La Réunion est une île de formation volcanique de l’Océan Indien dans l’archipel des Mascareignes. Elle se situe à environ 700 km à l’est de Madagascar et à 200 km au sud-ouest de l’île Maurice. Inhabitée jusqu'en 1665, son territoire de 2 512 km² compte aujourd’hui, trois siècles et demi plus tard, près de 800 000 habitants, d’origines africaines, européennes et asiatiques, souvent très métissées. Administrativement, La Réunion est en France à la fois une région d’outre-mer et un département d’outre-mer (numéro 974), ainsi qu’une région ultrapériphérique de l’Union Européenne .
Réunion is an island and overseas department of France, located in the Indian Ocean east of ► Madagascar, about 200 km southwest of ► Mauritius, the nearest island. Like the other overseas departments, Réunion is also one of the twenty-six regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic with the same status as those situated on the European mainland. Mostly south east of Réunion lie the ► French Southern and Antarctic Lands.
Short name
Réunion
Official name
Département et région de La Réunion
Status
► French overseas region and department, French since
This section holds a short summary of the history of the area of present-day Réunion, illustrated with maps, including historical maps of former countries and empires that included present-day Réunion.
Carte de 1763
Notes and references
General remarks:
The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons. The main page is therefore the portal to maps and cartography on Wikimedia. That page contains links to entries by country, continent and by topic as well as general notes and references.
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The status of various entities is disputed. See the content for the entities concerned.
The maps of former countries that are more or less continued by a present-day country or had a territory included in only one or two countries are included in the atlas of the present-day country. For example the Ottoman Empire can be found in the Atlas of Turkey.
