MAURITIUS

Mauritius stamps for sale at Io Collezionista. The Republic of Mauritius lies in the Indian Ocean about 550km from the eastern coast of Madagascar and consists of an archipelago which, besides the island of the same name, also takes in Rodrigues, Agalega and Cargados Carajos. The area was certainly known to Arab navigators of the 10th century but was rediscovered by the Portuguese in 1505, who nicknamed the main island the Isle of the Swan, and settled only in 1598, when the first Dutch settlement was built. Between 1715 and 1809 Mauritius passed under French control, and the French ceded it to the British Empire in 1810; it has been independent since 1968. The nation currently has one of the highest GDP per head in Africa.