History & History of the Seychelles

HISTORY OF THE SEYCHELLES

Starting from the year 1502

The year 1742 is an important date in history & History of the Seychelles

Interesting facts about the history of the Seychelles:

The Search for Drinking Water Led to the History & History of the Seychelles

In August 1742 started the history of the Seychelles, because it sailed Lazare Picault with the ships Elisabeth and Charles, by order of the French Admiral Bertrand François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, into uncharted waters within the Indian Ocean.
On the journey one looked in vain for a place with drinking water. Three months and almost at the end, on November 19th, 1742, the command of Elisabeth saw an extraordinary, high island, unknown to him.
Exactly on 21 November 1742, late in the afternoon, just before sunset, the two ships reached the largest of the islands. Although they were close to darkness, an exploration party led by Lazare Picault decided to enter the island anyway and were rewarded by abundant fresh water, turtles and fish in rivers. Lazare Picault therefore named the island the L'Île d'Abondance, Island of Plenty.

Picault realized that he had discovered a new, unknown group of islands that would later become known as the Seychelles.

According to other records, Lazare Picault set off again on 7th December 1743 to the archipelago he had discovered in order to explore it further. On 28th May 1744 he again reached the island he had previously named - L'Île d'Abondance.

Seychelles history mentions that in honour of Bertrand François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, Lazare Picault then gave the island a new name and renamed it Mahé. On 15th June 1744, Picault set off for further travels and visited the nearby island of La Digue, which he first called Ìle Rouge because of its reddish granite rocks. He also visited Praslin, which he called Isle de Palmes because of its large palm groves, and the island of Frégate, which he baptized because of the large number of fregate birds.

By earlier records of the history of the Seychelles, from the years 1502, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama, one knows, however, that Lazare Picault was not the first to see and enter the Seychelles.

Lazare Picault, the discoverer of the Seychelles

Nevertheless, Picault is considered the discoverer of the Seychelles. In the Seychelles, the beach or bay Baie Lazare, hotels, and also the district are named after him.

The Seychelles are a comparatively young nation. The first settlement of the islands can be dated to 1770, when the French arrived, followed by a small group of whites, Indians and Africans. The islands remained in the hands of the French until the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. In the years of the first settlement, up to the cession to the British under the Treaty of Paris of 1814, the population increased to 3,500 inhabitants. During this time, the inhabitants of the Seychelles became acquainted with the enlightened policies of administrators such as Pierre Poivre, the intrigues of a Queau de Quinssy, but of course also with the terrible effects of the French Revolution. Under British rule the Seychelles reached a population of about 7,000 by 1825. Important plantations were established during this period, producing coconut, food, cotton and sugar cane. During this time Victoria was also founded as the capital and a large number of troublemakers from the Empire were sent into exile. This period was also marked by the devastation caused by the tragic avalanche in 1862 and the economic impact of the abolition of slavery. In 1976, the Seychelles achieved independence from Great Britain and were granted the status of an independent nation with the first president James Mancham a republic within the Commonwealth. After a period of one-party rule by the second president France Albert René the latter announced on 4th December 1991 the return to a multi-party political system. 1993 the first presidential elections under the new constitution took place, from which President René emerged victorious. He also won the 1998 and 2003 elections before taking over the presidency in June 2004. James Alix Michel who was re-elected as President of Seychelles in democratic elections in May 2011 and December 2015. From October 2016 until 25.10.2020 was Danny Faure the acting president.

With the election victory of the opposition party LDS, is since 26.10.2020 the Anglican priest Wavel Ramkalawan the new President of the Seychelles.

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Author: Karl Schnürch

In 2007 I started the website Seychelles.com to write everything I experienced from my head. Since then I have been constantly optimizing and expanding Seychelles.com to eventually present a complete picture of Seychelles on this site.