Port Louis

The name Port Louis was bestowed in 1736 by the French governor Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais in honor of King Louis XV of France. At the time, the island was a French colony known as Isle de France. Before French arrival, the site was used by Dutch sailors as a northwest harbor, but it was La Bourdonnais who transformed the natural bay into a sophisticated naval base and administrative capital.

Mauritius was uninhabited before European discovery, famously serving as the home of the now-extinct dodo bird. After the Dutch abandoned the island in 1710, France claimed it, developing a thriving sugar economy fueled by enslaved labor from Africa and Madagascar. Following the Napoleonic Wars, the British seized the island in 1810, reverting its name to Mauritius but retaining Port Louis as the capital. Under British rule, the city became the entry point for nearly half a million indentured laborers from India at the Aapravasi Ghat, a demographic shift that defined the nation's unique South Asian-majority identity.

Since independence on March 12, 1968, Mauritius has emerged as one of Africa's strongest economies. Port Louis reflects this prosperity as a vibrant, multicultural financial hub. The city's skyline is a blend of modern skyscrapers and colonial-era landmarks, such as the Citadel (Fort Adelaide) and the Government House.

Today, Port Louis is a microcosm of Mauritian diversity, home to Hindu temples, mosques, cathedrals, and pagodas. It serves as the undisputed political and commercial heart of the country, maintaining its historic role as a strategic gateway in the Indian Ocean while evolving into a center for global financial services and tourism.