# Decaen Takes Command (1803)

URL: https://allhistories.com/mauritius/timeline/1803-decaen-takes-command
Location: Port Louis, Mauritius
Themes: main-event

During the Peace of Amiens, Napoleon sent General Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen, a veteran of Hohenlinden, to recover the French establishments in India. He reached Pondicherry in July 1803, but with war about to resume the British refused to hand it over, and he sailed for Isle de France, arriving in August 1803 with Rear-Admiral Linois's squadron. Decaen took office as captain-general of the French establishments east of the Cape of Good Hope on 26 September 1803. He dissolved the Colonial Assembly and the municipalities, ending the colonists' self-government, and introduced a centralised administration shared between himself, a colonial prefect, Louis Léger, and a commissioner of justice. He reorganised the militia, strengthened the fortifications, encouraged privateering and agriculture, and published the Code Decaen (1804), which consolidated the slave regulations based on the Code Noir. Slavery was formally maintained in line with Napoleon's law of 1802. Decaen governed for seven years with authoritarian energy and considerable administrative skill. Many of the institutions he created, including the Napoleonic civil law and the structure of the colonial administration, survived the British conquest of 1810, whose terms of capitulation guaranteed the inhabitants' laws, customs and religion. At this point in the timeline (August–September 1803), the First Consul of the French Republic was Napoleon Bonaparte (First Consul) (10 November 1799 – 18 May 1804); the Captain-General of the French Establishments east of the Cape of Good Hope was Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen (26 September 1803 – 3 December 1810).

## Why it matters
Decaen's reforms gave Mauritius its Napoleonic legal and administrative framework, which outlasted French rule.

Ruler at the Time: [Napoleon Bonaparte (First Consul)](https://allhistories.com/mauritius/rulers/napoleon-first-consul)

Captain-General of the French Establishments east of the Cape of Good Hope: Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mathieu_Isidore_Decaen)
- [French Wikipedia — Code Decaen](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Decaen)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Charles-Mathieu-Isidore Decaen](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Charles+Decaen)
- [Wikipedia — Governor of Isle de France (Mauritius)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Isle_de_France_(Mauritius))
- [Wikipedia — Isle De France (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_de_France_(Mauritius))