page_title: Sugar industry of Mauritius
section_title: British Occupation (1810-1968)
hierarchical_section_title: Sugar industry of Mauritius / How the Sugar Industry Paved The Way for the 'Mauritian Miracle' / Historical Background / British Occupation (1810-1968)
caption_attribution_description: Latina: Chilo sacchariphagus ssp. sacchariphagus (Bojer, 1856)
context_page_description: "Scholars increasingly agree that the ‘Mauritian Miracle’ was enabled by the country's significant level of state capacity." Since independence, the so-called "Mauritian Miracle” and the “success of Africa” was partially based in state reforms since 1825 when sugar factory owners within the Sugar industry of Mauritius pressured colonial officials to:-
  Regulate and better control the island's labor supply
  Improve the country's transportation infrastructure
  Undertake national Research and Development initiatives.
  These efforts collectively assisted the island's initial growth as a monoculture-based economy but also laid the pillars of multiethnic social stability that anchored and then powered the country's successful economic diversification after independence.
context_section_description: British Mauritius, with Robert Townsend Farquhar as the first governor, brought about rapid social and economic changes. One of the most important was the abolition of slavery on 1 February 1835. The planters received a compensation of two million pounds sterling for the loss of their slaves, who had been imported from Africa and Madagascar during the French occupation. The number of  Mauritius Sugar Mills grew, as did their efficiency with the introduction of new technology, as competition became fierce. This led to the consolidation of the entire industry after 1860 when the number of operating mills decreased from 296 units to 30 in 1947. Source: Mauritius Blue Book, L'Almanach de Maurice de Sornay, Pierre (1952). Isle de France, Ile Maurice pp367.
  Between 1812 and 1949, Mauritius Sugar Mills production increased from 467 tons to  over 400.000 tons per annum despite cyclones and the accidental introduction, in 1850, of the Chilo sacchariphagus sacchariphagus  from Java  which devastated the sugar cane crop.  31 species of parasitoids were imported to combat  the Chilo sacchariphagus sacchariphagus. Only two became established (Trichogramma australicum and Cotesia flavipes) 
  Source: Mauritius Blue Book, L'Almanach de Maurice de Sornay, Pierre (1952). Isle de France, Ile Maurice pp367.
  Mauritius is situated in what has been called 'Cyclone Alley'  and these sometimes played a determining part in the annual production of sugar. Of note and on record were:
  The April 1892 Mauritius cyclone (1200 deaths - 50,000 homeless). Sugar production fell 42%. A third of the city of Port Louis was destroyed in a few hours
  Cyclone Alix (19 January 1960). Cyclone Alix struck in February 1960. The island suffered winds of 160 km/h to 200 km/h for 20 hours.
  Cyclone Carol (28 February 1960). The eye of  Carol passed directly over Mauritius and it is assumed to be the most powerful cyclone ever recorded in the South-West Indian Ocean with wind gusts of 160 km/h to 256 km/h. It made 300,000 people homeless and destroyed 40% of the Mauritian main economy which, at that time, was the sugar cane crop. 42 deaths were recorded
  Cyclone Jenny (27–28 February 1962)  On 27 February 1962, the cyclone passed 30 km off the north coast of Mauritius with a maximum wind speed of 235 km/h, causing 14 deaths, injuring hundreds and leaving 8,000 homeless.  Considerable damage was caused to the North of the island.
  From 1951, Sugar was exported and sold under the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement.
  In 1953, The Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute (MSIRI), was founded "to promote by means of research and investigation the technical progress of the sugar industry".
caption: Chilo sacchariphagus ssp. sacchariphagus
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