Réunion

Réunion (French: La Réunion) is an island and overseas département (département d'outre-mer, or DOM) of France, located in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, about 200 km southwest of Mauritius. Like the other DOMs, Réunion is also one of the 26 régions of France with much the same status as those situated on the European mainland.

History

Arab sailors used to call this island Dina Morgabin ("Western Island"). The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit the island, finding it uninhabited in 1513, and naming it Santa Apollonia.

Related Topics:
Portuguese - 1513

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The island was then occupied by the French. Although the French flag was hoisted by François Cauche in 1638, Santa Apollonia was officially claimed by Jacques Pronis of France in 1642, when he deported a dozen French mutineers to the island from Madagascar. The convicts were returned to France several years later, and in 1649, the King of France Louis XIII named the island Île Bourbon after his royal house.

Related Topics:
French - 1638 - 1642 - Madagascar - 1649 - Louis XIII

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"Réunion" was the name given to the island in 1793 by a decree of the Convention with the fall of the House of Bourbon in France, and the name commemorates the union of revolutionaries from Marseille with the National Guard in Paris, which took place on August 10, 1792. In 1801, the island was renamed "Île Bonaparte," after Napoleon Bonaparte. The island was taken by the British in 1810, who used the old name of "Bourbon." When it was restored to France by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the island retained the name of "Bourbon" until 1848, when the fall of the restored Bourbons during the revolutions during that year meant that the island became "Réunion" once again.

Related Topics:
1793 - House of Bourbon - Marseille - National Guard - Paris - August 10 - 1792 - 1801 - Napoleon Bonaparte - British - 1810 - Congress of Vienna - 1815 - 1848 - The revolutions during that year

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From the 17th to the 19th centuries, French immigration supplemented by influxes of Africans, Chinese, Malays, and Malabar Indians gave the island its ethnic mix. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 cost the island its importance as a stopover on the East Indies trade route.

Related Topics:
Suez Canal - East Indies

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Réunion became an overseas département of France on March 19, 1946.

Related Topics:
Département - France - March 19 - 1946

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Between 15 and 16 March 1952, Cilaos at the center of Réunion received 1,869.9 mm (73.6 in) of rainfall. This is the greatest 24-hour precipitation total ever recorded on Earth.

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