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Mauritius is a small island in the Indian Ocean about the size of 2,048 square kilometers, and isocated about 2036 kilometers off the southeast coast of Africa. The formal name of the country is the Republic of Mauritius and its citizens are called Mauritians.The Caapital city of the country is Port Luis. Mauritius includes the island of Rodriguez, which is about 600 km east of Mauritius as well as other uninhabited corallines islands. Given Mauritius strategic location in the Indian Ocean and it fertile land, it was a focal point of control by the colonial powers during the colonization era. The French were the first to take control of the country early in the 18th century, precisely in1715, and established sugar plantations as well as a naval base to boost its trade in and around the Indian Ocean. A century later, the British overturned the French and occupied Mauritius until its independence in 1968. Since Independence, Mauritius has established a stable democracy, a prosperous economy, and has set the path to becoming a pioneer in computer hardware manufacturing in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, Mauritians are one of highest income earners in sub-Saharan Africa.
The geographical landform of Mauritius is comprised of coastal plain, which rise into broken rings of mountain ranges with encircled plateaus. The natural resources of the country consist mainly of arable land and fish. Almost half of Mauritius’s land is arable according to the CIA World fact book, and as of 2003, 220 sq km of land was irrigated (The World Factbook 2009. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2009.).
The population of Mauritius as of July 2010 is 1,294,104, and about 2/3 of the population is between the ages of 15 and 64. The life expectancy at birth of Mauritians is higher than any other country in the sub-Saharan Africa and is almost comparable to the life expectancies in the developed countries. Men have an average life expectancy of 70 years and women’s about 77 years. This fact is by itself a great asset for the country. Furthermore, the population of Mauritius is categorized into four ethnic groups. The first ethnic group is the Indo-Mauritian who represents the majority, which is about 65% of the population and came from the Indian subcontinent, and is comprised of two different religious groups: Hindus who represent 49% and Muslims who represent about 16%. The second group is the Creoles, who are of African descent and represent about 27% of the population. The third group is the Sino-Mauritian who represents 3% of the Population and came from Hunan in China, and the last group is the European ethnic group or the Franco-Mauritians, who are mostly of French descent and represent about 2% of the population. This last group and the Creoles are declared as the general population by the government (The Library of Congress Online Catalog).
Given the diversity of the population, six languages are spoken in the country, which are: Creole, French, English, Bhojpuri, Hindi and Tamil. The most spoken language of all is the Creole, which is spoken by more than 80% of the population; however, English is the official language and is only spoken by 1% of the population according to the CIA World fact book (The World Factbook 2009. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2009.).
Education in Mauritius is patterned on the British system and is provided free by the government all the way through university level. The overall literacy rate of the population is 84.4 % in the year 2000 census (The World Factbook 2009. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2009.).
The government of Mauritius is based on a parliamentary democracy system and is divided in three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. In the executive branch, the president who is also the chief of state and the vice president are both elected every five years by the members of the legislative branch, also known as the National Assembly. The president in turn appoints a prime minister who is the head of the government and a deputy prime minister, and both the prime minister and his or her deputy are responsible to the National Assembly. The current president of the Mauritius is Anerood JUGNAUTH who has been president since October 2003.
The National Assembly seats 70 members among whom 62 are elected by popular vote and the remaining eight are appointed by the election commission to represent the four different ethnic groups in the country. Lastly the judicial branch independent from the two branches and is headed by the Supreme Court. Mauritius is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and the African Union. It entertains good and solid relations with United Kingdom, France, and India. It also has growing trade relations with China, Japan, and Hong Kong. However, Mauritius is not in very good terms with the United States, because of the American military base in Diego Garcia Island, which is claimed by Mauritius (The Library of Congress Online Catalog).
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