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Flags of Mauritius

Uninhabited until Dutch sailors named it for their stadtholder in 1598, Mauritius passed through Dutch abandonment, French plantation settlement, and British conquest before becoming, after 1834, the destination for one of the largest movements of Indian indentured labor anywhere in the world — a migration that reshaped the island's demographics so thoroughly that its modern population is majority Indo-Mauritian. Independence in 1968 was followed by a rare regional achievement: sustained, uninterrupted multiparty democracy ever since.

Mauritius's current flag, adopted at independence in 1968, has never changed — not even when the country became a republic in 1992, replacing the British monarch with a president as head of state while keeping everything else, including the flag, the same.

Scope of this page: the main island of Mauritius and its outer dependencies, from uninhabited Dutch landfall in 1598 to present, four political-flag eras. No indigenous population predates 1598, so this page carries no precolonial "no flag documented" entry. The 1710–1715 gap, when the Dutch had abandoned the island and no power yet governed it, is noted in the narrative rather than given its own card.

One island, four flags

Mauritius's own real coastline, traced whole — there's no genuinely separate internal region here to carve out honestly. What changes, era to era, is only who flew a flag over the whole island at once. Press play, or drag the slider.

This is a one-island story, not a split one. Rodrigues and the other outer dependencies (Agalega, St. Brandon) followed the same governing power as the main island in every era shown here — there is no documented period where a different flag flew over any piece of Mauritian territory than over the rest of it. The map below shows the main island only.

1598

Dutch landfall

Real traced coastline of the main island (Rodrigues and other outer dependencies omitted) — no internal partition, see the rule box above for why.

red-blue-yellow-green horizontal bands — unchanged since 1968

1968 – present

Mauritius (independent Commonwealth realm, then republic)

Republic, independentSeewoosagur RamgoolamSecular (no state religion)

Migration & conquest:Immigration: Chagossian relocation (1968–73)

Ruling house:House of Windsor

Who & why: Mauritius becomes independent from Britain on 12 March 1968 as a Commonwealth realm under the British monarch, led by Prime Minister Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, whose Indo-Mauritian political base reflects the demographic legacy of 19th-century indentured immigration. Sugar remains the economic backbone at independence, though the country diversifies successfully into textiles, tourism, and financial services in the decades that follow. On 12 March 1992, the 24th anniversary of independence, Mauritius becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, replacing the monarch with a president as head of state while changing nothing else about the flag or the political system otherwise. Since independence Mauritius has held regular, competitive multiparty elections without interruption or coup — a genuinely rare record among postcolonial African and Indian Ocean states.

What it represents: four equal horizontal bands — red for the struggle for independence, blue for the Indian Ocean surrounding the island, yellow for the light of independence, and green for the island's year-round agriculture.

Paint guide

Proportions2:3.

LayoutFour equal horizontal bands: red, blue, yellow, green.

Red#EA2839

Blue#1A206D

Yellow#FFD500

Green#00A551

the British Blue Ensign, defaced with the Mauritius colonial badge

1810 – 1968

British colonial rule

Colonial territoryRobert FarquharRoman Catholic (guaranteed continuance)

Migration & conquest:Conquered by: Britain (1810)Immigration: Indian indentured laborers (1834–1912)

Ruling house:House of HanoverHouse of Saxe-Coburg and GothaHouse of Windsor

Who & why: Britain captures the island from France in December 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars, and the 1814 Treaty of Paris confirms British possession, renaming it Mauritius; unusually, Britain allows French civil law, language, and Franco-Mauritian landowning elites to remain largely intact. The sugar-plantation economy continues, but the 1833–34 abolition of slavery in the British Empire creates an acute labor shortage that colonial authorities solve by importing indentured laborers from India on a massive scale — roughly half a million arrive over the following decades, permanently remaking the island's demographics into an Indo-Mauritian majority alongside Franco-Mauritian, Creole, and Sino-Mauritian communities. Political reform proceeds gradually through the 20th century, with an elected legislature established from 1885 and full internal self-government by the mid-1960s, ahead of independence in 1968.

What it represents: the standard British colonial pattern — a defaced Blue Ensign bearing the territory's own badge — flown as the colonial flag throughout British rule.

Paint guide

Proportions1:2.

LayoutBlue Ensign field with the Union Jack in the canton and a colonial badge on the fly.

Blue#00247D

Red#C8102E

France's white royal ensign with the gold Bourbon fleur-de-lis

1715 – 1810

French colonial rule (Isle de France)

Colonial territoryGuillaume Dufresne d'ArselRoman Catholic (colonial establishment)

Migration & conquest:Immigration: enslaved Malagasy & East African laborers

Ruling house:House of BourbonHouse of Bonaparte

Who & why: France claims the island in 1715, five years after the Dutch abandon it, renaming it Isle de France, though real development waits until the French East India Company begins active settlement in the 1720s–30s. Under governors such as Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, the island grows into a major naval and privateering base and sugar-plantation colony worked by enslaved labor brought from Madagascar and East Africa. Britain finally captures the island in December 1810, ending French rule, though the island's French-descended population, language, and law endure under the British administration that follows.

What it represents: France's own royal ensign, plain white bearing the gold Bourbon fleur-de-lis, flown for most of this monarchy-era colonial period; the Revolutionary Tricolor supersedes it from the 1790s as France's own flag changes, in the final two decades before the British conquest.

Paint guide

ProportionsNo fixed ratio recorded for this period.

LayoutPlain white field with the gold Bourbon fleur-de-lis device.

White#F4EFE1

Gold#C9A13C

the Prince's Flag, the Dutch Republic's early ensign

1598 – 1710

Dutch landfall and settlement attempt

Colonial territoryWybrand van WarwijckDutch Reformed (colonial establishment)

Who & why: a Dutch fleet under Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck lands on the previously uninhabited island in September 1598, naming it Mauritius after stadtholder Maurice of Nassau. The Dutch East India Company establishes a small settlement from 1638, using the island chiefly as a supply and timber station and briefly introducing sugarcane and, notoriously, hunting the flightless dodo to extinction within decades of contact. Struggling with poor soil, cyclones, and runaway-slave unrest, the Company abandons the settlement for good in 1710, leaving the island ungoverned for five years before France's 1715 claim.

What it represents: the Prince's Flag (orange-white-blue), the Dutch Republic's characteristic ensign of the era, shown here in its later, more standardized red-white-blue form as the orange dye was known to fade to red in period use; no flag specific to this small outpost is separately attested.

Paint guide

ProportionsNo fixed ratio recorded for this period.

LayoutThree equal horizontal bands: red (originally orange), white, blue.

Red / orange#AE1C28

Blue#21468B

Reading the tags

Colonial territory — governed as part of a foreign empire

Republic, independent — sovereign under its own government

Leader — the named ruler most associated with the era's start

State religion — the official/established faith, not the population's

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