Mayotte

Mayotte exists because of a single vote. In 1974, when Comoros chose independence from France, 63.8% of Mahorans voted to stay French—creating an EU outpost surrounded by some of Africa's poorest islands, a gradient that still drives migration pressure half a century later.

The island's story begins with Arab-Persian merchants who arrived around the 9th century, replacing the tribal systems of earlier Bantu settlers with sultanates and Islam. By 1500, an independent sultanate ruled from Tsingoni, making Mayotte a waypoint on Indian Ocean trade routes linking Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar. The 19th century brought chaos as competing powers—Malagasy kings, Comorian sultans, pirates—fought for control of the archipelago. In 1835-36, Andriantsoly, a Malagasy king, conquered the island but found it depopulated and indefensible against rivals. Seeking protection, he negotiated with France, then establishing a naval base at nearby Nosy Bé. On April 25, 1841, Andriantsoly ceded Mayotte for payment and military protection—the only Comorian island France acquired by direct purchase rather than colonial conquest. Slavery was abolished immediately, reshaping the island's labor economy as slave-owning elites departed.

For over a century, Mayotte drifted as a colonial backwater, administered as part of 'Mayotte and Dependencies' while France extended control over the entire Comoros archipelago by 1885. The transformation came in 1974 when France offered Comoros a referendum on independence. Archipelago-wide, 94.6% voted yes—but Mayotte voted 63.8% to remain French, preferring continued colonial status to rule by the Comorian elite concentrated on Grande Comore. France accepted this island-by-island result despite UN General Assembly resolutions declaring it violated territorial integrity. A 1976 Security Council resolution recognizing Comorian sovereignty over Mayotte was vetoed by France—the only solo French veto in Council history. What followed were decades of ambiguous status: neither independent nor fully French. This changed in 2009 when 95.2% voted to become a full French department, achieved on March 31, 2011—making Mayotte the 101st department of France and, from January 2014, an outermost region of the EU.

The departmentalization created an impossible economic gradient: an EU territory with GDP per capita around $10,850 (eight times that of neighboring Comoros at $1,300) surrounded by islands in deep poverty. Today, roughly 100,000 of 320,000 residents lack documentation—arriving by kwassa-kwassa boats from Comoros despite French naval interdiction that has caused hundreds of drowning deaths. Economic statistics reveal colonial-era underdevelopment persisting into departmental status: 30% unemployment, 43% youth unemployment, 80% child poverty, and one-third of homes lacking running water. Cyclones Chido (December 2024) and Dikeledi (January 2025) devastated infrastructure, killing over 30 and displacing thousands. The 'Mayotte Standing' emergency plan committed €1.5 billion for reconstruction. In February 2025, France launched Operation Wuambushu 3 to demolish illegal housing and accelerate deportations—the third such operation since 2023.

By 2026, Mayotte tests whether an EU island can functionally exist surrounded by African poverty. Either Paris accepts permanent subsidy and migration pressure, or reconstruction money builds infrastructure that the gradient inevitably overwhelms. The vote in 1974 created a source-sink dynamic that may prove irreversible.