Mont Piton is the highest point in Mauritius (828 m).

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit Mauritius.

In 1598 the Dutch claimed the island which they named after Maurice de Nassau, Prince of Orange.

The dodo, a large flightless bird, was unique to Mauritius. Visiting sailors killed them and mammals introduced to the island, such as pigs and rats, ate the dodos' eggs.

It is thought that the last dodo died in Mauritius in 1681.

The French arrived in Mauritius at the beginning of the eighteenth century and founded Port Louis.

Mauritius, along with the Seychelles, was ceded to Britain in 1814 (Treaty of Paris).

The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act (1807) prohibited the slave trade within the British Empire. (Slaves in the British colonies did not gain their freedom until the 1830s. The 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act began the process of emancipation).

Following the abolition of slavery, indentured labour from India arrived in Mauritius to work in the plantations.

Mauritius achieved its independence in 1968.

In 1968 Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago, was leased to the USA for fifty years.

The prime minister of Mauritius declared the country a republic in 1992, retaining its links with the United Kingdom through membership of the Commonwealth.

Before independence Britain separated the Chagos islands (British Indian Ocean Territory) from Mauritius.

In 2000 the High Court in London ruled that the UK acted unlawfully removing the inhabitants of Diego Garcia from the island. Exiles from Diego Garcia (between 1,500 and 2,000) went to Mauritius, the Seychelles and the UK.

Cyclones in 1979 (Claudette) and 1994 (Hollanda) caused great devastation to Mauritius.

The University of Mauritius was founded in 1972.

In 2010 June Mauritius and France agreed to jointly manage Tromelin, a small Indian Ocean island owned by France and claimed by Mauritius.

In December 2012 the European Court of Human Rights rejected the claim by Chagos Islanders against Britain over their expulsion.

In 2019 the UN International Court of Justice said that Britain should end control over the Chagos Islands as they were not lawfully separated from Mauritius in 1965.

A Japanese-owned bulk carrier ran aground a coral reef in 2020 spilling up to a thousand tonnes of oil, said to be the worst environmental disaster in Mauritius.

In October 2024 the British government announced that it would transfer the Chagos Islands to Mauritius subject to finalisation of a treaty; the island of Diego Garcia would be leased back to the UK for at least 99 years. In 2025 Sir Keir Starmer, the UK Prime Minister, agreed a 3.4bn pound deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, although retaining control of a UK-US military base on Diego Garcia. The use of Diego Garcia as a base was agreed by the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The agreement included a 40m pound trust fund to support Chagossians.