History History

An underwater volcano emerges from a hot spot under the Indian Ocean, gradually forming an underwater mountain that is approaching the surface of the ocean.

Volcanic activity continues once the surface is reached, with incessant eruptions of what is now called the Piton des Neiges, which fell asleep about 15,000 years ago.

It was around 1186 that the first account by an Arab geographer named Edressi mentions an island with intense volcanic activity: La Réunion, known as Zanj. Around the ^15th century, trading ships of the Swahili, descendants of Arabs, named Reunion Dina Morgabim (West Island).

In the year 1488, the Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias discovered the passage to the south of Africa which opened the way to the Indian Ocean. In the year 1500, Diogo Dias, a former companion of Vasco de Gama, surprised by a storm, got lost in the Indian Ocean. His wandering led him to the rediscovery of Mauritius, Reunion Island and Madagascar.

He was followed in 1516 by the Portuguese Pedro de Mascarenhas who, on his way back from the Indies to Madagascar, saw the archipelago formed by Reunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues, which he named after him: Mascarene Islands. For a century, the Portuguese, Spanish, English and Dutch made brief stops on the island without ever trying to conquer it.

It was at this time when the islands of the Indian Ocean were only places where ships could stop, that Louis XIII and Cardinal de Richelieu showed a particular interest in Madagascar and its region, which was likely to ensure the influence of France. A French fleet commanded by the Saint-Alexis stopped en route and docked Mascarin at La Possession on 29 June 1638 (a controversial date) and took possession of the island the next day in the present-day town of Saint-Paul (saint celebrated on 30 June). In order to officialize the presence of France, Jacques Pronis, governor of Fort-Dauphin in Madagascar, seized the island a second time in 1642 and installed a plaque bearing the king's coat of arms

In 1646, a revolt broke out in the trading post of Fort-Dauphin (Madagascar), whose governor, Jacques Pronis, was very little appreciated. As punishment, he had the twelve mutineers deported to Reunion Island. They were deposited in the East and travelled around the island for three years, until Étienne de Flacourt, the new governor of Fort-Dauphin, brought them back. Their stories even made it possible to draw up the first map of the island. Flacourt regained possession of the island for a third time in the name of the king and named it Île Bourbon in reference to the royal family.

Thirteen contract workers from Fort-Dauphin, six Malagasy and seven French, led by Antoine Taureau nicknamed "Couillard", were deposited on the island on September 22, 1654 at the place called "l'Habitation des Français" which corresponds to the bay of Saint-Paul. They set out again in 1658 on an English ship and the island became deserted again.

A group of twelve, two Frenchmen, including Louis Payen, and ten Madagascans, including three women, were deposited in the bay of Saint-Paul to begin a definitive settlement of the island. They are left with seeds, goats, pigs and tools to settle

On July 9, 1665, twenty other travellers, led by Étienne Regnault, the island's first governor, joined them and settled in the Old Saint-Paul district. The management of the island was then entrusted to the Compagnie orientale des Indes de Colbert. A state-controlled company with a total commercial monopoly within French lands in the Indian Ocean, it had extensive powers in terms of territorial organisation, collection and taxes, and in return had to educate and evangelise the population. With the arrival of French, Madagascan, Indian and Portuguese women, brought by the Company's ships, mixed marriages and crossbreeding began. But France was then involved in many conflicts, and the young Compagnie des Indes soon began to stagnate. In 1686, the island had 260 inhabitants.

The introduction of a few coffee plants from Moka in Yemen by the Falklands in 1715 gave Bourbon its first boom. Known for a long time in Arab countries, coffee became very fashionable in Europe. The Company promoted its cultivation by distributing concessions on the mid-height slopes. The need for manpower leads to the explosion of the slave trade from Madagascar and East Africa. In seventy-five years, the population is multiplied by 50. The towns of Saint-Gilles, Saint-Leu, Saint-Louis and Saint-Pierre are created, becoming huge coffee granaries. In 1744, 1 222 t of coffee are harvested. At that time, the big owners gradually crush the small ones, swallowing their land. Thus began a generation of poor whites, quickly ostracized by society and pushed to the heights, where they tried to survive by growing food crops, the lower ones being devoted to speculative crops. They are called the Little Whites of the Tops or Yabs .

At the crossroads of the route des Indes, Bourbon Island attracts pirates and forbans, especially as their hunt is tough in the Caribbean. Those who refuse amnesty and sedentarization find refuge in the waters of the Indian Ocean

The installation of English and Dutch pirates on Bourbon is almost appreciated by the population, for the contribution of goods, cheaper or untraceable (mirrors, fabrics, jewelry, weapons ...). Successive governors of the island have favoured amnesty and the transfer of land in order to tie up these new repentant pirates and benefit from their experience as sailors. The most famous of the time: Olivier Levasseur, known as " la Buse ", and his English friend Taylor

Mahé de Labourdonnais is appointed governor of Bourbon and Ile de France (Mauritius). He remodelled the layout of both îles : Bourbon became the granary of the archipelago while its big sister took on the role of maritime crossroads of trade. He developed the infrastructures of Bourbon: roads were opened, warehouses built, ports erected. Agriculture expands and diversifies, with the introduction of new species. In 1738 the chief town was moved from Saint-Paul to Saint-Denis.

The French Revolution had an impact on the island, albeit with a time lag due to distance. In 1794, the first sans-culottes arrived in Réunion. Communes were created, and elected deputies left to represent the colony at the Constituent Assembly in Paris. The Convention changed the name of Bourbon Island to Reunion on March 19, 1793, in honor of the Marseillais and National Guards who had stormed the Tuileries on August 10, 1792. At this time, the English were prowling the region, making frequent attacks on the Mascareignes and Seychelles. Reunion suffered its first enemy attacks in 1806 and 1807. Disunited, threatened and hit by major cyclones in 1806 and 1807, which destroyed numerous coffee plantations, Réunion fell into disarray.

After briefly taking possession of Saint-Paul in 1809, the English attacked Saint-Denis on July 7, 1810. They landed at several points on the north-western coast, holding the capital in a vice-like grip, with the southern contingent taking the path now known as the "Chemin des Anglais". This strategy enabled them to catch the French infantry off-guard, and win the decisive Battle of La Redoute. Commander Keating's army captured the island in two days. Sir Robert Farquhar, the first English governor, renamed the island Bourbon. The Isle of France (Mauritius), however, had a more extensive military presence, given its strategic position: the British captured it in November 1810 after several months of fierce fighting. It was renamed Mauritius. In just a few years, the three Mascarene islands and the Seychelles passed to the English.

In 1815, the island became French again (and took on the name Réunion) under article 8 of the Treaty of Paris signed on May 30, 1814, following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. England retained Mauritius, Rodrigues and the Seychelles.

In 1785, Louis Lainé de Beaulieu created the first Bourbon sugar mill. It operated with a horizontal wheel, modeled on Saint-Domingue, another sugar colony of the French Empire, and produced 20 t of sugar a day. From 1815 onwards, Bourbon Island devoted itself almost exclusively to growing sugar cane, for one major reason: the cyclones of 1806 and 1807 had devastated the coffee trees, and sugar cane was a more resistant crop to the island's climatic conditions. A veritable industry was set up, and the need for manpower was immediately felt: between 1828 and 1885, there was massive Tamil Indian immigration and, in 1844, the arrival of Chinese farm workers. The island's population rose from 36,000 in 1778 to 110,000 in 1848. Large sugar estates were built to the detriment of smallholdings. Over the years, food crops were abandoned and the balance of trade went into deficit, as Réunion was forced to import rice and wheat from Madagascar.

Sarda Garriga, the king's emissary, disembarked in October 1848 to announce the abolition of slavery. A double movement began: the brown slaves, freed from fear, came down from the Hauts to rent their services to the large landowners, while many small white farmers, ruined, fled to the Hauts to avoid finding themselves in the same rank as the former slaves. To make up for this defection, another phenomenon naturally follows from abolition: the planters call on a labour force " engagée ", recruited in Africa and especially in India. These workers, who receive a modest salary and live in conditions akin to slavery, are hired for five to ten years. In 1860, Reunion Island had 74 472 hired workers. Paradoxically, the 1850s were the most prosperous years in terms of trade: under the Creole governor Henri-Hubert Delisle, sugar manufacturers doubled their production, maritime traffic intensified, and the bourgeoisie built sumptuous residences.

Sugar crisis. In 1863, a disease, the borer, rages on plantations : it is due to a caterpillar that digs galleries in the stems. At the same time, a cholera epidemic struck the island's inhabitants. To make matters worse, the world price of sugar falls. With Napoleon III and his economic liberalism, Reunion Island loses its monopoly and its guarantees, and production drops by half compared to 1862. Victim of its monoculture, the island plunges into the longest crisis in its history. To face it, the diversification of the cultures is begun with the production of vanilla, manioc, essences of geranium, vetiver and ylang-ylang. Vanilla initially proved to be very lucrative, but once the secret of the process was introduced in Madagascar, competition became fierce and weakened local production

On August 2, 1914, the bugle in Saint-Denis sounded the declaration of war. Thousands of volunteers turned out at once to defend the motherland: 14,423 Réunionese were sent to the front, catapulted into the darkness of the trenches of northeastern France. Reunion Island, 10,000 km away, also felt the full force of the conflict when the Germans blockaded European ports, plunging the island into autarky, scarcity and misery. Of the 14,000 soldiers from Reunion who enlisted, 3,000 did not return.

The First World War was barely over when a new scourge hit the world: the Spanish flu. It is the demobilized soldiers who bring it to the island. To make matters worse, a cyclone swept through the island in May 1919 : a total of 7,500 deaths in one month and demi ! Some good news will nevertheless mark the inter-war period. Electricity was presented for the first time at a reception at Saint-Denis town hall in 1919. The first radio show was broadcast in 1927, and Saint-Denis experienced its first traffic jams

It was on 17 June 1940 that the people of Reunion Island learned with amazement of France's defeat. Governor Aubert decided to stick to the law by obeying Vichy orders. He was forced to replace twenty-three of the island's mayors with men appointed by Pétain's forces. The English ships made it impossible for Vichy ships to sail, and the shortage was even worse on the island, which was totally isolated. In 1942, the regime was overthrown by a commando of Gaullists in Saint-Denis. Two days later, a new governor who had rallied to Free France was in place. The Liberation is welcomed in popular jubilation.

On March 19, 1946, Réunion became a department in the same way as Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana. It was subject to the same administrative, fiscal, electoral and judicial regime as the departments of mainland France. Reunion hoped for an economic revival, but it wasn't until the 1950s that the economic benefits of departmentalization were felt: sugar production quadrupled between 1946 and 1961.

In 1963, Michel Debré, former Prime Minister under General de Gaulle, became deputy for Réunion. He promoted modernization: the first local broadcasts appeared on the small screen in 1964, the University of Saint-Denis opened in 1970, the CFA franc was replaced by the French franc in 1975, the coastal road was inaugurated in 1976... But his denial of local culture was hotly contested. Between 1963 and 1982, he even deported some 1,600 children from Reunion to repopulate the Creuse department.

These years were marked by the first urban riots, in the Chaudron district, following the seizure of the clandestine transmitter of Télé Free Dom, banned by the CSA. The causes: unemployment, degraded urban planning, exclusion, trafficking and delinquency... In 1996 the SMIC and all social and family benefits were aligned with those in metropolitan France, with the notable exception of the RMI.

The elements seem to be unleashed on the island: in 2006, the chikungunya crisis hit the Indian Ocean. The media coverage of the phenomenon will immediately cause the tourism sector to lose a third of its clientele. In 2007, Cyclone Gamede caused major damage, then an exceptional eruption of the Furnace, with a volume of lava unequalled for decades, cut the road for several months and disrupted the morphology of the Dolomieu crater.

With the economic crisis, the social climate is increasingly unstable. Social movements are breaking out, accompanied by urban riots, which materialize in strikes and marches, but also blocked roundabouts, pebbles and burnt cars. In question: the high cost of living, due in particular to the price of fuel, unemployment and subsidized jobs.

This is the year of political change. The president of the region, Paul Vergès (PCR), loses his position after twelve years at the helm of La Réunion to Didier Robert (UMP). At the end of the year, 40% of the island's territory is classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Beginning of the shark crisis: an upsurge in shark attacks occurred when they had been rare for years, putting Réunion Island in the spotlight. With eighteen attacks between 2011 and 2015, including seven fatalities (five surfers and two swimmers), they have led to an island-wide ban on surfing and the closure of schools, as well as a ban on swimming on some of the most beautiful beaches

The end of 2018 was strongly marked by the yellow vest crisis. Reunion Islanders gathered in large numbers to express their disagreement with the rise in fuel prices and the high cost of living.

The year 2020 was marked by the health crisis linked to the Coronavirus. Reunion, like mainland France, remained confined for two months. The municipal elections took place against this unprecedented backdrop.

In November, the Maïdo forest was ravaged by terrible fires, with more than 35 hectares perishing in the flames.

For the people of Reunion, 2022 marks a return to "normal" life after two years of the Covid-19 health crisis.

Presidential election 2022. La France insoumise candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon comes out on top in the first round. Emmanuel Macron is re-elected with 58.8% of the vote in the second round. Marine Le Pen comes out on top in Réunion with 59.57% of the vote.

Cyclones Batsirai and Emnati. In February 2022, two violent cyclones hit Réunion within a fortnight of each other. In both cases, a red alert was issued. Damage to farms was estimated at 47 million euros.

Belal. Avec des vents dépassant les 250 km/h, ce cyclone qui traverse La Réunion le 15 janvier, fait quatre morts et d'énormes dégâts. Le montant s'élève à 100 millions d'euros (42 100 sinistres), faisant de lui le deuxième cyclone le plus coûteux à La Réunion, après Dina en 2002.

JO 2024. La Réunionnaise Johanne Defay décroche la médaille de bronze à Teahupoo (Tahiti). Une première en surf pour la France dans l'histoire des Jeux olympiques.