Franco-Mauritians are people of mainly French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 origin who reside in Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

. They number more than 24,000.

Origins

The first French settlers arrived in Mauritius (then Isle de France) in 1722, after the previous attempts of settlement by the Dutch had failed, and the island had once again become abandoned. They lived and prospered on the island, ruling it until the British invasion of 1810. The French by now strongly identified with the island, and the terms of capitulation allowed the settlers to live on as a distinct francophone ethnic group for the next 158 years under British rule before Mauritius attained independence.

See also

• Paul Bérenger
  Paul Bérenger
  Paul Raymond Bérenger GCSK MP is the Leader of the Opposition of Mauritius and former Prime Minister of the Republic. Bérenger, who is a Christian of French descent, is the only Prime Minister of Mauritius who was not a Hindu....
  
  , notable Franco-Mauritian and former Prime Minister of Mauritius
• Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais
  Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais
  Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais was a French naval officer and administrator, in the service of the French East India Company.-Biography:...
  
  ,French Naval Officer and Governor of Mauritius 1735 to 1746
• J. M. G. Le Clézio a french author from Franco-Mauritian origins, awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature.
• Indo-Mauritian
  Indo-Mauritian
  Indo-Mauritians are people of Indian descent living on the island of Mauritius, where they represent a majority comprising 68% of the population according to the July 2007 statistics...
  
  
• Sino-Mauritian
  Sino-Mauritian
  Sino-Mauritians, also referred to as Chinese Mauritians or Mauritian Chinese, are Mauritians of Chinese descent. They form about 3% of the local population.-Migration history:...
  
  
• Mauritian Creole people
  Mauritian Creole People
  Mauritian Creole people are the people of African and Malagasy origin who live in Mauritius. However, the Creole people today also includes minorities of people that have both African and Malagasy origins with Indian, Chinese, French and/or British backgrounds....
  
  
• Mauritian Creole
  Mauritian Creole
  Mauritian Creole is a French-based creole language spoken in Mauritius. In addition to the French base of the language, there are also some words from English and from the many African and Asian languages that have been spoken on the island.- Sociolinguistic Situation :Mauritian Creole is the...