Réunion History Made Easy: The Essential Illustrated Guide to Réunion’s and Culture

A volcanic island without a known precolonial population became a Creole society through slavery, migration, sugar, revolt, and the long demand for equality. Volcanic formation and early navigation lead to Bourbon, the French East India Company, coffee, the Code Noir, marronage, abolition in 1848, indentured labor, British occupation, sugar and railways, the Second World War, departmentalization, Creole culture, and life beneath an active volcano.Did You Know?- Did you know there is no known permanent Indigenous society before French settlement on Réunion?- Did you know the island was called Bourbon for much of the colonial period?- Did you know enslaved people who escaped into the high country created traditions of marronage and resistance?- Did you know the end of slavery brought indentured labor contracts from India, Africa, Madagascar, and elsewhere?- Did you know Free French forces took the island from the Vichy administration in 1942?- Did you know departmental status in 1946 changed the legal framework while leaving deep social and economic inequalities?What This Book Includes- Volcanic origins, Bourbon, slavery, emancipation, engagisme, war, and departmentalization marking the island's successive transformations.- Slavery, marronage, engagisme, sugar, war, migration, and Creole identity.- Legal equality and lived experience compared through labor, migration, and public policy.- Artistic reconstructions of plantations, ports, highland communities, and volcanic landscapes.