This dissertation investigates the role of the colonial state in mediating the impact of the great depression and the Second World War on Mauritius and situates the changes in the process of state formation. It analyses the responses of the economy and society to these major events and shows how the colonial state was forced to transform itself to meet the new challenges. The impact of the depression and the Second World War on the colonial economy and society was profound and highlighted the dependence of the economy on external factors. At the local level, deep structural forces such as the economic power of capital, the social structure as well as its own priorities led the colonial state, despite its relative autonomy, to give inadequate protection to labour and the other classes. The colonial state tilted the balance on the side of capital with the result that the relations between capital and the other classes deteriorated and culminated into the colonial crisis of 1937. This was a turning point in the history of the island. The colonial state was compelled to respond to the crisis to save the colonial order and to address age-long problems which had plagued colonial society. In the aftermath of the crisis, the colonial state took the initiative to embark on a policy of reconstruction. The outbreak of the Second World War exacerbated a number of economic and social problems and created others. But the war for also strengthened the colonial state to plan the reconstruction of the post-war society. Emboldened by the imperial policy of colonial development and welfare, state intervention, supported by a sophisticated bureaucracy, was relatively successful in modernising colonial society by pursuing a policy of accommodation and creating new structures of collaboration.