Editing Diego Garcia (section)

===French settlement===
{{main|Chagossians}}

Most inhabitants of Diego Garcia through the period 1793–1971 were plantation workers, but also included Franco-Mauritian managers, Indo-Mauritian administrators, Mauritian and Seychellois contract employees, and in the late 19th century, Chinese and Somali employees.

A distinct Creole culture called the [[Îlois]], which means "islanders" in [[French-based creole languages|French Creole]], evolved from these workers. The Îlois, now called Chagos Islanders or Chagossians since the late-1990s, were descended primarily from [[slaves]] brought to the island from [[Madagascar]] by the French between 1793 and 1810, and [[Malay race|Malay]] slaves from the slave market on [[Nias Island|Pulo Nyas]], an island off the northwest coast of [[Sumatra]], from around 1820 until the slave trade ended following the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]].<ref name="reefnewmedia.co.uk">{{cite web|url=http://www.reefnewmedia.co.uk/cmt_chagos/uploads/PDF/Newsletters/ChagosNews14.pdf |title=Slavery in the Chagos Archipelago |access-date=21 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119043547/http://www.reefnewmedia.co.uk/cmt_chagos/uploads/PDF/Newsletters/ChagosNews14.pdf |archive-date=19 January 2012 }}</ref> The Îlois also evolved a French-based [[Mauritian Creole|Creole dialect]] now called [[Chagossian Creole]].

Throughout their recorded history, the plantations of the Chagos Archipelago had a population of approximately 1,000 individuals, about two-thirds of whom lived on Diego Garcia. A peak population of 1,142 on all islands was recorded in 1953.<ref name="Health_and_Mortality_papers"/>

The primary industry throughout the island's colonial period consisted of coconut [[plantations]] producing [[copra]] and/or [[coconut oil]],<ref name="Stoddart_209_218"/> until closure of the plantations and forced relocation of the inhabitants in October 1971. For a brief period in the 1880s, it served as a [[coaling station]] for steamships transiting the Indian Ocean from the [[Suez Canal]] to Australia.<ref>[[#Edis|Edis (2004)]], pp. 49–54.</ref>