Understand

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History
The discovery of Mauritius Island was first made by the Arab sailors, at this time the island was a dense forest. There is no exact date of when Mauritius was discovered by the Arabs, it is said to be around the 9th century. But the Arabs sailors were not interested in settling on the island. Fernandez Pereira, a Portuguese sailor who saw the island decided to give it the name of Cerne. Discovered by the Portuguese in 1505, Mauritius was subsequently held by the Dutch, French, and British before independence was attained in 1968. But the Portuguese sailors were not interested to settle on the island. The first to colonise the island were the Dutch. They took possession of the island in 1598. The Dutch settlers came on the island by a bay in the south eastern part of the island which was named Warwyck Haven after the commander VanWarwyck, the bay is now known as Grand Port. Mauritius also got its name during this period; the island was named after the Prince of Holland Mauritz de Nassau.
The Dutch left the island in 1710, but before leaving they had introduced on the island monkeys, sugar cane, and the java deer. But when they left Mauritius, there were almost no more dodos on the island as it was their main source of food. The dodo was a large flightless bird very sociable and very easy to capture. When the Dutch left the island they also left on the island the slaves that ran away from their masters. The French settled on the island in 1715 and also landed at the bay in the southeast and named it Port Bourbon. They made settlement on the north-western side of the island which became the harbour and was named Port Louis which is also the capital of Mauritius. During the French settlement there has been a lot of development in the country. Mahé de Labournnais whose statue is found in Port Louis in face of the harbour is known as the founder of the capital city. The British took possession of Mauritius in 1810 after a battle between French and British. From then Mauritius was under the rule of British until they attained independence on the 12 March 1968 within the commonwealth. Slavery was officially abolished in 1835. Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam also known as the "Father of the Nation" was the one who brought the island to independence and did a lot for the country. On the 12 March 1992, Mauritius became a Republic.

A stable democracy with regular free elections and a positive human rights record, the country has attracted considerable foreign investment and has earned one of Africa's highest per capita incomes. Recent poor weather and declining sugar prices have slowed economic growth leading to some protests over standards of living in the Creole community.

Climate
Tropical, modified by southeast trade winds; warm, dry winter (May to November); hot, wet, humid summer (November to May); Natural hazards : Tropical cyclones (November to April);but most...