Réunion (French: La Réunion, previously Île Bourbon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately 550 km east of the island of Madagascar and 175 km southwest of the island of Mauritius. Like the other four overseas departments, Réunion also holds the status of a region of France, and is an integral part of the French Republic. Réunion is an outermost region of the European Union and is part of the eurozone. Réunion and the fellow French overseas department of Mayotte are the only eurozone regions located in the Southern Hemisphere.
The island has been inhabited since the 16th century, when people from France and Madagascar settled there. Slavery was abolished on 20 December 1848 (a date celebrated yearly on the island), when the French Second Republic abolished slavery in the French colonies. The island became an overseas department of France in 1946. | 
