Seychelles

History

The Seychelles are made up of 115 islands with approximately 30 inhabited. There are the granitic inner islands that include Mahe, the main island, and the coralline outer islands that largely consist of sandy cays and atolls, including Aldabra – a World Heritage site.

Breaking off from India and Madagascar millions of years ago, its believed that the islands’ unique granitic rocks were likely spotted by seventh century Arab dhows plying their trades between Arabia, India and Africa, though the first recorded sighting was by Joao de Nova in 1501 who named some islands after himself; later renamed the Farquhar islands by the British in the 19^th century.  The Portuguese Admiral and explorer Vasco de Gama named the Amirantes island group in 1502 and until 1609 the islands were pretty much left alone, whereupon the British ship ‘Ascension’ spent 10 days on the island, its captain describing in his journal the plethora of animals, birds, fish, tortoises and crocodiles ( the latter no longer present thankfully!).

During the 16^th and 17^th century, trade flourished between Europe and the East with exotic cargoes of silks, spice and jewels passing through the Indian Ocean attracting the beady, greedy eyes of pirates and the stage was set for swashbuckling and carousing. Il Ste Marie off Madagascar become pirate HQ, where deals were made and plundered booty was often returned to its original owners for a handsome (higher) price. Realising that their trade was suffering, the British and French bore down their warships and eventually the pirate menace was eliminated by about 1730.

Meanwhile, the island Mauritius through the guidance of its governor, Bertrand Francois Mahe de Labourdonnais, become a prosperous community.  Labourdonnais sent two expeditions to the islands headed by Lazare Picault, who named the large island Mahe in honour of the governor. Captain Corneille Nicolas Morphey in 1756 formally possessed the islands for France (hearing as they had that the British were looking to occupy them) and named them the Seychelles after King Louis XV’s Finance Minister, Viscount Jean Moreau de Sechelles. The islands continued under French influence, the first settlers arriving in 1770, until the close of the century, when French efforts to ward off the British (defending their route to India) resulted in continual capitulation of control between the two countries. Finally, in 1814 both Mauritius and the Seychelles were formally ceded to the British through the Treaty of Paris and in 1841 Mahe’s capital was named Victoria.

The 19^th and 20^th centuries saw; the abolition of slavery – important as many of the slaves from ships captured by the British found liberation on Seychelles shores along with 90% of the Seychelles population who were slaves, independence from Mauritius in 1903 and its establishment as a British Crown Colony, economic suffering as a result of falling demand for key exports vanilla and coconut oil as well as the ramifications felt from both World Wars, the set up of an American satellite tracking system during the space race and the creation of the independent republic of the Seychelles in 1976.

The republic began with a coalition government headed by President James Mancham of the Seychelles Democratic Party (SDP) who wanted to maintain ties with Britain. This lasted a year before a coup d’état by Mancham’s Prime Minister (and leader of the Seychelles People’s United Party (SPUP)) France Albert Rene, who wanted complete liberation. A single party socialist state endured under Rene’s leadership, surviving other coup attempts, until 1991 when a multi party democracy was declared. Though Mancham returned to the political scene, he was defeated by Rene in the multi party elections held a month later; Rene stepped down in 2004 having been re –elected in 1998 and 2001. His vice president, James Alix Michel remains today having been re-elected by a narrow margin in 2006.

Source: Lyn Mair & Lynnath Beckley, Bradt Guide: Seychelles (Third edition: August 2008), Seychelles Tourism, Seychelles in your pocket (Eighth edition: October 2008), Deryck Starr, Seychelles from 1770 (2000)