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The Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811 was a series of amphibious operations and naval actions fought to determine possession of the French Indian Ocean territories of Isle de France and Île Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. The campaign lasted from the spring of 1809 until the spring of 1811, and saw both the Royal Navy and the French Navy deploy substantial frigate squadrons with the intention of disrupting or protecting trade from British India. In a war in which the Royal Navy was almost universally dominant at sea, the campaign is especially notable for the local superiority enjoyed by the French Navy in the autumn of 1810 following the British disaster at the Battle of Grand Port, the most significant defeat for the Royal Navy in the entire conflict. After their victory, the British used the original Dutch name of Mauritius for Isle de France. In 1814, Île Bonaparte was returned to France, who eventually renamed it La Réunion. The Royal Navy had been planning an operation against Isle de France since neutralizing the threats from Cape Town and Java in the Dutch East Indies in 1806, but was forced to act earlier than expected following the despatch from France of a powerful frigate squadron under Commodore Jacques Hamelin in late 1808. This French force was able to capture a number of East Indiamen and disrupt trade routes across the Indian Ocean by raiding the convoys in which the merchant ships travelled. Forced to confront this enemy, Admiral Albemarle Bertie at the Cape of Good Hope ordered Commodore Josias Rowley to blockade the French islands and prevent their use as raiding bases. For the next two years, the British raided ports and anchorages on the French islands while the French attacked trade convoys in the wider ocean. The British were able to slowly reduce the French presence by eliminating their bases through limited invasions, but suffered a major setback at Grand Port in August 1810 and were forced onto the defensive in the autumn. Hamelin was eventually defeated only after being personally captured on his flagship ''Vénus'' by Rowley, shortly before substantial reinforcements arrived under Bertie to seize Isle de France. Throughout the campaign Hamelin was unable to secure reinforcement from France—almost all attempts to break through the British blockade of French ports proved futile and only one frigate successfully reached in the Indian Ocean before the surrender of Isle de France. The final such attempt arrived off Mauritius in May 1811, only to discover that the island was in British hands. On the return journey, the force was attacked by a British squadron off Madagascar and defeated, leaving the British in complete control of the Indian Ocean. ==Background== The Indian Ocean was a vital part of the chain of trade links that connected the British Empire. Merchant ships from China, Arabia and East Africa crossed it regularly and at its centre was the British-held continent of India, from which heavily laden East Indiamen brought millions of pounds worth of trade goods to Britain every year.〔 Trade with India was vital to the financial security of Britain and consequently the trade routes across the Indian Ocean were a high priority for protection from the Royal Navy and at serious risk from French raiders.〔Mostert, p. 577〕 The outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803, following the brief Peace of Amiens that had ended the French Revolutionary Wars, placed the Indian Ocean trade routes under threat from Dutch cruisers operating from Cape Town and the Dutch East Indies and French ships based on Isle de France and the newly renamed Île Bonaparte.〔Gardiner, p. 92〕 By 1808, most the Dutch colonies had been neutralised in a series of brief but successful campaigns; the Cape by Sir Home Riggs Popham in January 1806 and the Dutch island of Java by Sir Edward Pellew in a campaign that ended in December 1807. The French Indian Ocean islands were however far more defensible: heavily fortified, garrisoned by regular French soldiers and several months voyage from the nearest British port, they presented a much greater challenge to the limited British forces available in the region.〔 At the beginning of the war, as in the preceding conflict, French privateers operated from the islands, including a fleet of small vessels run by Robert Surcouf. Supplementing these ships were occasional French naval vessels, principally the frigate ''Piémontaise'' (captured in March 1808) and the old frigates ''Sémillante'' and ''Cannonière''. These ships operated independently of one another and achieved minor successes against smaller British warships and merchant vessels but were not powerful enough to have a serious effect on the Indian Ocean trade routes.〔Gardiner, p. 83〕 In August 1808, ''Sémillante'' and ''Cannonière'' were downgraded to armed storeships and sent back to France.〔James, Vol. 5, p. 261〕 To replace these ships, four large frigates under Jacques Hamelin were sent to Governor Charles Decaen on Isle de France in the late autumn of 1808. These vessels, ''Vénus'', ''Manche'', ''Caroline'' and ''Bellone'' were large and powerful ships under orders to operate from Isle de France and Île Bonaparte against British trade in the Indian Ocean.〔James, Vol. 5, p. 192〕 Based on Isle de France, these frigates had access to large numbers of unemployed sailors and several fortified anchorages from which to launch raids on the British trade routes. A fifth frigate, ''Niémen'', was to have joined the force in the summer of 1809, but was intercepted and captured within hours of leaving France at the Action of 6 April 1809.〔Woodman, p. 282〕 To counteract the French deployment to the region, a small British force was organised by Vice-Admiral Albemarle Bertie at Cape Town under the command of Commodore Josias Rowley, with orders to blockade Isle de France and Île Bonaparte and seize or destroy any French ships that operated from the islands. To perform this task, Rowley was given the old ship of the line HMS ''Raisonnable'', the fourth rate HMS ''Leopard'', frigates HMS ''Nereide'', HMS ''Sirius'' and HMS ''Boadicea'' and a number of smaller ships. Both the British and the French squadrons reached the Indian Ocean in the spring of 1809.〔James, Vol. 5, p. 192–195〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mauritius campaign of 1809–11」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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