Isle de France ( Mauritius ) Isle de France ( or " Île de France " ) was the name of the island of Mauritius and its territories between 1715 to 1810 , when the area was under the French East India Company and part of the France ' s empire . Under the French , the island witnessed major changes . The increasing importance of agriculture led to the importation of slaves and the undertaking of vast infrastructural works that transformed Port Louis into a major capital , port , warehousing , and commercial centre . During the Napoleonic wars , Isle de France became a base from which the French navy , including squadrons under Contre - amiral Linois or Commodore Jacques Hamelin , and corsairs such as Robert Surcouf , organised raids on British merchant ships . The raids ( see Battle of Pulo Aura and Mauritius campaign of 1809 – 1811 ) continued until 1810 when the British sent a strong expedition to capture the island ( see Invasion of Isle de France ) . The first British attempt , in August 1810 , to attack Grand Port resulted in a major French victory , one celebrated on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris . A subsequent and much larger attack launched in December of the same year from Rodrigues , which had been captured a year earlier , was successful . The British landed in large numbers in the north of the island and rapidly overpowered the French , who capitulated . In the Treaty of Paris ( 1814 ) , the French ceded Isle de France together with its territories including the Chagos Archipelago , Rodrigues , Seychelles , Agaléga , Tromelin and Cargados Carajos to Great Britain . The island then reverted to its former name , ' Mauritius ' . History . After the Dutch abandoned Mauritius , the island became a French colony in September 1715 when Guillaume Dufresne d ' Arsel landed and took possession of it , naming the island " Isle de France " . The French government turned over the administration of Mauritius to the French East India Company , but the island remained bereft of Europeans until 1721 . Furthermore , until 1735 , Isle de France was administered from Île Bourbon , now known as Réunion . By 1726 , the company had made land grants to colonists , soldiers and workers . The grants ' covenants specified that recipients of the grants who could not cultivate their land for a period of 3 years would lose them . Each colonist was given 20 slaves and in return had to pay yearly one tenth of their production to the French East India Company . The attempt to develop agriculture resulted in an increasing demand for labour . According to Lougnon , 156 ships called at Mauritius between 1721 and 1735 , prior to the arrival of Bertrand - François Mahé de La Bourdonnais , most of them being Company ships . Slave traders brought a total of 650 slaves to Mauritius from Madagascar , Mozambique , India and West Africa . International trade , in particular long - distance trade , grew in the 18th century and by the 1780s , France was the largest trading maritime power in Europe . The total value of French long - distance trade with Africa , Asia , America and re - exports to the rest of Europe was £25 million , whereas Britain ' s trade amounted to only £20 million . This state of affairs explained the growing importance of Port Louis as a centre of entrepôt trade . Among the French colonists , the lure of easy money and the importance of commercial activities contributed to their lack of interest in agriculture . Slave trade , both legal and illegal , was an important aspect of the French international trade in the Indian Ocean . A class of traders and merchants developed and thrived . Population . When La Bourdonnais arrived in Isle de France in 1735 , there were 638 slaves in a population of 838 inhabitants . Thereafter , some 1 , 200 to 1 , 300 slaves arrived annually ; within five years the number of slaves had quadrupled to 2 , 612 and the number of French had doubled . Legacy . Mahé de La Bourdonnais established Port Louis as a naval base and a shipbuilding centre . Under his governorship , numerous buildings were built , a number of which are still standing today , these include part of Government House , the Chateau de Mon Plaisir at SSR Botanical Garden , and the Line Barracks .