Independence of Mauritius

Mauritius gained independence from the United Kingdom on 12 March 1968. The independence process was the culmination of a long struggle involving a number of political parties. Most notably the Mauritius Labour Party (MLP) and the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD).

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s a movement for independence from the United Kingdom grew in a movement driven by multiple Mauritian political parties.

In 1960, Harold Macmillan had made his famous "Wind of Change Speech" in the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town in which he acknowledged that the best option for Britain was to give complete independence to its colonies. Thus, since the late fifties, the way was paved for independence.

At the 1965 Lancaster House Constitutional Conference, it became clear that Britain wanted to relieve itself of the colony of Mauritius. At the conference it was agreed that independence would be granted if a newly elected Mauritian government, under a newly established Mauritian constitution, passed a resolution for independence by a simple majority in the Mauritian parliament.

The General Election was held in 1967 with the pro-independence coalition of political parties winning 54% of the vote. Following the 1967 election the newly formed Mauritian government government was formed and passed an independence bill in the Mauritian Parliament. Mauritius experienced a period of instability in the days running up to the declaration resulting in the 1968 Mauritian riots before order was restored by the British authorities. On 12 March 1968 independence was officially declared at a ceremony at the Champ de Mars Racecourse.

Chagos Archipelago
Prior to independence the British government detached the Chagos Archipelago from the Mauritius' administrative boundaries and established as a new British territory in the form of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and paid GB£3 million (roughly equivalent to £148.7 million in 2022 ) to Mauritius in compensation. Prior to this the archipelago was officially within the colonial era boundaries of Mauritius. This was done to allow the United States to build a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago. The MLP, who were leading the independence negotiations, did not object to the transferral of the archipelago or its depopulation during independence negotiations as they feared it might reduce the chances of Britain agreeing to grant independence. The transferral of the archipelago was later challenged by the Mauritian government.

External resources

 * Independence For Mauritius (1968), British Pathé, Youtube. Newsreel footage of Mauritius' independence ceremony in March 1968.