This dissertation consists of three chapters exploring challenges that many developing countries face in augmenting state capacity and accumulating human capital. In particular, I focus on difficulties in developing state capacity and human capital induced by political violence, natural disasters, and over-reliance on income from foreign countries. The first chapter explores the effects of losing local politicians on the fiscal and personnel capacity of local governments using the outcome of the assassination attempts on mayors in Mexico. The second chapter investigates the effects of exposure to natural disasters on birth outcomes in Indonesia, using the Indian Ocean Tsunami as a natural experiment. In the final chapter, I use a cross-country analysis to study the link between reliance on remittances and the capacity of a country to collect taxes efficiently. The first chapter investigates the effects of losing mayors to successful assassinations on the capacity of local governments. By leveraging the randomness in the outcomes of assassination attempts against mayors in Mexico in 2002-21, I find that the loss of mayors negatively affects the fiscal and personnel capacities of the local governments. Municipal tax collection decreases by 29\%. The share of expenditure on primary services falls by 3 percentage points and is crowded out toward investment in construction. Municipal workers at productive stages in their careers leave the position. The back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that wages should increase by 13\% to retain them after assassinations. Organized criminal groups take advantage of the loss of mayors by increasing their presence in municipalities with successful assassinations. The results are not explained by non-political violence, levels of economic activities, or population changes. The results speak to the significance of leaders in maintaining fiscal capacity and retaining capable personnel in the workforce even in a violent environment. In the second chapter, co-authored with Elizabeth Kayoon Hur (Michigan State University), I evaluate the effect of in-utero exposure to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami on short-term childbirth outcomes in Indonesia. Exploiting variation in the timing of exposure, I find that the probability of successful pregnancies drops by 5.9 percentage points (pp), while miscarriages increase by 5.5 pp for those exposed in the earliest stage of pregnancy. I find suggestive evidence that post-disaster health investments by households may have shielded later cohorts from harmful effects. The results suggest the importance of considering fetal loss in developing countries and highlight that facilitating household investment in health through various policies may mitigate negative birth effects in the aftermath of natural disasters. The third chapter investigates the relationship between a country's reliance on remittances from abroad and its ability to collect taxes from various domestic sources. Despite the increasing flow of remittances in volume and proportion, particularly among developing countries, their role in determining the state's capacity to collect taxes has received little attention. This chapter explores the link between remittances and various tax revenue categories using country-level data. Two-way panel regressions suggest that a 1 percentage point (pp) increase in the inflow of remittances explains a 0.12 pp rise in consumption tax revenues. The same estimate derived from IV methods proxying for migrant network strength and openness of borders increases to 0.9 pp. Decomposing this result reveals that the increase in household consumption expenditure explains all of the statistical association, not the efficient tax-collecting mechanisms such as VAT. Subsample regressions by income category suggest that the association between remittances and consumption tax revenue is stronger in countries with lower income.

Tracked and inscribed across the centuries by traders, pilgrims and imperial competitors, the Indian Ocean is written into literature in English by Joseph Conrad, and later by selected novelists from the region. As this thesis suggests, the Indian Ocean is imagined as a space of littoral interconnections, nomadic cosmopolitanisms, ancient networks of trade and contemporary networks of cooperation and crime. This thesis considers selected fiction written in English from or about the Indian Ocean—from the particular culture around its shores, and about the interconnections among its port cities. It focuses on Conrad, alongside Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Lindsey Collen, whose work in many ways captures the geographical scope of the Indian Ocean: India, East Africa and a mid-point, Mauritius. Conrad’s work is examined as a foundational text for writing of the space, while the later writers, in turn, proleptically suggest a rereading of Conrad’s oeuvre through an oceanic lens. Alongside their diverse interests and emphases, the authors considered in this thesis write the Indian Ocean as a space in and through which to represent and interrogate historical gaps, the ethics and aesthetics of heterogeneity, and alternative geographies. The Indian Ocean allows the authors to write with empire at a distance, to subvert Eurocentric narratives and to explore the space as paradigmatic of widely connected human relations. In turn, they provide a longer imaginative history and an alternative cognitive map to imposed imperial and national boundaries. The fiction in this way brings the Indian Ocean into being, not only its borders and networks, but also its vivid, sensuous, storied world. The authors considered invoke and evoke the Indian Ocean as a representational space—producing imaginative depth that feeds into and shapes wider cultural, including historical, figurations.

<p>The present study is one of the first attempts to analyze the societal importance of seagrasses (marine flowering plants) from a Natural Resource Management perspective, using a social-ecological systems (SES) approach. The interdisciplinary study takes place in East Africa (Western Indian Ocean, WIO) and includes in-depth studies in Chwaka Bay, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Natural and social sciences methods were used. The results are presented in six articles, showing that seagrass ecosystems are rich in seagrass species (13) and form an important part of the SES within the tropical seascape of the WIO. Seagrasses provide livelihoods opportunities and basic animal protein, in from of seagrass associated fish e.g. Siganidae and Scaridae. Research, management and education initiatives are, however, nearly non-existent. In Chwaka Bay, the goods and ecosystem services associated with the meadows and also appreciated by locals were fishing and collection grounds as well as substrate for seaweed cultivation. Seagrasses are used as medicines and fertilizers and associated with different beliefs and values. Dema (basket trap) fishery showed clear links to seagrass beds and provided the highest gross income per capita of all economic activities. All showing that the meadows provide social-ecological resilience. Drag-net fishery seems to damage the meadows. Two ecological studies show that artisanal seaweed farming of red algae, mainly done by women and pictured as sustainable in the WIO, has a thinning effect on seagrass beds, reduces associated macrofauna, affects sediments, changes fish catch composition and reduces diversity. Furthermore, it has a negative effect on i.a. women’s health. The two last papers are institutional analyses of the human-seagrass relationship. A broad approach was used to analyze regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutions. Cooperation and conflict take place between different institutions, interacting with their slow or fast moving characteristics, and are thus fundamental in directing the system into sustainable/unsustainable paths. Ecological knowledge was heterogeneous and situated. Due to the abundance of resources and high internal control, the SES seems to be entangled in a rigidity trap with the risk of falling into a poverty trap. Regulations were found insufficient to understand SES dynamics. “Well” designed organizational structures for management were found insufficient for “good” institutional performance. The dynamics between individuals embedded in different social and cultural structures showed to be crucial. Bwana Dikos, monitoring officials, placed in villages or landing sites in Zanzibar experienced four dilemmas – kinship, loyalty, poverty and control – which decrease efficiency and affect resilience. Mismatches between institutions themselves, and between institutions and cognitive capacities were identified. Some important practical implications are the need to include seagrass meadows in management and educational plans, addressing a seascape perspective, livelihood diversification, subsistence value, impacts, social-ecological resilience, and a broad institutional approach.</p>

Dans cette thèse, qui interroge la mise en écriture de l’enfance dans le roman contemporain de Maurice et de la Réunion, il s’agit d’analyser les dimensions suivantes : les modalités narratives, la construction, l’évolution et les fonctions du personnage enfant dans l’économie des textes, les rapports qu’il entretient avec les membres de sa famille et de son entourage immédiat, ainsi que la relation entre ces œuvres et leur contexte social et discursif. Notre corpus inclut quatorze récits d’enfance fictionnels de dix écrivains et écrivaines des Mascareignes, publiés de 1987 à 2012 : du côté mauricien, Nathacha Appanah, Ananda Devi, Marie-Thérèse Humbert, Shenaz Patel, Amal Sewtohul et Carl de Souza; du côté réunionnais, Danielle Dambreville, François Dijoux, Axel Gauvin et Jean-François Samlong. Dans ces romans, si la diversité et l’hybridité narratives, discursives et symboliques témoignent de l’imaginaire pluriel de ces sociétés hétérogènes, l’on retrouve néanmoins certaines grandes tendances, comme une écriture axée sur la mémoire du narrateur adulte ou sur l’expérience immédiate de l’enfant; des personnages enfants principalement souffrants, mal-aimés, subalternes et révoltés; ainsi que des familles et des sociétés dont le fonctionnement, les discours et les idéologies paraissent inappropriés, voire tout à fait néfastes. Si certains de ces choix esthétiques reconduisent certaines conventions, d’autres incarnent une perspective tout à fait nouvelle, voire transgressive. Par exemple, les emprunts à d’autres formes génériques comme le conte ou le théâtre, certaines écritures tout à fait singulières, ainsi que le fréquent mélange des voix et des langages se distinguent clairement des normes établies. La maltraitance extrême des petites et jeunes filles et l’apparition de la figure de l’enfant violent semblent également inédites. Le point de vue et l’expérience de l’enfant jettent enfin un regard global, approfondi et foncièrement critique sur les sociétés mauricienne et réunionnaise du présent (surtout dans le cas mauricien) comme du passé (années 1930 à 1970), procédant ainsi à un contre-discours s’opposant aux images exotiques et bucoliques de l’île paradisiaque. Du statut de témoin à celui d’acteur, l’enfant permet à l’auteur d’aborder une série de motifs et de problématiques distinctifs de l’imaginaire et des littératures de l’océan Indien, tels que l’altérité, l’identité, l’histoire, la mémoire, etc. / In this doctoral dissertation, which deals with childhood narratives in contemporary novels of Mauritius and Reunion Islands, we will examine the following dimensions: the narrative modalities, the construction, evolution and functions of the child protagonist within the texts, his relationship with different members of his family and the people around him, and the connection between these works and their social and discursive context. Our corpus includes fourteen works of fiction from ten different Mascareignes writers, published from 1987 to 2012 : from Mauritius, Nathacha Appanah, Ananda Devi, Marie-Thérèse Humbert, Shenaz Patel, Amal Sewtohul et Carl de Souza; and from Reunion, Danielle Dambreville, François Dijoux, Axel Gauvin et Jean-François Samlong. In these novels, if the narrative, discursive and symbolic diversity corresponds to the plural imaginative world of these heterogeneous societies, we can still find some significant trends, including narratives based on the adult’s memory or the child’s immediate experience; suffering, ill-treated, subaltern and rebellious child protagonists; families and societies whose general functioning, discourses and ideologies seem inappropriate, even harmful. If some of these aesthetic choices partake of certain conventions, others embody a new and even transgressive approach. For example, borrowings from other generic forms like tales, theatre, etc., particular styles of writing and the frequent mixing of different voices and languages distinguish those texts from established norms. The extreme abuse of little girls and the appearance of violent children also seem original. The child’s experience and perspective provides a global, profound and inherently critical view of present-day and past societies of Mauritius and Reunion Islands, therefore providing a counter-discourse to the exotic and bucolic images of a paradise island. From being a witness to an actor, the child allows the author to explore a series of motives and issues distinct to the imaginative world and literatures of the Indian Ocean, like otherness, identity, history, memory, etc.

La gale bactérienne des Solanées à graines est une maladie répandue dans la plupart des aires de production de tomate et des Capsicum spp. (piment, poivron) du monde. Elle est très sévère dans les régions tropicales et subtropicales et sa présence est récurrente dans la région Sud-Ouest de l’océan Indien. Cette maladie est complexe car cinq taxons sont actuellement reconnus comme agents causaux, X. vesicatoria , X. perforans , X. gardneri , X. euvesicatoria et X. campestris pv. raphani . Néanmoins certaines études récentes suggèrent des synonymies de certaines de ces espèces entre elles et également avec d’autres Xanthomonas. Les objectifs principaux de la thèse étaient (1) l’analyse de la diversité sur une collection mondiale à l’aide des deux techniques moléculaires à haut débit, AFLP et MLSA, avec un accent particulier sur la diversité génétique et pathologique régionale (2) la description des relations phylogénétiques entre ces taxons et les autres Xanthomonas (3) la mise au point d’un outil d’identification rapide qui tienne compte de la diversité de l’agent pathogène et basé sur des marqueurs SCAR identifiés par AFLP. Une absence de congruence entre les topologies d’arbres dérivées des séquences de 4 gènes de ménage étudiés a été mise en évidence, de même que plusieurs évènements de recombinaison sur trois d’entre eux. Un inventaire des espèces trouvées dans les îles SWIO a pu être dressé, mettant à jour une grande diversité dans cette région. Nos données ont confirmé de fortes similarités génétiques entre X. alfalfae , X. euvesicatoria et X. perforans d’une part et de X. cynarae et X. gardneri d’autre part, qui ont probablement le statut d’espèces-synonyme. / Bacterial spot of Solanaceae is present in most areas of the world where tomato and pepper are cultivated. Its incidence is especially high in tropical and subtropical regions, such as the islands of South West Indian Ocean. This desease can be caused by five taxa: X. vesicatoria , X. perforans , X. gardneri , X. euvesicatoria et X. campestris pv. raphani, but recent studies suggest that some of those species are synonymous or actually correspond to other species of Xanthomonas. The objectives of this work were (1) to assess the genetic diversity of a word collection of strains using two high throughput molecular techniques: AFLP and MLSA; (2) to describe the phylogenetic relationships between the different taxa caising bacterial spot and other Xanthomonas; (3) to develop a rapid identification method based on SCAR markers identified by AFLP, which would take into account the global diversity of the pathogen. Tree topologies derived from the sequences of four housekeeping genes were not congruent and recombination events could be detected in three of them. A survey of bacterial spot of tomato and pepper in the South West Indian Ocean showed a broad diversity of the species causing this disease in the region. Our data confirmed the strong genetic similarity between, X. alfalfae , X. euvesicatoria et X. perforans, as well as between X. cynarae and X. gardneri, which are probably synonymous species.

Cette thèse aborde l'histoire d'une entreprise familiale réunionnaise de sa fondation à la fin du XXe siècle. Les Isautier ont développé leurs affaires autour de la distillation du rhum (filière cannes/rhum). En 1918, le rachat par Alfred Isautier de la distillerie du front de mer de Saint-Pierre, une des plus anciennes de l'île, marque une césure avec les stratégies familiales. Il agrandit son domaine, fonde l'entreprise « Établissements Alfred Isautier » et l'ancre dans l'histoire familiale. A la fin des années 1950, Ses fils développent des activités dans divers domaines, profitant des atouts de l'île et de la politique de développement liée à la départementalisation. Sensible à la crise des années 1970, l'entreprise est restructurée et se concentre à nouveau sur son corps de métier, le rhum. Ce travail de recherche a pour but de montrer l'évolution de l'entreprise, ses relations avec l'économie locale, et son incidence sociale. Les établissements Isautier se sont adaptés aux difficultés inhérentes au contexte insulaire et local et aux grandes crises internationales, les stratégies menées permettant d'assurer la survie et la transmission de l'entreprise. / This doctoral thesis is about a family company in Reunion in the 19th and 20th century from its birth to 1990. The Isautier family developed their business around the sugar cane industry (sugar cane and rum). In 1918, Alfred Isautier bought the distillery, one of the oldest in the island, from the family, purchased new lands and founded his own business “Etablissements Alfred Isautier”. In the early fifties (1950), his sons started new business strategies owing to the resources of the island, and its recently acquired status of “département”. Later in the seventies, because of the crisis, the company went through a major restructuring based on rum industry. This work demonstrates the importance and influence of the company on the local economic trend and its social consequences. The “Etablissements Isautier” had a great ability in facing the insularity and the international situation, the survival and continuity of the family business issuing from the numerous strategies developed by the company.

Le lac insulaire constitue un objet géographique tout à fait original par sa structure d'isolat. Il est unevéritable réserve d'eau douce plus ou moins vaste, au sein d'espaces insulaires étroits dominés par unenvironnement maritime. D'origine naturelle ou anthropique, ces lacs s'inscrivent dans la problématiquecomplexe de la ressource en eau de ces territoires étroits soumis à des contraintes grandissantes(démographie, urbanisation, pollutions...). Le sud-ouest de l'océan Indien, composé d'îles trèsdifférentes, constitue un territoire privilégié pour une analyse comparative de ces lacs et de leur place ausein des sociétés insulaires. Ce travail a permis dans un premier temps de recenser et de classifier lesprincipales masses d'eau de la zone. A partir d'un échantillon de lacs, leurs spécificités ont étéobservées pour caractériser leur morphologie (cuvette lacustre et bassins d'alimentation), leurcomportement hydrologique et leurs écosystèmes. Cette analyse a permis de souligner la dimensionmontagneuse, tropicale et le poids de l'endémisme pour ces plans d'eau. La typicité de ces lacs apparaîtpar le croisement de ces composantes qui s'ajoutent au contexte insulaire où le stress hydrique imposedes valorisations spécifiques. L'étude des acteurs, des politiques de gestion et des contextes insulaires apermis de mieux appréhender la place du lac dans les sociétés du sud-ouest de l'océan Indien. En effet,ces plans d'eau, longtemps marginalisés par rapport au littoral, deviennent progressivement un atout etun véritable support au développement de ces territoires. Les contrastes de valorisation d'un lac à l'autreimposent une réflexion à long terme pour que les potentialités de ces masses d'eau soient adaptéesavec les besoins durables des populations insulaires. / The island lake constitutes an absolutely original geographical subject with its isolate system. It is a truefresh water reserve, that is more or less wide, inside narrow island areas dominated by a seaenvironment. Those lakes, which are from natural or anthropological origin, are inscribed in the complexproblem of the water resources of those narrow territories, that are subject to growing constraints –demography, urbanization, pollutions... Composed of very different islands, the South West of the IndianOcean makes up a privileged territory for a comparative analysis of those lakes and their place insideisland societies. First of all this work has allowed to list and classify the main bodies of water in the area.From a sample of lakes, their specificities have been examined to characterize their morphologies –lakeside depression and supply basin – their water performances and their ecosystem. This analysis hasallowed to highlight the mountainous and tropical dimensions and the weight of those lakes' endemism.Their typicality appears thanks to the intersecting of the components that can be added to the islandcontext in which the hydric stress imposes specific exploitation. The study of the actors, the managementpolicies and the island situation has allowed to better comprehend the place of the lake in the societies inthe South West of the Indian Ocean. Indeed those lakes, which have long been marginalized compared tothe coast, have progressively become an asset and a true medium to the development of those territories.The contrast of exploitations from a lake to another imposes a long-term reflection so that thepotentialities of those water bodies fit the sustainable needs of island populations.

Au travers d’une monographie des sites archéologiques d’Acoua, village de parler kibushi kimaore situé au nord-ouest de Grande Terre, cette recherche propose d’étudier la période des XIIe-XVIe siècles à Mayotte. Cette période est caractérisée par d’importants changements culturels, religieux et politiques conduisant à l’instauration progressive d’une société stratifiée et islamisée. Il sera notamment question, au travers des thématiques explorées par notre étude archéologique (pratiques funéraires, évolutions de la culture matérielle, intégration dans les réseaux marchands de l’océan Indien), de déterminer les filiations et processus culturels qui ont contribué à façonner la société ancienne de Mayotte, île dont le peuplement complexe, caractéristique des cultures dites « de franges », selon l’expression popularisée dans cette partie du monde par Paul Ottino, est située à la rencontre de grandes aires culturelles : monde africain bantou, monde malgache et monde arabo-persan, hissant cette île de l’archipel comorien au rang de véritable interface culturelle, commerciale et migratoire entre l’Afrique et Madagascar, « plaque tournante et microcosme de l’océan Indien » pour reprendre l’expression de Claude Allibert. / Through this monograph of Acoua’s archaeological sites - a Kibushi kimaore speaking village located in the northwest of Grande Terre - this research proposes to study the XIIth-XVIth centuries period, in Mayotte. This period is characterized by important cultural, religious and political changes leading to the gradual establishment of a stratified and Islamized society. It will be question here, through the themes explored by our archaeological study (funerary practices, evolutions of material culture, integration in the Indian Ocean trading networks), to determine the cultural affiliations and processes that have contributed to shaping Mayotte’s ancient society, an island whose complex settlement, characteristic of cultures known as "fringes" - according to the expression popularized in this part of the world by Ottino - is located at the meeting of meany great cultural areas: African Bantou world, Malagasy world and Arab-Persian world, hoisting this island of the Comorian archipelago to the rank of true cultural, commercial and migratory interface between Africa and Madagascar : a "hub and microcosm of the Indian Ocean", to use the expression of Claude Allibert.

La présente thèse de doctorat consiste en une enquête globale sur la participation du Golfe à plusieurs systèmes spatiaux, - politico-administratifs et économiques, régionaux et mondiaux -, et sur la constructionprogressive qui en résulte. L’enquête a ainsi cherché à renouer les fils de deux « histoires » généralement conçues comme distinctes et à éclairer les interactions qui en procèdent. La première est celle de l’impérialisme britannique et anglo-indien dans le Golfe, de son fonctionnement, de ses implications spatiales, idéologiques et de son imaginaire au XIXe siècle. Il s’est donc agi de retracer la construction politicoadministrative mais aussi géo-historique, d’un espace, le Golfe. La seconde s’est attachée à démontrer l’insertion du Golfe à différents espaces économiques, macro-régionaux et mondiaux, par l’étude de divers flux de produits. Le propos est organisé en deux grandes parties, subdivisées en 5 chapitres chacune, et il s’y s’ajoute une importante série d’annexes. Le Livre premier (chapitres 1 à 5), intitulé « Espaces, pouvoirs etviolences », porte sur la mise en place, par plusieurs « outils » majeurs, de l’impérialisme britannique et angloindien dans le Golfe. Le Livre second (chapitres 6 à 10) a pour titre « Flux, connexions et internationalisation ». Il se concentre sur l’internationalisation croissante du monde khalijien au cours du XIXe siècle et sur la progressive création de cet espace composite appelé le « Moyen-Orient », qui est centré autour du Golfe, et dont nous soutenons qu’il fut empiriquement inventé aux Indes. Est également mise au jour l’insertion économique du Golfe dans ce que les historiens ont appelé « the expanding world economy », à travers le double effet d’un désenclavement accentué au fil des décennies et d’une progressive augmentation quantitative des flux commerciaux, tout en ne perdant pas de vue les liens marchands et les interpénétrations avec les espaces macro-régionaux, fortement actifs au cours du XIXe siècle. / This thesis is a comprehensive study of the Arabo-Persian Gulf’s involvement in various ‘spacesystems’ —politico-administrative, economic, regional, and global— and the ensuing construction of the Gulf as a space. It aims to gather together the threads of two stories that are generally seen as separate, thereby illuminating the interactions between them. First, this thesis seeks to contribute to the understanding of British and Anglo-Indian imperialism in the Gulf: its operation, its spatial and ideological implications, and the ‘imaginaries’ it created. It reveals the politico-administrative and geo-symbolic creation of a space, the Gulf. Secondly, the aim is to emphasise, by examining various flows of products, the insertion of the Gulf into different economic areas, both at a regional and global level. The first volume (chapters 1 to 5), entitled“Spaces, Powers and Violence”, explains the setting of British and Anglo-Indian imperialism in the Gulf, through the use of different tools. The second volume (chapters 6 to 10), entitled “Flows, Connections and Internationalisation”, focuses on the growing internationalisation of the Gulf during the long nineteenth century, and on the gradual creation of what was, in the opinion of the author, a “composite” space, the Middle East. It is argued that the Middle East, centred on the Gulf, was empirically invented in India. Further, this second volume emphasises the insertion of the Gulf into what historians term “the expanding world economy”, through an on-going opening up of the region, and an increase in trade flows. At the same time, it recognises that economic links and interpenetrations with macro-regional areas remained strong.

Il s’agit d’une « photographie » géopolitique de la République de Maurice avec deux axes très précis : la géopolitique interne et la géopolitique externe du pays. L’analyse est faite à partir de faits essentiellement rapportés dans la presse mauricienne, si riche en diversité et commentaires. Puisant dans la profondeur historique pour essayer d’expliquer le présent, c’est le premier travail d’analyse et de réflexion sur la géopolitique de la jeune république mauricienne. La complexité des rapports entre les différents territoires (Rodrigues et Agaléga) avec l’île Maurice est expliquée, de même que les relations et positions d’ambiguïté avec la Grande-Bretagne (et les Etats-Unis) et la France sur les « contentieux » au sujet de l’archipel des Chagos et de Tromelin respectivement. Les rapports tendus entre les différentes communautés présentes à Maurice sont exposés, de même que la problématique de conversion de terres, souvent agricoles, en résidences de luxe pour étrangers fortunés et projets immobiliers d’envergure. La politique étrangère « neutre », propre à Maurice, est aussi examinée dans le cadre de sa géopolitique externe, de même que sa multiple appartenance aux organismes régionaux indianocéaniques et africains. De par sa « réussite économique » connue de l’étranger, Maurice ambitionne de devenir le centre de toutes choses dans la région et elle se propose d’être la passerelle financière entre l’Afrique et l’Asie. Ayant des liens « ombilicaux » avec l’Inde, Maurice est restée cependant pro-occidentale avec une nette poussée de la francophonie et un déclin de l’influence britannique. Africaine politiquement, Maurice s’oriente économiquement vers l’Asie. / The work is a ‘snapshot’ of the geopolitics of the Republic of Mauritius with a two-pronged approach: The Internal Geopolitics and the External Geopolitics of the country. The analysis made is from facts mainly reported in the Mauritian press, so rich in diversity and comments. Going down the historical depth to try to explain the present, it is the first work of analysis and reflection on the geopolitics of the young Mauritian republic.The complexity of the relationships between the different territories (Rodrigues and Agalega) with Mauritius Island is explained, as well as the relationships and ambiguous positions with Great Britain (and the United States) and France on the issues of the Chagos Archipelago and Tromelin respectively. The tense relationships between the different communities present in Mauritius are exposed, as well as the controversial issue of land conversion -often agricultural land- to luxury residences for wealthy foreigners and ambitious real estate projects. The ‘neutral’ foreign policy of Mauritius, so unique, is also examined in the context of its External Geopolitics, as well as its multiple belongings to regional organisations in the Indian Ocean and in Africa. Known abroad for its ‘economic success’, Mauritius aspires to become the regional hub of all possible things and it has positioned itself to be the financial gateway between Africa and Asia. Having ‘umbilical’ links with India, Mauritius has remained however pro-western with an impressive Francophone boost and a decline of the British influence. Politically African, Mauritius is now economically oriented towards Asia.