The Royal Navy had been planning an operation against Isle de France since the capture of 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 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.
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| - Mauritius campaign of 1809–11
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| - The Royal Navy had been planning an operation against Isle de France since the capture of 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 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.
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| - Isle de France ceded to Great Britain
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| - Ceylon and Vénus, Pierre Julien Gilbert, 1835
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| Result
| - British victory,
- Île Bonaparte and Isle de France captured and occupied by the British
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| - The Royal Navy had been planning an operation against Isle de France since the capture of 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 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.
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