History

Geography

Until 1512, it is attested that the island was never occupied.
In 1512, Pedro Mascarenhas, a Portuguese navigator, discovered the archipelago of the islands which became Maurice, Réunion and Rodrigues.
From 1642 to 1649, the French Company of India established a trading post. It took the name of Mascarin Island.
From 1649 to 1792, the settlement really started. Attached directly to the crown of France, it took the name of Bourbon Island.
From 1793 to 1806, the Revolutionists gave it the name of Réunion Island, with strong symbolic value.
In 1806, the Empire being installed, it was necessary to change the name, it became ... Bonaparte Island.
From 1810 to 1815, the British, victorious of the Empire wars, called it ... Bourbon Island.
From 1815 to 1848, a return in the bosom of France, it kept the name of Bourbon Island.
From 1848, the island was given again its name of Réunion Island which it has kept.
The human, sociological, political and economic history is more complex than the changes of its name.
The 20th century is marked by ups and dawns of the economy due to the monoculture of sugar cane established by the British.
In 1946, the statute of French department made it profit from the economic developments of la Métropole (mainland France, that is).

Réunion has the shape of a tortoise! The surface is  0,5% that of France. The circumference of the ellipse is 207 km. It stretches on 72 km from north to south and on 51 km from east to west. In the Indian ocean in the southern hemisphere, it is about 800 km east of Madagascar and roughly 220 km south-west of Mauritius.

It is divided into two volcanic massifs separated by high plains.
The North-West is occupied up to two thirds by a volcanic massif. The highest peak is Piton des Neiges, 3,069m high. Three enormous cirques surround it like the petals of a clover, Salazie, Mafate, Cilaos. There are abrupt slopes from 800 to 1,200m strongly tilted and shredded by  gullies leaving between them "islets". The erosion of the volcanic grounds is the consequence of the tropical climate.
The South-east called by the navigators "Brûslé land", consists in several extinct craters and the active volcano, Piton de la Fournaise, 2,613m high. Its eruptions, approximately every six years, are very spectacular.
The High plains and the valley plains separate the two mountainous massifs. They are composed of the Plain of the Palmistes in the east and the Plain of Cafres in the west.

Réunion is characterized by a tropical climate presenting a large variety due to the mountains and the uneven relief.

Located south of the equator in full tropical zone, Réunion offers visitors a very contrasted landscape between the two volcanic solid massifs as well as between the East coast, windward, and the West coast, leeward.

Economic facts

Civilisation

Réunion's economy has been completely unbalanced since the 2e Republic developed the sugar cane culture in 1815 after the loss of Mauritius, Seychelles and Rodrigues.

The réunionnaise currency is the Euro, €.

The official name is Department of Réunion whose capital is St Denis. The population is +72.000 inhabitants. The official Réunion language is French but also Creole.

Réunionnais are 70% Catholics, then Hindus, Buddhists and Moslems.

Réunion is especially known for its beaches of the West coast, leeward, for its trekking inland with Piton des Neiges and Piton de la Fournaise. No archaeological site exists. The settlement of the island is posterior to its discovery in 1512.

Information of the traveller

<Sights

Visa requirements are the same as for France.

The budget of the traveller depends on his choices, Réunion offers little opportunity for small budgets.

Réunion's geographical situation, the climatic variety makes it possible to offer travellers multiple possibilities of activity.

A trek was made in the Réunion cirques, in 2000, the trek of the Treasure Island.