Reunion

Overview

Reunion is a French department lost in the Indian Ocean. There are coconut trees and beaches in Reunion, the turquoise blue lagoons and the white barrier reef are there waiting for you to fulfil your exotic dreams.

Until the middle of the 17th century, the island which was uninhabited. It was visited by Arab, Portuguese, English and Dutch navigators. The island was a much appreciated stopover on the commercial route for its abounding fresh water, right next to the shores. It appeared on many maps under different names. The French saw a first good use to make of it : a prison or rather a place of banishment for the undesirable mutineers from Madagascar. The Kingdom was then trying to get a foothold in the south of the Great Island, 700 km further away to the West. During the clemency year of 1643, the small volcanic island became Bourbon, "the possession of the King". To do so, it only took the putting up of an engraved stone on the seashore (today's district of La Possession).

The first mutineers were landed there in 1643. They discovered a dream prison, covered with forests, game and rivers. From 1663 onwards, the first settlers settled down with their Malagasy servants. The importance of the faraway island showed progressively. The East Indies Company was to run it with an iron fist for a century until its bankruptcy in 1767. Coffee growing developed and with it the slavery system was established. The white settlers bought their labour from...more

History

The Portuguese discovered the uninhabited island in 1513. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, French immigration, supplemented by influxes of Africans, Chinese, Malays, and Malabar Indians, gave the island its ethnic mix. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 cost the island its importance as a stopover on the East Indies trade route.