Why not celebrate the British Expedition of Montagne Longue?
Then, the English assembled in the open Country (Montagne Longue) and marched forward. Vandermaeson suffered them to come to close quarters, when he assailed them with such a volley of Musketry that they (British Soldiers) were thrown back in confusion. Still, reinforcements (on the British side) kept pouring on. A body of sepoys now climbed to the top of Montagne Longue, which the French, had neglected to occupy, and thence commanded the whole battle field.
Albert Pitot/Allister Macmillan, Mauritius Illustrated, 1914 Several lacks of rupees which were spent on that war had also come from India; in other words, it was the blood (soldiers) and wealth (resources) of our ancestors that had helped the British to occupy Mauritius. This is something very important and the readers should not forget it. How bravely the Indian Soldiers (sepoys) had climbed upon the hill of Montagne Longue and how they had driven the French away from there, is historically a famous event, and this, I have described in detail.
Pandit Atmaram Viswarnath, History of Mauritius, 1923 The French forces had a signal post in the L'Echelle Rock, mid way between Peter Both Mountain and the summit of Long Mountain, from which every movement of the British Army could be seen and signaled to the defending troops. The Column now fanned out, a regiment of sepoys being sent to attack the post and dislodged the French troops from Long Mountain.
Derek Hollingworth, They Came to Mauritius, 1949 The long struggle waged by the British to wrest the Isle of France from French control was the result of a deep rooted enmity between the two nations (from the battle of Hastings to that of Trafalgar). Both nations had been nurturing the expansionist ambition of colonization as had the Dutch, the Portuguese, and the Spanish before them. Their ambitious attitude had been the driving factor to discover, occupy and settle the remotest parts of the world.
With this aim British adventurers had founded the East India Company in 1599, and by the 1690's Bombay, Madras and Calcutta had come under the ambit of the English through the excellent drive of the Company. But the French were not lagging behind, for they in turn had set up the French East India Company in 1668. They had also established a few trading centers at Pondicherry, Mahé and Chandernagore etc. Their ancient enmity was therefore shifted to the colonial stage.
The French had helped the rebellious States of America with arms and ammunitions during the war of American Independence. French assistance was so massive that the King's Treasury was impoverished, and this was to become a major cause for discontent and the eruption of the French Revolution. Another cause was the existence of the "Third State", comprised of merchants, professionals and peasants, who were looked down upon by the two upper classes, the nobility and the clergy. Moreover, the Philosophers who had been contemplating revolutionary ideas, were claimouring for a constitution based on the English System of Government, because it had the provisions of checks and balances and rested on the basic principles of democracy.
The Mascarene Islands, Rodrigues, Bourbon and Isle of France were inevitably drawn into this rivalry, governed as they were by Frenchmen chosen by the French East India Company. The Isle of France with its good port from where ships could be launched, and arms and provisions assembled to fight the British in India, was particularly coveted. Labourdonais and Lally had embarked on several occasions from Isle of France to help Dupleix in his conquest of Madras and to defend French centers of influence in India.
But in the late 18th Century, France's far flung possessions became very vulnerable for she had to fight several wars in Europe; deal with serious domestic disturbances; the establishment of a transitory Government during the French Revolution and the autocratic Government of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Isle of France had been neglected for years prior to 1810. This was the fateful year during which the Island was to witness two sustained attacks, in one the French had the upper hand, but in the second, that was fought in the north in December 1810, the French lost the battle and also the Isle of France, after a rule of ninety years.
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