colony · Central and Southern Africa

Ile Bourbon

1665 CE – 1946 CE · capital Saint-Denis

France's Indian Ocean island colony of Bourbon, built on coffee, sugar and slavery, which became the department of Reunion in 1946.

Origins

France claimed the uninhabited island in 1642 and named it Bourbon after the royal house in 1649. Permanent settlement began in 1665 when the French East India Company sent Etienne Regnault as commandant with a small group of colonists, joined by survivors from the Fort-Dauphin Colony.

Rule and society

From 1715 the Company introduced coffee, and the island became a plantation society worked by enslaved people from Madagascar, Mozambique and India. Mahe de La Bourdonnais governed it together with Isle de France in the 1730s and 1740s. Renamed Reunion in 1793, the island was occupied by Britain from 1810 to 1815; sugar replaced coffee and slavery was abolished in 1848, followed by indentured labour.

Decline and legacy

Bourbon, by then known again as Reunion, remained a French colony until 1946, when it became an overseas department of France, a status it still holds.

Connections (3)

More states of Central and Southern Africa →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Ile Bourbon. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ile-bourbon
MLA
“Ile Bourbon.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ile-bourbon. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Ile Bourbon.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ile-bourbon.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Ile Bourbon’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/ile-bourbon (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻