The British Empire (1810-1968)

Following the Treaty of Paris, Ile de France was renamed Mauritius. The new British government, ruled by Sir Robert Farquhar, agreed that the French language would remain one of the "customs." Indeed, the British authorised the inhabitants of Mauritius and Rodrigues to use their particular language, civil code, traditions and customs. Being few and far between and having no intention of settling on the island, the British were ready to make concessions.

Once the social and economic changes became apparent, the French civil servants were replaced by the British ones within the bureaucracy. From now on, all economic issues were developed within the framework of the British Empire.
Many of the Franco-Mauritians, especially the large property owners and businessmen decided to remain on the island and to continue the sugar cane exploitation with their Malagasy and African labourers. This white-skinned population continued to speak French and aided by the catholic clergy, they were against the government's stranglehold on the language.

As for the slaves, they remained within the inferior social ranks and continued to use the Mauritian Creole. As the British did not intend to settle in mass numbers in Mauritius, the natives continued to speak French and Creole.
In 1832, the British imposed the first linguistic policy: the English language became compulsory for all Mauritians, in all types of communication with the British authorities, and the following year, English became the unique language for administrative purposes. It was the main condition for employment in the governmental services.

But the most important event occurred in 1835, when, at the time of the abolition of slavery in all British colonies and against the demand of labour forces for the sugar cane exploitation, the British administration decided to call on indentured Indian labourers. From 1835 to 1968, more than 200000 Indian and Chinese immigrants flocked to Mauritius and completely changed the ethnicity of the inhabitants. The Indian immigrants soon became the majority of the agricultural workers, whereas the Chinese became the small traders.

The arrival of these new Asian immigrants hardly changed the social role of languages in Mauritius. The Franco-Mauritians stereotyped the new arrivals to a low social level. The Indo-Mauritians then, adopted the Creole, developed from English or Indian words, as their language. In 1841, the teaching of the English language became compulsory in all the primary schools along with French and in 1845, English became the "supreme court language." Obviously, the lower court that still abode by the Napoleonic code of law, continued to use the French language.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Mauritius had 371 000 inhabitants and most of the population was already mainly made up of Indians. The island lost its strategic point on the opening of the Suez Canal in 1870 and this event resulted in the dismissal of Mauritius from the route to India and hence, worsened the socio-economic situation. Mauritius and the Seychelles were governed as only one colony by the United Kingdom up until 1903. From then onwards, the Chagos Archipelago, administratively independent from the Seychelles and linked to Mauritius, was used by the ‘Royal Force' as a military base against the Japanese warships in the Indian Ocean during the Second World War.

The island ensured its independence more and more against the British crown. From the 1930s onwards, there was an emergence of popular movements in favour of democratisation and they gradually succeeded in obtaining a universal suffrage at the legislative elections in 1948. Several nationalist movements were formed and following a referendum, Mauritius became independent on 12^th March 1968 and was endowed with a British parliamentary system.

Being a sovereign country that forms part of the British Commonwealth, the Republic of Mauritius also forms part of the French Speaking World, since its 5th summit in October 1993.