History of the reunions

This article describes the history of Réunion . The island of Réunion is now an overseas department and a region of France .

Indian Ocean before the arrival of the Europeans

Before the arrival of the first Europeans in the 16th century, the Indian Ocean was only explored by Arabs and Austronesians . As early as the 10th century, Réunion was known to Arab sailors as diva maghrebin ("West Island"). The neighboring Mauritius was called diva harab ("abandoned island" or "desert island") and Rodrigues diva mashriq ("east island").

The Arabs' ships, the dhows , were tough enough to withstand the violent monsoon storms in the Indian Ocean. From the 7th century until the research trips of the Portuguese Vasco da Gama , the Arabs ruled alone the sea route via the Moluccas to India and China . This marine superiority of the Arabs guaranteed them extensive control over the trade in silk , spices and other exotic goods. The Arabs' trade routes connected East Africa and Madagascar with the Arabian Peninsula , India and Indonesia . The Mascarenes were discovered possibly in the course of a tropical cyclone ; one of the first traditional names for the archipelago comes from an Arab seafarer named Suhliman, who called the islands Tirakka .

Cantino Planisphere, 1502

The Mascarenes , which include Réunion, first appeared on a European nautical chart in 1502, on a copy of an Arabic map by Alberto Cantino ; he referred to Réunion as Dina Margabim , Mauritius as Dina Arobi and Rodrigues as Dina Mozare . Several other Portuguese cartographers also depicted the three islands and thus gave an indication of their earlier discovery by the Arabs. It is also considered likely that Arabs and Malays landed on the neighboring island of Mauritius at the end of the 14th century or beginning of the 15th century, which is also indicated by various inscriptions found there by Europeans later.

Beginnings of colonialism in the Indian Ocean

It was not until 1498 that the Portuguese Vasco da Gama reached the Indian Ocean via the southern tip of Africa , crossed the Mozambique Channel on his way to Kalikut and explored Mozambique and the island of Madagascar. During his short stay in Madagascar, da Gama and his team devastated the city of Kingani in the north of the island and ushered in the era of European colonization of the Indian Ocean.

After the Portuguese, the English , Dutch and French also began to colonize the region, rediscovered the islands and founded branches, using in particular the labor of slaves from Africa and Madagascar.

From discovery to settlement

While exploring the sea routes suitable for the Europeans on the way to India , the Portuguese navigator Pedro Mascarenhas discovered the Mascarenas , later named after him, on February 9, 1512. Just as many other seafarers of the time named their discoveries after the saints of the day of discovery, he also named the island of Réunion after Santa Apollonia in honor of Saint Apollonia .

It was not until more than a hundred years after the discovery, on March 23, 1613, that the English privateer Blackwell (according to other sources a Dutch admiral named Verhuff) set foot on the island and named it England's forest . He described a paradisiacal, untouched island with numerous waterways and lush fauna : turtles , parrots , dodos , lovebirds , ducks , geese , wild boars , eels , all "extremely easy to catch".

On June 25, 1638, the Mascarens were formally claimed for the first time by France. A second formal seizure took place on June 29, 1642, when the French landed at Saint-Paul for the first time on Réunion.

In 1646 twelve mutineers from Fort Dauphin, a small trading post on the sea route to India in southern Madagascar, were abandoned for three years on Réunion. They were returned to Fort Dauphin on September 7, 1649, with some of the exiles reportedly reluctant to return.

The enticing descriptions of the mutineers who had returned drew the interest of the French governor of Madagascar, Étienne de Flacourt , to the island. With the ship Saint Laurent he took possession of Réunion for the third time and named it Île Bourbon ("Bourbon Island") in honor of the French royal house of the Bourbons . He left four heifers and a bull on the island; otherwise the island remained untouched.

In 1654, the Île Bourbon was temporarily settled by petty criminals for the second time.

On November 10, 1663, the Saint Charles anchored off Saint-Paul at the Grotte des Premiers Français . The French occupied the Île Bourbon and made it a full colony of France. The new colony was also the first French settlement in the Indian Ocean.

Compagnie des Indes

Coat of arms of the Compagnie des Indes Orientales with the motto “Florebo quocumque ferar” (Eng. “I bloom wherever I am planted”).

For a century, from 1665 to 1764, the Réunion was administered directly by the Compagnie des Indes ("India Company"), which had received a concession from the French king . In 1665 the first governor of the Île Bourbon, Étienne Régnault , representative of the Compagnie des Indes, took up his duties on the island. The colonial administration built the first settlements for the initially 30 to 35 inhabitants of the island, began to exploit the island's treasures ( turtles , dodos , game  ...) and issued the first trade concessions. The first colony, Camp Jacques, was at the mouth of the Saint-Paul lagoon.

The final starting signal for the colonization of the island was given with the arrival of the first French settlers. They were accompanied by workers from Madagascar who were not officially (yet) slaves (but serviteurs , ie "servants"), but who in fact always had to be at the service of the company's settlers. The first known child was born on the island in 1667, but it is likely that the first Malagasy women who arrived on the island with Louis Payen in 1663 had given birth.

In 1667 Saint-Denis , today's capital of Réunions, and Sainte-Suzanne were founded; by 1671 the population of Île Bourbon rises to 76. In 1674 the survivors of the massacre of Fort Dauphin were taken on the island, which became the only remaining French base on the sea route to India. The island had 150 inhabitants at the time and was forgotten in the motherland for a few years, but continued to prosper.

It was not until 1680 that Father Bernardin tried to draw King Louis XIV's attention back to the Île Bourbon. In 1686 there were 216 inhabitants on Reunion Island, and in 1689 De Vauboulon was sent to the island as the first administrator and legislator. The importance of the Île Bourbon for the sea route to India was only recognized in the mother country around 1700, which caused the population to rise sharply: in 1704 the island already had 734 inhabitants.

Coffee growing on La Reunion

Coffee was grown on the island from 1718 . This began a phase of economic upswing. By 1735, the annual export volume reached 100,000 pounds . Every year 1,500 additional slaves from Africa, India and Madagascar were brought to the island for the coffee plantations.

In 1735, Bertrand François Mahé de la Bourdonnais became the first governor general of the Île Bourbon and the Île de France (now Mauritius). The Île Bourbon gradually lost importance compared to its sister island Île de France. In 1738, instead of Saint-Paul, Saint-Denis became the island's new capital. In 1741 the island's young inhabitants were recruited into India for the war against the British. Coffee production continued to boom: in 1744, 2.5 million pounds were exported and the island already had 2,500 inhabitants.

Between 1756 and 1763, the island served as an important base in the war against the British in India during the Seven Years' War .

Under royal administration

Clove tree

In 1764, after the failure of the Compagnie des Indes, the king bought the Mascarene back. The island experienced a renewed economic boom in the following quarter of a century and was very successful in exporting coffee and especially spices . The most important figure in the spice trade was Pierre Poivre , who introduced numerous new spices. The first cloves were grown on the island in 1772 .

The island's administrative and legal system has also undergone numerous changes. On July 14, 1767, France formally assumed suzerainty over the Mascarenes. In 1768 there were 45,000 slaves and 26,284 free residents on the island. In 1788, shortly before the end of the royal era, 47,195 (free) residents lived on the island.

Time of the revolution and Napoleon on the island

The years of the French Revolution and Napoléon Bonapartes brought a difficult period for the island, particularly because of the numerous aftermath of the wars. In 1789 the colonial assembly formed during the revolution took over administration on the island. Between 1793 and 1795 there was severe food shortage due to the largely collapsed supply from the mother country, which the island population survived with the help of the corsairs .

The revolution also raised the question of a new name for the island. First, in 1793, a name was considered as Île de Jemmapes , after the Battle of Jemappes in 1792. On April 8, 1794, the island was given the name Île de la Réunion instead of the old name - in German about "Island of Gathering" or "Island of Unification" “, After the union of the revolutionaries from Marseilles and the National Guard during the storming of the Tuileries , with which the Bourbon king was driven from the throne. In addition to the name change, the royalist governor was arrested.

Tensions arose when the colonial assembly refused to abolish slavery in 1795, contrary to the guidelines from Paris . In place of a complete abolition of slavery, the assembly only marginally strengthened the rights of slaves. In the same year, the Mountain Party took power on Réunion. In 1796, the Colonial Assembly formally reiterated its refusal to abolish slavery. From 1798, Réunion was regarded by the mother country as "lawless" or " outlawed ". The island was isolated from France in an autonomy , and in 1799 the colonial assembly established a dictatorship on the island .

In 1801, after Napoleon seized power, Réunion came under French control again. Napoleon changed the status of the island again by placing it under a general captain ( capitaine général ) based on the Île de France (Mauritius). The colonial assembly was abolished and slavery was fully reinstated in 1802. In August 1806, the island was renamed Île Bonaparte in honor of Napoleon .

In 1807, several cyclones and other natural disasters devastated all the coffee and clove plantations. The island directed its agriculture towards another, more resilient and still dominant crop: sugar cane .

Occupation by the British

In 1808 the British navy began a blockade of the defenseless island. The British went ashore at Sainte-Rose from August 16-25, 1809 , but were repulsed by the Saint-Benoît National Guard . The British captured Saint-Paul on September 21, but withdrew immediately afterwards.

On July 7, 1810, the British landed again on the island at Grande Chaloupe and moved towards the capital Saint-Denis. On July 8th, the French were defeated in the so-called " Redouten battle" (French bataille de la Redoute ), Réunion capitulated. On July 9, 1810, the island received its old name from the Ancien Régime : Île Bourbon .

The island remained under British occupation until 1815, without this period having left any particular mark on history. On April 6, 1815, the island was returned to the re-established Kingdom of France with the Treaty of Paris . At that time the island had 68,309 inhabitants. The sugar cane plantations had developed well, but the island could no longer meet its own food needs.

The return to France, agreed in 1815, only happened because the island had no port at that time. It has only existed since the creation of a port area in Le Port in the second half of the 19th century .

Restoration and abolition of slavery

In the era of the Restoration , over 45,000 new slaves were brought to the Île Bourbon from 1817 to 1831. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 had formally prohibited the slave trade, but the Bourbons who had returned to the throne tolerated the covert trade. After the July Revolution of 1830, however, the slave trade was vigorously opposed by the July monarchy . The Mackau Laws of 1845, named after the then colonial minister, gave the slaves more rights and thus partially improved their situation.

Edmond Albius with leaves of spiced vanilla

But apart from the slave question, the years have been eventful for the island: in 1820 there was a cholera epidemic on the island . In 1829 a hurricane devastated the island. A Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1831 and a General Council was elected for the first time in 1832 . The discovery of the artificial fertilization of vanilla plants by the slave Edmond Albius in 1841 opened up a new important field of production for agriculture - the famous “ Bourbon vanilla ” conquered the world, because manual fertilization allowed the cultivation and industrial development of real vanilla and brought about the end of the Mexican vanilla monopoly. In 1848, just seven years after Albius' discovery, the island was already exporting 50 kg of vanilla pods to France (50 years later it was 200 tonnes, today production is 30 - 40 tonnes, because the synthetic vanillin often replaces the original) . The population rises to 103,490 by 1848.

The republic is proclaimed on June 9, 1848, and on July 9, the island will again be named Île de la Réunion - this time to symbolize its unity with the French nation. The emancipation of slaves had already been announced on April 27 , but it will be until December 20 that Joseph Napoléon Sébastien Sarda Garriga , Commissioner of the Republic of Réunion, will finally abolish slavery on Réunion and thus be released of all 60,000 slaves proclaimed.

Integration of the former slaves into society

Even after the abolition of slavery, Réunion remained a French colony until 1946. A socio-economic successor concept was also found for slavery, with which the servants of the plantation owners could continue to be enslaved: The engagisme (later also called servilisme ) was developed, which reinforced many new guest workers from the previous slave countries (Madagascar and East Africa, but above all) also India) to Réunion, now on the basis of employment contracts, but only very poorly paid. As a result of this economic immigration, the island's population exploded - the population doubled between 1848 and 1882 alone - and the increasing overpopulation also made it increasingly dependent on rice imports .

On January 1, 1848, 62,151 slaves lived on Réunion, making up 60% of the total population. When they were released on December 20, 1848, they were all given a civil name by the colonial administration, which was added to their previous slave name. The freedmen either stayed with their former owners at their traditional “workplaces”, or they wandered about on the island as poorly paid migrant workers. The former slaves competed on the now "free" labor market with over 100,000 Indians (called malabars , after the Malabar coast in southwest India) and Africans (called cafres , called cafres , who were gradually recruited as part of the above mentioned engagement) to work on the sugar cane plantations . so " Kaffirs ").

In 1849, the island's first universal suffrage was held. On August 8, 1852 Hubert de Lisle became the first new governor after the end of slavery. In 1855, the Natural History Museum ( Musée d'histoire naturelle de la Réunion ) opened in Saint-Denis, the first large museum on the island. In 1859 the island was ravaged by cholera and smallpox epidemics; In the same year the systematic immigration of Africans ended. In 1860 the island already had 179,190 inhabitants. On April 21st the town hall ( hôtel de ville ) was inaugurated in Saint-Denis . In 1865 a typhus epidemic broke out. In 1868 there was a major fire in Salazie . In the same year a riot broke out in Saint-Denis, whereupon a state of siege was declared for six months .

In 1870 the population of the island was 193,360. On October 22nd, a Creole volunteer corps was sent to Europe for the war against Germany . In 1878 work began on the construction of a new port (now Le Port ) and a railway . The first railway line from Saint-Benoît to Saint-Denis was opened on February 11, the second from Saint-Louis to Saint-Pierre on June 19, 1882. In 1885, the recruitment of labor from India also ended. On February 14, 1886, the artificial port at the Pointe des Galets (now Le Port) was put into operation. In 1894, with the completion of the Pont suspendu ( suspension bridge ) over the Rivière de l'Est, the far east of the island was also opened up for traffic. By 1897, after the end of systematic immigration, the population had fallen to 173,190.

In 1900 the first motor vehicle was brought to the island. In 1901 the island exported 41,500 tons of sugar cane. In 1907 the seaside resort of Saint-Gilles burned down completely, in 1910 the Lycée de la Réunion in Saint-Denis (rebuilt today as the Lycée Leconte de Lisle). In 1911, the two Creole intellectuals Marius and Ary Leblond created the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Musée Léon Dierx). In 1913 the Académie von Réunion was set up, which brought together and coordinated all educational institutions on the island.

In 1914 there was bloody unrest in the elections for the National Assembly with 14 dead and 300 injured. After the outbreak of World War I , Creoles again served in the French army in Europe.

After the First World War, exports to Europe increased again strongly - 1923 were from Reunion among others sugar , vanilla, manioc , rose geranium oil , ylang-ylang -Oil, Vetyver , coffee, cocoa , tea , tobacco , various nuts , aloe , maize , Fruits and vegetables exported. In 1925 a regular passenger shipping line was established between Marseille and Le Port. In December 1936, mail was first transported by air between Le Bourget and Gillot Airport in Saint-Denis.

After the Second World War

After the Second World War , Réunion was integrated into the newly founded Fourth Republic on March 19, 1946 as an overseas department ( département d'outre-mer ) and thus as an integral part of France . This départementalisation ended the colonial period on Réunion and triggered a strong modernization and accelerated economic and social development of the island.

In particular, the economic upheavals in the second half of the 20th century are considerable: the colonial plantation economy is being replaced by a Western European-inspired consumer society , but the economy on Réunion itself remains fragile and unbalanced, with an inflated tertiary sector - a situation caused by the substantial social transfers (same social standards as in metropolitan France) will be tightened even further. The population tripled in fifty years, rising from 227,000 in 1946 to 770,000 in 2005.

In 1948, a hurricane devastated large parts of the island with winds of 300 km / h, leaving 165 dead and damage amounting to three billion CFA francs . With the entry into force of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, Réunion became part of the European Economic Community (later the EC). The population was 354,294 in 1962.

On May 6, 1963, Michel Debré was elected to the National Assembly for the first time by the people of Réunion. In the following years, Debré organized an unprecedented resettlement of over 1000 children, which is still highly controversial, to the French mainland, who are torn from their families in order to reinforce underpopulated departments (e.g. Creuse ).

The Takamaka storage power plant was opened in 1964 . In 1965 a separate arrondissement was established in the south of the island with Saint-Pierre, the economic center of the south of the island, as the capital. On January 1, 1975, the Réunion Franc was replaced by the French Franc in order to strengthen the economic integration in the mother country. In 1976 the Catholic Church established its own diocese on Réunion; Gilbert Aubry became the first bishop of Réunion . On March 5, 1976, after a construction period of 29 months, the 11.7 km long and 230 million francs costing coastal road from Saint-Denis to La Possession was opened. In 1978 the first Indian Ocean Games took place on Réunion.

The decentralization reforms of Interior Minister Gaston Defferre under the new Socialist President François Mitterrand made the overseas department of Réunion at the same time an overseas region ( région d'outre-mer ) in 1982 . As the first regional council of France, that of Réunion was elected directly by the people on March 2, 1983. On January 1, 1996, under the new Gaullist President Jacques Chirac, the social system on Réunion was finally brought into line with that in metropolitan France. With the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, Réunion received a special status within the European Union as the “outermost region of the Union” ( région ultra-périphérique ) with various trade facilities to promote the economy. In 1999 the population of Réunion rose to over 700,000.

literature

John H. Parry : European colonial empires - world trade and world domination in the 18th century . Ed .: Egidius Schmalzriedt. Kindler Verlag, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-463-13686-4 .

Web links

Commons : History of Réunions  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website about the history of Réunion (French and partly English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John H. Parry : European colonial empires - world trade and world domination in the 18th century . Ed .: Egidius Schmalzriedt. Kindler Verlag, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-463-13686-4 , p.  664 .
2. ↑ Karina Friedrich and Anja Stubbe: Flora and Fauna of Mauritius and La Reunion.Retrieved on November 26, 2017.