"Seychelles has hitherto had no definitive scholarly history and Deryck Scarr's engagingly written Seychelles since 1770 goes a long way to rectify this omission. This archipelago in the Indian Ocean was first colonised by France but ruled for much longer by the British, and it is home to a distinctive society that was once dominated by Francophone planters wedded to the institution of slavery. These Grand Blancs fought a long rearguard action, after their former slaves become a Creole underclass, against both reactionary and reforming British officials. With independence the game only became more complicated and dangerous." "Scarr disposes of many myths of Seychelles being, for instance, a peculiarly harmonious colonial society with all questions of social and political distinction based on colour being erased by miscegenation. He recounts the evolution of the society, originally an offshoot of Mauritius and Reunion, the immobile years of the earlier twentieth century, the post-war surge for social welfare, the granting of independence in 1976 under President J.R.M. Mancham, the changes precipitated by tourism, and the coup of 1977 which brought Albert Rene to power, with its aftermath."--BOOK JACKET.