About Reunion > History

Reunion Island was discovered for the first time in the 14th century by Arabic and was regularly visited by navigators. It is at the 17th century that inhabitants started to settle. The French arrived in 1738; they named it "the Boubon Island " (stone fixed on the littoral of the La Possession).

Managed between 1664 and 1767 by the Company of the Eastern Indies , it was then a long period of slavery which lasted more than 120 years until its abolition in 1848.

In 1735, Mahe de la Bourdonnais became governor of the island. Baptised Reunion during the French revolution in 1793, it was then controlled by the English between 1810 and 1815 before becoming French again.