History of Mauritius |
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Portuguese |
Dutch |
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French (1710–1810) |
British (1810–1968) |
Independence (1968) |
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Specific themes |
The 1967 Port Louis riots refer to a series of violent clashes and looting in the city of Port Louis, Mauritius.
The 07 August 1967 General Elections were held to determine the nation's support for independence from the British. In the afternoon of the election day fighting broke out between Muslims against Creoles and Chinese in Constituency No. 3 (Port Louis Maritime and East). Mohamed's Muslim supporters of CAM clashed against Ah Chuen's Chinese and Duval's Creoles of PMSD. [1] CAM supporters destroyed PMSD's cars, blocked roads and rumoured that CAM's Ibrahim Dawood was no longer running for office. Retaliation by PMSD soon followed as they burnt down a house and many civilians were assaulted. [2] The Police Riot Unit (PRU) and Special Mobile Force (SMF) had to intervene and tear gas was used to bring the crowds under control. [3]
The government of Mauritius dismissed 10,000 relief workers and soon protesters started to demonstrate in the streets of Port Louis to protest against the loss of their jobs. For 5 months leading to the August 1967 elections the Labour government had boosted the number of relief workers by more than 60% (from 19,290 to 30,887). [2] They had been waiting at Line Barracks (Police Headquarters) for their pay. The protesters damaged police vehicles, blocked roads and threw rocks at the police. 73 protesters were eventually arrested.
In early October 1967 teenagers assembled at the Employment Exchange in Port Louis to express their interests in finding employment. However the office was soon ransacked and destroyed by the angry crowd. They blocked roads and armed police had to intervene to restore peace. [4]
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about 2,000 kilometres off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island, as well as Rodrigues, Agaléga, and St. Brandon. The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, along with nearby Réunion, are part of the Mascarene Islands. The main island of Mauritius, where population is concentrated, hosts the capital and largest city, Port Louis. The country spans 2,040 square kilometres (790 sq mi) and has an exclusive economic zone covering 2,300,000 square kilometres.
The known history of Mauritius begins with its discovery by Arabs and Malays, followed by Europeans and its appearance on maps in the early 16th century. Mauritius was successively colonized by the Netherlands, France and Great Britain, and became independent on 12 March 1968.
Since 1967, Mauritius has experienced 12 free and fair democratic general elections to choose a government.
The Mauritian Social Democratic Party, also known as the Mauritian Conservative Party, is a political party in Mauritius. It is conservative and Francophilic. It is the fourth biggest political party in the National Assembly and forms part of Opposition.
Sir Abdool Razack Mohamed was an Indian-born former senior Mauritian Minister in the pre and post-independence cabinet of Mauritius.
Dev Virahsawmy was a Mauritian politician, playwright, poet and advocate of the Mauritian Creole language. Though he wrote easily in both French and English, Virahsawmy was most renowned for his efforts to popularise the use of Creole.
General elections were held in Mauritius on 7 August 1967. Ethnic violence broke out in Port Louis between Muslims who were opposed against Creoles and Chinese. Anti-riot police used tear gas to restore peace.
The Jordanian protests were a series of protests in Jordan that began in January 2011, and resulted in the firing of the cabinet ministers of the government. In its early phase, protests in Jordan were initially against unemployment, inflation, corruption. along with demanding for real constitutional monarchy and electoral reforms.
The Muslim Committee of Action, also known as the Comité d'Action Musulman or Comité d'Action Mauricien (CAM) was a political party in Mauritius.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Port Louis on the island of Mauritius.
The 1968 Mauritian riots refers to a number of violent clashes that occurred in the Port Louis neighbourhoods of Bell Village, Roche Bois, St. Coix Cité Martial and Plaine Verte in Mauritius over a period of ten days, six weeks before the country's declaration of independence on 12 March 1968. The riot was the result of communal conflict between Creoles and Indo-Mauritian Muslims, and had its roots in gang warfare and concerns arising from the country's future following independence.
The 1999 Mauritian riots were national-scale rioting and protests in Mauritius following the death of the popular "seggae" musician Joseph Réginald Topize, better known by his stage name "Kaya", in police custody. The rioting lasted for four days from 21 to 25 February 1999. Four civilians and one police officer were killed in the riots with hundreds of people suffering injuries. It was the first incidence of mass rioting in Mauritius since the country's 1968 riots. The riots resulted in a majority of the island's police stations being sacked by protesters with 250 prisoners escaping prison. Many businesses were looted and substantial property damage was done with over 200 vehicles being set on fire.
Sir Charles Gaëtan Duval QC was a barrister, statesman and politician from Mauritius who was the leader of the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD).
Maurice Curé (1886-1977) was one of the founders of the Labour Party in Mauritius in 1936.
The 1965 Mauritius race riots in Trois Boutiques refers to a number of violent clashes that started in the village of Trois Boutiques, Souillac on 10 May 1965 and progressed to the historic village of Mahébourg. The unrest eventually led to the declaration of a nationwide State of Emergency on what was then a British colony. This was well before the subsequent 1966 riots and 1968 riots associated with the 1967 elections which preceded the country's independence of 12 March 1968. The first two victims of the riots were Police Constable Jacques Pierre Clément Beesoo and civilian Robert Brousse de Laborde in Trois Boutiques. News of the Trois Boutiques murders spread to surrounding areas. In the coastal historic village of Mahébourg a Creole gang assaulted the Hindu and Muslim spectators who were watching a Hindustani movie at Cinéma Odéon. Mahébourg police recorded nearly 100 complaints of assaults on Indo-Mauritians.
The 1911 Curepipe riots refer to violent clashes which broke out in the historic town of Curepipe and then spread to Port Louis on the island of Mauritius on 19 January 1911. The riots also came to be known as Election Rabble Riots of 1911 by the administrators in London.
The Independence Party was the name of a coalition of 3 major political parties on the island of Mauritius in the 1960s and 1970s. It was also commonly known as Parti de L'indépendance.
The 1975 Mauritian student protest riots refer to a students' protest marches which turned violent in various parts of the island of Mauritius, Indian Ocean on Tuesday 20 May 1975.
The 1999 L'Amicale Riots started in the evening of Sunday 23 May 1999 in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius after angry supporters of Scouts Club vandalised several buildings as their team had lost a match against rival soccer club Fire Brigade. A few hours later a gambling house called L'Amicale caught fire, causing the death of seven individuals who were trapped inside. This example of football hooliganism became known as L'Affaire L' Amicale in the years following the original riots.