The island group was uninhabited until the 16th century when it was occupied by a small Dutch force that named it after Prince Maurice of Nassau. It was abandoned in 1710 and then re-occupied five years later by the French who imported African slaves to work on the sugar plantations. Mauritius and its neighbouring islands were then captured by the British in 1810 and formally ceded by the 1814 Treaty of Paris. After the abolition of slavery in the 1830s, Indian labourers were imported and their descendants now comprise more than two-thirds of the population. Incorporated into the British Empire, Mauritius remained a colony until 1957, when it was granted internal self-government with an electoral system based on the Westminster model.

Dr (later Sir) Seewoosagur Ramgoolam's Labour Party came to power. Full independence was granted in 1968, but the British kept a number of smaller islands which were hived off as the British Indian Ocean Territory. These included Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos archipelago, which has been leased to the USA and now hosts a large naval and air force facility, playing a key role in both the 1991 Gulf War and the 2001 Afghanistan conflict. The presumed maltreatment of the former inhabitants, who had been expelled to make way for the new base, was the subject of an interim settlement in the English courts in 2000 under which some of the former inhabitants may in principle be able to return to part of the archipelago.

Post-independence Mauritian politics have been dominated by Ramgoolam, and then by the two principal figures of the Mauritian left, Paul Bérenger and (later Sir) Anerood Jugnauth. The charismatic Bérenger was a dramatic contrast to the cautious, pragmatic Jugnauth, and the focus of the Mauritian political scene has often been the personal and political clash between the two.

Both rose to prominence in the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM) which emerged as the principal opposition to Ramgoolam's coalition governments of the late 1960s and 1970s. These administrations were dominated by Ramgoolam's own Mauritian Labour Party (MLP) and the Parti Mauricien Social Démocratique (PMSD) led by Gaetan Duval. Growing disillusionment with Ramgoolam brought the MMM to power, in alliance with the Parti Socialiste Mauricien, with a landslide victory at the 1982 general election. Political disagreement and personality clashes characterised the administration and the Government was fortunate to struggle through most of its term.

Jugnauth had by now left the MMM to form the Mouvement Socialiste Mauricien (MSM) and fought the 1987 election campaign in alliance with the Labour Party and the Social Democrats. The three-party alliance won the poll. The coalition dissolved in 1990 and a new alliance between the MMM and Jugnauth's ruling MSM was formed to fight the 1991 election: the strategy proved a success and a MSM/MMM government was elected. The alliance suffered an acrimonious split in 1993 but Jugnauth had by then succeeded in his main objectives of transforming Mauritius into a republic within the Commonwealth and, more importantly, establishing conditions for steady economic growth which were maintained throughout his term.

It was a considerable surprise, therefore, when at the next election in December 1995, Jugnauth was defeated by an alliance of Bérenger's MMM and the MLP, now led by Navin Ramgoolam (son of Sir Seewoosagur), which made a clean sweep of the parliamentary seats. However, once again, disputes between the coalition partners escalated, until June 1997 when Bérenger was dismissed from the Government and the MMM withdrew from the coalition. Ramgoolam put together an MLP cabinet and personally took on Bérenger's responsibility for foreign policy. The MLP government managed to see out its full term but suffered grievously at the hands of the electorate who in September 2000 returned an MMM/MSM coalition under the now-veteran Anerood Jugnauth with all but eight of the National Assembly's 62 seats.

Government: Under constitutional amendments that came into effect in March 1992, Mauritius is now a republic. Legislative power rests with the unicameral 62-seat National Assembly, which is elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term. Eight additional members are also appointed from among the defeated candidates to ensure an ethnic balance in the Assembly. The National Assembly elects the President of the republic who is Head of State. The President appoints the Prime Minister from the Assembly and other ministers on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.