REUNION

Runion, officially Department of Runion, French Departement d’Outre-Mer de la Reunion, island of the Mascarene Islands and a French overseas departement and overseas region in the western Indian Ocean. It is located about 420 miles (680 km) east of Madagascar and 110 miles (180 km) southwest of Mauritius.

Runion is almost elliptical in shape, about 40 miles (65 km) long and 30 miles (50 km) wide. The capital is Saint-Denis, on the northern coast.

Of volcanic origin, Runion consists mostly of rugged mountains in an advanced state of dissection by short torrential rivers. The west-central area contains a mountain massif with three summits exceeding 9,000 feet (2,740 metres), including the Piton des Neiges (10,069 feet [3,069 metres]). The massif is encircled by several wide basins and a series of smaller plateaus. In the eastern part of the island is an area of more recent volcanism, and in the extreme east is the mountain Le Volcan, one of whose craters, Piton de la Fournaise, has been active several times since 1925. Reunion’s coast has no good natural harbours

Runion was first settled in the 17th century by colonists from France. Slave labourers were brought in from East Africa to work on plantations, and later Malays, Annamites, Chinese, and Malabar Indians were imported as indentured labourers. Today the greatest proportion of the population is of mixed descent (African, European, and South Asian). The limited amount of land has induced substantial emigration, largely to France but also to Madagascar.