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Mauritius NATIONAL SECURITY
Defense Forces: National Police Force, including
paramilitary Special Mobile Force, Special Support Unit,
and
National Coast Guard.
HISTORICAL SETTING
Mauritius - Unavailable
Figure 5. Mauritius: Administrative Divisions, 1994
THE REPUBLIC OF MAURITIUS is a democratic and
prosperous
country whose entire population has ancestral origins
elsewhere:
Europe, Africa, India, and China. Until recently, the
country's
economy was dominated by the production and export of
sugar, a
legacy of its French and British colonial past. After
independence in 1968, government-directed diversification
efforts
resulted in the rapid growth of tourism and a
manufacturing
sector producing mainly textiles for export.
During French colonial rule, from 1767 to 1810, the
capital
and main port, Port Louis, became an important center for
trade,
privateering, and naval operations against the British. In
addition, French planters established sugarcane estates
and built
up their fortunes at the expense of the labor of slaves
brought
from Africa. The French patois, or colloquial language,
which
evolved among these slaves and their freed descendants,
referred
to as Creole, has become the everyday language shared by
most of
the island's inhabitants. French is used in the media and
literature, and the Franco-Mauritian descendants of the
French
settlers continue to dominate the sugar industry and
economic
life of modern Mauritius.
The British captured the island in 1810 and gave up
sovereignty when Mauritius became independent in 1968.
During
this period, the French plantation aristocracy maintained
its
economic, and, to a certain degree, its political
prominence. The
British abolished slavery but provided for cheap labor on
the
sugar estates by bringing nearly 500,000 indentured
workers from
the Indian subcontinent. The political history of
Mauritius in
the twentieth century revolves around the gradual economic
and
political empowerment of the island's Indian majority.
Mauritian independence was not gained without
opposition and
violence. Tensions were particularly marked between the
Creole
and Indian communities, which clashed often at election
time,
when the rising fortunes of the latter at the expense of
the
former were most apparent. Nonetheless, successive
governments
have, with varying success, attempted to work out a
peaceful
modus vivendi that considers the concerns of the island's
myriad
communities.
These varied interests have contributed to a political
culture that is occasionally volatile and highly fluid,
characterized by shifting alliances. A notable lapse from
democratic practices, however, occurred in 1971. The
Mauritius
Labor Party (MLP)-led coalition government of Sir
Seewoosagur
Ramgoolam, faced with the radical and popular challenge of
the
Mauritian Militant Movement (Mouvement Militant
Mauricien--MMM)
and its allies in the unions, promulgated the Public Order
Act,
which banned many forms of political activity. This state
of
emergency lasted until 1976. The resilience and stability
of
Mauritian society, however, was demonstrated by the fact
that an
MMM-led government eventually gained power through the
ballot box
in 1982.
Despite many differences, the major political parties
have
worked successfully toward the country's economic welfare.
For
this reason, Mauritius has evolved from a primarily
agricultural
monocrop economy marked by high unemployment, low
salaries, and
boom-or-bust cycles to one dominated by manufacturing,
tourism,
and expanding financial services. As Mauritius faces the
future,
it can look back on its dazzling economic performance in
the
1980s and attempt to build on that success by continuing
its
tradition of political stability, foresight, and prudent
development planning.
Data as of August 1994
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