History of Mauritius

The history of Mauritius begins with its possible, though undocumented, discovery by Austronesians under the Austronesian expansion from pre-Han Taiwan, circa 1500 to 1000 BC, and then controversially by Arabs, asdocumented on Portuguese maps, followed by Portuguese and its appearance on European maps in the early 16th century. Mauritius was successively colonized by the Netherlands, France and Great Britain, and became independent on 12 March 1968.