fco_423602 - ÎLES DE FRANCE ET BOURBON - PREMIER EMPIRE - GÉNÉRAL DECAEN 1 Piastre (de 10 livres) Decaen 1810 Port-Louis

FRENCH ISLANDS AND BOURBON - FIRST EMPIRE - DECAEN GENERAL

(1810)

The islands of Mauritius and Reunion were discovered by the Portuguese Pedro Mascarenhas in 1507. Mauritius was occupied by the Dutch from 1638. The French seized it in 1715 and the island received the name of Ile de France. The Compagnie des Indes settled in Port Louis in 1720. In 1810, the island was occupied by the English and became an English colony after the Treaties of Paris in 1814 and 1815. Bourbon Island was colonized by the French between 1638 and 1646 then granted first to the Compagnie des Indes Orientales founded on August 27, 1664, then to the Compagnie Française des Indes in 1719. Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen (13/04/1769 - 9/09/1832), general in the Army of the Rhine, was appointed Captain-General of the French establishments in India in 1802. He had to withdraw to the Ile de France (or Bonaparte). It also administers Réunion and the Seychelles. He must nevertheless capitulate on December 2, 1810 and evacuate Bonaparte Island after having obtained guarantees for the inhabitants of the islands..