Reunion Island

Réunion is a mountainous volcanic island in the Mascarene group, east of Madagascar. Deep ravines cut its slopes, and the Piton de la Fournaise rises above its southeastern coast. The French called the island Bourbon and established a lasting settlement in the seventeenth century. Coffee cultivation expanded in the eighteenth century, relying heavily on enslaved people brought across the ocean, particularly from Madagascar and the eastern coast of Africa.