France) | ||||||||||
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Motto "Stella Clavisque Maris Indici" (Latin) "Star and Key of the Indian Ocean" |
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| Capital | Port Louis | |||||||||
| Languages | Mauritian creole, French | |||||||||
| Religion | Christianity | |||||||||
| Political structure | Colony | |||||||||
| Historical era | Napoleonic Wars | |||||||||
| • | Established | 1715 | ||||||||
| • | Disestablished | 1810 | ||||||||
| Population | ||||||||||
| • | 1735 est. | 838 | ||||||||
| Currency | French livre | |||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Mauritius Seychelles French Southern and Antarctic Lands British Indian Ocean Territory
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Isle de France (Île de France in modern French) was the name of the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius and its dependent territories between 1715 and 1810, when the area was under the French East India Company and part of France's empire. Under the French, the island witnessed major changes. The increasing importance of agriculture led to the importation of slaves and the undertaking of vast infrastructural works that transformed Port Louis into a major capital, port, warehousing, and commercial centre.
During the Napoleonic wars, Île de France became a base from which the French navy, including squadrons under Rear AdmiralLinois or Commodore Jacques Hamelin, and corsairs such as Robert Surcouf, organised raids on British merchant ships. The raids (see Battle of Pulo Aura and Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811) continued until 1810 when the British sent a strong expedition to capture the island. The first British attempt, in August 1810, to attack Grand Port resulted in a French victory, one celebrated on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. A subsequent and much larger attack launched in December of the same year from Rodrigues, which had been captured a year earlier, was successful. The British landed in large numbers in the north of the island and rapidly overpowered the French, who capitulated (see Invasion of Isle de France). In the Treaty of Paris (1814), the French ceded Île de France together with its territories including the Chagos Archipelago, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Agaléga, Tromelin and Cargados Carajos to Great Britain. The island then reverted to its former name, 'Mauritius'.
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