One of the Indian Ocean Islands, east of Madagascar. Its capital is Saint-Denis. It was discovered in 1507 by the Portuguese and claimed by France in 1638. It was first colonized in 1662 as Isle de Bourbon but renamed Reunion in 1793. In 1946 it was made an overseas department of France. The name commemorates the reunion of the revolutionaries from Marseilles with the National Guard in Paris in 1792. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p1011; Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p454; French Embassy)
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