Colonial history of the Musklin Islands

Reunion and Mauritius Colonies and Their Slave Plantation System

Reunion island and mauritius island are the two largest islands in the Maskelyne Islands. About 10 century, Arab sailors first discovered this island. /kloc-At the beginning of the 6th century, Portuguese explorers also set foot here. But until the end of 16, these islands were uninhabited desert islands, which have not been paid attention to.

/kloc-at the end of 0/6, the Dutch colonial activities in the East, which won the world commercial hegemony, intensified, and it was urgent to establish a supply station halfway through the long route to the East. 1598 In September, a Dutch fleet under the command of Van Wallvik occupied a major island in the Musklin Islands and called it Mauritius. 1638, the Netherlands sent the first batch of immigrants to the island, and Mauritius became an overseas colony of the Netherlands. After the establishment of Cape Colony, the administrative affairs of mauritius island were managed by the Governor of Cape Colony. However, because mauritius island is far away from the main channel of Atlantic-Indian Ocean, the rodent damage on the island has seriously affected the growth of crops, and the development speed of colonists is extremely slow. Until the beginning of18th century, the immigrants on the island included company employees and exiled prisoners, and never exceeded 300.

Shortly after the Dutch occupied mauritius island, the French also began to covet the island. /kloc-At the beginning of the 7th century, the trade volume between France and the East increased day by day. In order to compete with other western countries, France tried to open up a base for eastward expansion near the Cape of Good Hope. At first, the French Oriental Company established a stronghold in Madagascar, but it was forced to give up soon because of the fierce resistance of the Malagasy people. 1643, the French occupied another big island in Maskelyne, which is only 100 mile away from Mauritius. To celebrate the Bourbon Dynasty's acquisition of a fertile land, the colonists named the island Bourbon Island. 1663, France sent the first batch of immigrants to bourbon, and the number of immigrants on the island continued to increase. By the beginning of18th century, Bourbon Island had become an important base for France to expand into the Indian Ocean.

17 10, the Netherlands abandoned mauritius island and focused on the management of Cape Colony. 17 15, the French fleet occupied mauritius island, renamed ile-de-france, and merged with Bourbon Island to form a unified French colony.

The colony encountered a series of difficulties in its early days. The first is the invasion of pirates. Pirates in the Indian Ocean mainly come from the Antilles. /kloc-At the end of 0/7, these pirates moved their nests to Madagascar. Since then, the Maskelyne Islands have become a frequent haunt of pirates, and some residents on the island also secretly associate with pirates, making piracy more rampant. /kloc-At the beginning of the 8th century, Malagasy attacked the pirate's lair built on this island, and the pirates moved the lair to St. Mary's Island, which is closer to the Musklin Islands. In order to completely eliminate pirates, the colonial government adopted a policy of appeasement on the one hand, allowing those pirates who were willing to wash their hands of it to settle in the Musklin Islands; On the one hand, we will severely crack down on pirates who continue to plunder. 1724, the colonial government destroyed the pirate nest on St. Mary's Island and captured the pirate leader Labuze. 1730, Labuze was executed, and piracy in the Indian Ocean temporarily subsided.

Another difficulty encountered by the colonies was that they did not find crops suitable for growing on the island for a long time at first. In mauritius island, as early as the Dutch occupation, we tried to grow grain, but due to poor management and rodent infestation, the grain was not harvested, and we were at a loss at the beginning of the French occupation. Bourbon Island is fertile, but it is not well used. The colonial government tried many times to grow spices on Bourbon Island, but all failed. Therefore, finding suitable crops on the island has become the key to the development of colonial economy.

/kloc-At the beginning of the 8th century, a merchant fleet loaded with Arabian coffee docked in ile-de-france and Bourbon Island to replenish fresh water and food. The arrival of the coffee boat inspired the residents on the island, and the colonial government also took a fancy to this high-yield cash crop and decided to grow coffee on the island. 17 15, the first batch of coffee seedlings arrived in bourbon island from Yemen. Due to the suitable climate, coffee cultivation soon spread all over the island. By 1730, the coffee produced in Bourbon can meet the needs of all France. At the same time, coffee cultivation spread from Bourbon Island to ile-de-france. However, due to poor management, and more importantly, the increasing output of coffee in Bourbon Island (about 1730 kg of coffee is exported every year), and the competition from other coffee-producing countries, the European market tends to be saturated and the coffee market is weak, so the coffee planting industry has failed to develop in ile-de-france. 1735, La Bourdonnet was appointed as the plenipotentiary governor of the two islands. During his tenure, he encouraged ile-de-france immigrants to plant sugar cane and set up two sugar factories on the island. After more than ten years' efforts, the cane sugar produced in ile-de-france is enough for the residents and ships of the two islands to eat, and can be exported in a small amount, and the two islands have finally established a plantation economy.

The rise of sugarcane and coffee plantations brought the colony into a period of stable development. However, with the large-scale cultivation of cash crops, the colonies faced another more serious problem-lack of labor. Since the establishment of the colony, although the immigration of the two islands has been increasing, the economy on the island has developed rapidly and the labor force is seriously lacking. France is similar to some European countries, such as the Netherlands. The domestic primitive accumulation of capital process was not as violent as that of Britain, and no bankrupt peasant army was created, so there was no large-scale immigration tide. Therefore, until 1735, the total number of white immigrants in the two islands did not exceed 1000. At this time, the immigrants were mainly retired employees, adventurers and prisoners of French companies, and only a small part of them really wanted to settle on the island. The physical labor on the island was mainly undertaken by slaves, and slavery was established with the colonies.

Slaves in Maskelyne mainly came from Madagascar and East Africa. Before the 1920s, the slave trade was mainly run by pirates. Pirates often collude with colonial officials. A French bourbon governor signed many contracts with pirates to buy slaves. The governor bought a large number of slaves from pirates at a low price and then resold them to his subordinates or immigrants on the island, which made great profits. Mascarin Islands became an important slave-holding area in the Indian Ocean.

After the rise of plantation economy in 65438+30-40' s, slaves in Musk Islands turned to plantation labor from manual labor such as road building, construction and handling. Plantation slaves are engaged in heavy labor all day, and they are used as farming tools-livestock of white immigrants. Slaves have to work in the fields at dawn every day and can't rest until the sun goes down. Growing coffee and sugar cane is labor-intensive and has a great demand for labor, so slavery is widely practiced. /kloc-The middle and late 8th century witnessed the prevalence of slavery in Mascarin. The number of slaves on the island is more than eight or nine times that of white immigrants and free citizens.

The number of slaves increased with the development of plantation economy. 1735 before the large-scale planting of sugarcane in ile-de-france, the population of the whole island, including slaves, was only 1000; After the 1930s and 1940s, sugarcane plantations rose and the number of slaves doubled. From 65438 to 0766, the slave population increased to 18 100, and by the end of 18, it had reached 49080. So is Bourbon Island. 1708 The number of slaves is much lower than that of white immigrants. After the rise of coffee plantations in 1725, the slave population soared to more than 2,000, reaching 44,800 by the end of 18.

With the development of plantation economy, the slave trade in Mascarin is becoming more and more active, extending from Madagascar and East Africa to South Asia. /kloc-In the middle of the 0/8th century, the colonial government of the islands set up a slave trading station on St. Mary's Island to provide slaves for the white planters in the islands. According to statistics, from 1670 to 18 10, about 160000 slaves were imported into the Musklin Islands. Among them, 45% are Malagasy, 40% are from East Africa, 13% are Indians and 2% are West Africans. Kilwa in East Africa is the main concentration point of the African continent exporting slaves to Mascarin Islands. From 1786 to 1794, an average of 2,500 slaves are transported here every year. /kloc-in the 8th century, the plantation economy in Mascarin was in the development stage, and the demand for slaves rose rapidly. The political and economic changes at the turn of18th century and19th century further promoted this development.

From 65438 to 0789, the bourgeois revolution broke out in France. 1793, the National Association renamed Bourbon Island as Reunion Island. 1793 In July, the French government tried to ban the slave trade in the Musklin Islands, which was strongly opposed by the islanders. So ile-de-france and reunion island once broke away from French autonomy. Napoleon came to power in 1800 and resumed his rule over the two islands. During their separation from France, the economies of these two islands developed further. During the Anglo-French War, these two islands often sent fleets to plunder British ships passing by, and earned 2.5 million pounds in just a few years, which promoted the economic development of the islands. 1802 After the signing of the Amiens Peace Treaty, Britain and France reached an armistice, and there was a brief peace in the islands. The island's economy is more prosperous, with the total trade volume from 1802 to 1803, more than twice that before the Great Revolution. 1803 the war between Britain and France resumed, but because the prices of products in the islands were generally lower than those in Europe, neutral countries such as the United States and Denmark took the opportunity to engage in transshipment trade. According to statistics, only 50 foreign ships arrived in ile-de-france in 1804, and increased from 1806 to 105 and from 1807 to 126. The foreign trade volume of the two islands has doubled. 18 10, Britain occupied ile-de-france and reunion island successively. During the period of British rule, ile-de-france was renamed as Mauritius and reunion island as Bourbon Island (reunion island 1848). 18 15 After the Paris Peace Treaty was signed, the Bourbon Dynasty returned to France and Mauritius became a British colony.

During the changing situation in Europe, the plantation economy on the islands reached its peak and the slave economy reached its peak. Although Britain and France decided to ban the slave trade in 1807 and 18 17, it was actually banned endlessly and hardly touched the slavery in the Musk Islands. Mauritian Governor Farquhal also urged the British government to protect the secret slave trade and give it legal recognition. In the Bourbon dynasty in France, even senior officials participated in the slave trade. Due to the implicit support of the colonial government for the slave trade, the number of slaves in the Musklin Islands has increased. 1835 Before the abolition of slavery in Mauritius, the number of slaves was as high as 65,000, while the slave population in Bourbon Island reached more than 7 1000 in the same period, far exceeding the total number of white immigrants and freemen on the island.

The slave economy in Maskelyne continued until the middle of the 9th century. Britain abolished slavery in Mauritius in 1835 and France abolished slavery in reunion island in 1848. At this point, open slavery can be said to have disappeared on both islands, while hidden and disguised slavery still exists. Since the19th century, indentured laborers from Asia have been working as slaves in plantations. /kloc-Before the middle of the 0/9th century, the development of the Musklin Islands was inseparable from slavery, and its colonial activities and prosperity were completely based on the slave economy.