Mauritius country profile

Mauritius is a stable and prosperous Indian Ocean archipelago.

Once dependent on sugar exports, the island has built up a strong outsourcing and financial services sector, as well as an important tourism industry, and now boasts one of Africa's highest per capita incomes.

In the 1960s, hundreds of inhabitants of the Chagos Islands, over which Mauritius claimed sovereignty, were deported to make way for a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.

The islands had been administered as part of Mauritius from the 18th Century onwards. In 1965, shortly before Mauritian independence the UK separated them along with Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches in the Seychelles to form the British Indian Ocean Territory.

The latter three islands were returned to Seychelles in 1976 on its independence.

In 2024, after years of negotiations, the UK announced it would hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius.

This included the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, used by the US government as a military base for its navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft.

The US-UK base remains on Diego Garcia - this was a key factor enabling the deal to go forward at a time of growing geopolitical rivalries in the region between Western countries, India, and China.

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REPUBLIC OF MAURITIUS: FACTS

• Capital: Port Louis

• Area: 2,040 sq km

• Population: 1.2 million

• Languages: Mauritian Creole, Bhojpuri, French, English

• Life expectancy: 71 years (men) 78 years (women)

LEADER

President: Prithvirajsing Roopun

President Prithvirajsing Roopun (right)

Arts and Culture Minister Prithvirajsing "Pradeep" Roopun was elected to the largely ceremonial post of president in December 2019.

Prime minister: Pravind Kumar Jugnauth

Pravind Kumar Jugnauth succeeded his father, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, as prime minister in January 2017, he subsequently won the November 2019 general election.

Until he stepped down, Sir Anerood had been the longest-serving prime minister since Mauritius gained independence from Britain in 1968.

Mr Jugnauth is leader of the Militant Socialist Movement party.

MEDIA

State-owned Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) radio and TV generally reflect government thinking. MBC is funded by advertising and a TV licence fee.

Television is the most popular medium.

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TIMELINE

Some key dates in the history of Mauritius:

Mauritius has a reputation for stability and racial harmony

10th Century - Malay, African and Arab sailors visit island but do not settle.

1510 - Portuguese navigator Pedro Mascarenhas visits the island and names it Cirné but the Portuguese do not establish a permanent settlement.

1598 - Dutch claim the uninhabited island and rename it after their head of state, Maurice, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau.

1664-1710 - Dutch withdraw after repeated attempts at colonisation. By this time the dodo - a unique bird found only on Mauritius - has become extinct.

1710-1810 - French take possession, establishing a sugar industry based on slave labour.

1796 - Settlers break away from French control when the government in Paris attempts to abolish slavery.

1810 - British troops land in Mauritius after defeating French forces.

1814 - Mauritius, Seychelles and Rodrigues ceded to Britain under Treaty of Paris.

1834 - British abolish slavery.

1835 - Indentured labour system introduced. In subsequent decades hundreds of thousands of workers arrive from India.

1966 - Britain agrees to the building of a key US military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia.

1968 - Mauritius becomes independence.

1968-73 - Some 2,000 residents of the Chagos archipelago are expelled.

1973 - Construction of US base is complete.

Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands and a joint UK-US military base

1980s - US base is expanded with new runways and port facilities.

1992 - Mauritius becomes a republic.

2008 - British House of Lords upholds government appeal against 2000 UK High Court court ruling that families expelled from the Chagos Islands are entitled to return home.

2010 - Mauritius and France agree to jointly manage Tromelin, a tiny Indian Ocean island owned by France but claimed by Mauritius.

2012 - European Court of Human Rights rejects claim by Chagos islanders against Britain over their expulsion.

2016 - Britain extends the lease on Diego Garcia to the US till 2036.

2019 - UN International Court of Justice says Britain should end its control over the Chagos Islands as soon as possible, in a non-binding legal opinion that they were not lawfully separated from Mauritius in 1965.

2020 - Japanese-owned bulk carrier MV Wakashio runs aground on a coral reef, spilling up to 1,000 tonnes of heavy oil - one of the worst environmental disasters to hit the western Indian Ocean.

2024 - UK announces it is handing sovereignty of the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius. The UK-US base on Diego Garcia remains,

Port Louis has been the main settlement on Mauritius since the 1600s