Indian South Current

The southern Indian Ocean stretches between Africa and Australia, beyond the more enclosed trading seas along Asia's southern shores. Across the wider basin, European expansion gradually joined older Asian and African maritime networks. Portuguese ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope during the voyage begun in 1497, opening a sea approach from the Atlantic into Indian Ocean commerce. Their later establishment of the Estado da Índia connected coastal forts and naval force with trade. Other European powers subsequently developed island and coastal establishments. French plantations on Réunion and Mauritius relied heavily on enslaved people moved through regional networks. British forces captured the islands in 1810; Réunion returned to France in 1814. Despite prohibitions, clandestine shipments continued to supply plantation demand. The surrounding ocean linked imperial outposts within a wider system of long-distance voyages, island provisioning and rival colonial economies between the Cape, the Mascarenes and Asian ports.