Seychelles

From empty islands to Creole republic

Seychelles is an archipelago of granitic and coral islands in the western Indian Ocean that had no native human population. Sighted by European navigators in the sixteenth century and long a haunt of pirates, it was claimed by France in 1756, settled from 1770 with enslaved Africans on its plantations, and ceded to Britain in 1814. Out of slavery and the later settlement of Africans rescued from slave ships grew a distinct Creole society. Seychelles became independent on 29 June 1976, passed through a 1977 coup and a one-party socialist era, returned to multiparty democracy in 1993, and today is a high-income nation built on tourism and tuna.