Editing History of Guyana (section)

==Colonial Guyana==
[[File:Guiana and Amazon Region - 1649.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|A map created circa 1649 depicting the Guiana region. Territory claimed by Spain in red to the west, Dutch Guiana highlighted in yellow and Portuguese territory in red to the southeast. The mythical Lake Parime is also visible.]]

===Early colonization===
[[File:LocationNetherlandsGuiana.png|thumb|right|250px|A map of Dutch Guiana 1667–1814 CE.]]
The [[Netherlands|Dutch]] were the first Europeans to settle modern-day Guyana. The Netherlands had [[Dutch Revolt|obtained independence from Spain]] in the late 16th century and by the early 17th century had emerged as a major commercial power, trading with the fledgling English and French colonies in the Lesser Antilles. In 1616 the Dutch established the first European settlement in the area of Guyana,<ref name="ciawfguy" /> a trading post twenty-five kilometers upstream from the mouth of the [[Essequibo River]].<ref name="caricom" /> Other settlements followed, usually a few kilometers inland on the larger rivers. The initial purpose of the Dutch settlements was trade with the Indigenous people. The Dutch aim soon changed to the acquisition of territory as other European powers gained colonies elsewhere in the Caribbean. Although Guyana was claimed by the Spanish,<ref name="bocthis">{{cite web|last=Bocinski|first=Jessica|url=https://scalar.chapman.edu/scalar/this-land-is-your-land/history-of-guyana|title=Guyana: An Introduction|website=This Land Is Your Land|publisher=[[Chapman University]]|date=November 3, 2021|access-date=July 12, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712182823/https://scalar.chapman.edu/scalar/this-land-is-your-land/history-of-guyana|archive-date=July 12, 2023|url-status=live}}</ref> who sent periodic patrols through the region, the Dutch gained control over the region early in the 17th century. Dutch sovereignty was officially recognized with the signing of the [[Peace of Münster|Treaty of Munster]] in 1648.{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=6}} European contact and colonization would have a "catastrophic effect" on indigenous communities, due to diseases, Indian slave trade, intense warfare, and forced migration.{{sfn|Thompson|1991|pp=13}}

In 1621 the government of the Netherlands gave the newly formed [[Dutch West India Company]] complete control over the trading post on the Essequibo. This Dutch commercial concern administered the colony, known as [[Essequibo (colony)|Essequibo]], for more than 170 years. The company established a second colony, on the [[Berbice River]] southeast of [[Essequibo (colony)|Essequibo]], in 1627.<ref name="bocthis" /> Although under the general jurisdiction of this private group, the settlement, named [[Berbice]], was governed separately. [[Demerara]], situated between Essequibo and Berbice, was settled in 1741 and emerged in 1773 as a separate colony under the direct control of the Dutch West India Company. In these colonies, enslaved Africans produced "coffee, sugar and cotton...for the Dutch market."<ref name="lei2020">{{cite web|url=https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2020/02/the-forgotten-history-of-dutch-slavery-in-guyana|title=The forgotten history of Dutch slavery in Guyana|website=[[Leiden University]]|date=February 26, 2020|access-date=July 12, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120060903/https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2020/02/the-forgotten-history-of-dutch-slavery-in-guyana|archive-date=January 20, 2023|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although the Dutch colonizers initially were motivated by the prospect of trade in the Caribbean, their possessions became significant producers of crops. The growing importance of agriculture was indicated by the export of 15,000 kilograms of [[tobacco]] from Essequibo in 1623. But as the agricultural productivity of the Dutch colonies increased, a labour shortage emerged. The indigenous populations were poorly adapted for work on [[plantations]], and many people died from [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas#Depopulation from disease|diseases introduced by the Europeans]]. The early Dutch settlers, pushed Indians out of their homelands and those they couldn't they wipe out with a combination of strategy and "superior military technology".{{sfn|Thompson|1991|pp=13-14}} Ultimately, Dutch presence in Guyana resulted in internal rather than outward migration of Indians, in part due to pull and push of Dutch trade. Although effective jurisdiction from the Dutch "touched relatively few Indians", relations between the Dutch and Indigenous people were "often punctuated by physical conflicts".{{sfn|Thompson|1991|pp=14-15, 18, 20}} The Dutch West India Company turned to the importation of [[Atlantic slave trade|enslaved Africans]], who rapidly became a key element in the colonial economy. By the 1660s, the enslaved population numbered about 2,500; the number of indigenous people was estimated at 50,000, most of whom had retreated into the vast hinterland. Although enslaved Africans were considered an essential element of the colonial economy, their working conditions were brutal. The mortality rate was high, and the dismal conditions led to more than half a dozen rebellions led by the enslaved Africans.{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=6-7}} At the end of the eighteenth century, the number of people who were enslaved within Guyana was "roughly equal that in Suriname" while millions were invested so that goods could be created for Dutch market "using forced labour by African people".<ref name="lei2020" />

The most famous uprising of the enslaved Africans, the [[Berbice Slave Uprising]], began in February 1763. On two plantations on the [[Canje River]] in Berbice, the enslaved Africans rebelled, taking control of the region. As plantation after plantation fell to the enslaved Africans, the European population fled; eventually only half of the whites who had lived in the colony remained. Led by [[Coffy (person)|Coffy]] (now the national hero of Guyana), the escaped enslaved Africans came to number about 3,000 and threatened European control over the Guianas. The rebels were defeated with the assistance of troops from neighboring European colonies like from the British, French, [[Sint Eustatius]] and overseas from the [[Dutch Republic]]. The 1763 Monument on Square of the Revolution in Georgetown, Guyana commemorates the uprising.{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=7}}

===Transition to British Rule===
[[File:Boundary lines of British Guiana 1896.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Map of British Guiana.]]
Eager to attract more settlers, in 1746 the Dutch authorities opened the area near the [[Demerara River]] to British immigrants. British plantation owners in the Lesser Antilles had been plagued by poor soil and erosion, and many were lured to the Dutch colonies by richer soils and the promise of land ownership. The influx of British citizens was so great that by 1760 the English constituted a majority of the European population of Demerara. By 1786 the internal affairs of this Dutch colony were effectively under British control,{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=7}} though two-thirds of the plantation owners were still Dutch.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Kreeke |first=Frank van de |date=2013 |title=Essequebo en Demerary, 1741-1781: beginfase van de Britse overname |url=https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/20720/VdKreeke,%20Essequebo%20en%20Demerary%201741-1781.pdf |type=Masters |publisher=[[Leiden University]] |access-date=July 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051216/https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/20720/VdKreeke,%20Essequebo%20en%20Demerary%201741-1781.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> Under the British, the colonies became a huge cotton producer. This was thanks to the groundwork laid "during the Dutch colonial era".<ref name="lei2020" />

As economic growth accelerated in Demerara and Essequibo, strains began to appear in the relations between the planters and the Dutch West India Company. Administrative reforms during the early 1770s had greatly increased the cost of government. The company periodically sought to raise taxes to cover these expenditures and thereby provoked the resistance of the planters. In 1781 a [[Fourth Anglo-Dutch War|war]] broke out between the Netherlands and Britain, which resulted in the British occupation of Berbice, Essequibo, and Demerara.{{sfn|Shameerudeen|2020|pp=149}} Some months later, France, allied with the Netherlands, seized control of the colonies. The French governed for two years, during which they constructed a new town, Longchamps, at the mouth of the Demerara River. When the Dutch regained power in 1784, they moved their colonial capital to Longchamps, which they renamed Stabroek. The capital was in 1812 renamed [[Georgetown, Guyana|Georgetown]] by the British.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mccgt.com/history/|title=History of Georgetown|website=M&CC Georgetown, Guyana|date=11 December 2020 |access-date=July 11, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130073304/https://mccgt.com/history/|archive-date=January 30, 2023|url-status=live}}</ref>

The return of Dutch rule reignited conflict between the planters of Essequibo and Demerara and the Dutch West India Company. Disturbed by plans for an increase in the slave tax and a reduction in their representation on the colony's judicial and policy councils, the colonists petitioned the Dutch government to consider their grievances. In response, a special committee was appointed, which proceeded to draw up a report called the [[Concept Plan of Redress]]. This document called for far-reaching constitutional reforms and later became the basis of the British governmental structure. The plan proposed a decision-making body to be known as the [[Court of Policy]]. The judiciary was to consist of two courts of justice, one serving Demerara and the other Essequibo. The membership of the Court of Policy and of the courts of justice would consist of company officials and planters who owned more than twenty-five slaves. The Dutch commission that was assigned the responsibility of implementing this new system of government returned to the Netherlands with extremely unfavourable reports concerning the Dutch West India Company's administration. The company's charter, therefore, was allowed to expire in 1792 and the Concept Plan of Redress was put into effect in Demerara and Essequibo. Renamed the [[Demerara-Essequibo|United Colony of Demerara and Essequibo]], the area then came under the direct control of the Dutch government. Berbice maintained its status as a separate colony.{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=8-9}}

The catalyst for formal British takeover was the [[French Revolution]] and the subsequent [[Napoleonic Wars]]. In 1795 the French occupied the Netherlands. The British declared war on France and in 1796 launched an expeditionary force from [[Barbados]] to occupy the Dutch colonies. The British takeover was bloodless, and the local Dutch administration of the colony was left relatively uninterrupted under the constitution provided by the Concept Plan of Redress.{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=9}} Like the Dutch, the British, during their occupation of Guyana, also worried about not having control over indigenous people.{{sfn|Thompson|1991|pp=19}} By means of the [[Treaty of Amiens]], both were returned to Dutch control. Peace was short-lived, however. The war between Britain and France resumed in less than a year, and in 1803 the United Colony and [[Berbice]] were seized once more by British troops.{{sfn|Black|2005|pp=151}} At the [[London Convention of 1814]], both colonies were formally ceded to Britain. In 1831, Berbice and the United Colony of Demerara and [[Essequibo (colony)|Essequibo]] were unified as [[British Guiana]].{{sfn|Black|2005|pp=150}}<ref name="ciawfguy" /> The colony would remain under British control until independence in 1966.{{sfn|Shameerudeen|2020|pp=149}}{{sfn|Black|2005|pp=152}}

===Origins of the border dispute with Venezuela===
{{Main|Guyana-Venezuela border}}
[[File:Mapa politico de Venezuela 1840 restored version.jpg|thumb|250px|Political map of [[Venezuela]] in 1840, extending to the Essequibo border.]]
When Britain gained formal control over what is now Guyana in 1814,<ref name="caricom" /><ref name="bocthis" /> it also became involved in one of Latin America's most persistent border disputes. At the London Convention of 1814, the Dutch surrendered the United Colony of Demerara and Essequibo and Berbice to the British, a colony which had the Essequibo river as its west border with the Spanish colony of Venezuela. Although Spain still claimed the region, the Spanish did not contest the treaty because they were preoccupied with their own colonies' struggles for independence. In 1835 the British government asked German explorer [[Robert Hermann Schomburgk]] to map British Guiana and mark its boundaries. As ordered by the British authorities, Schomburgk began British Guiana's western boundary with [[Venezuela]] at the mouth of the [[Orinoco River]], although all the Venezuelan maps showed the Essequibo river as the east border of the country. A map of the British colony was published in 1840. Venezuela protested, claiming the entire area west of the Essequibo River. Negotiations between Britain and Venezuela over the boundary began, but the two nations could reach no compromise. In 1850 both agreed not to occupy the disputed zone.{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=10}}

The discovery of gold in the contested area in the late 1850s reignited the dispute. British settlers moved into the region and the [[British Guiana Mining Company]] was formed to mine the deposits. Over the years, Venezuela made repeated protests and proposed arbitration, but the British government was uninterested. Venezuela finally broke diplomatic relations with Britain in 1887 and appealed to the United States for help. The British at first rebuffed the United States government's suggestion of arbitration, but when President [[Grover Cleveland]] threatened to intervene according to the [[Monroe Doctrine]], Britain agreed to let an international tribunal arbitrate the boundary in 1897.{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=10-11}}

For two years, the tribunal consisting of two Britons, two Americans, and a Russian studied the case in Paris (France).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://legal.un.org/riaa/cases/vol_XXVIII/331-340.pdf|title=Award regarding the Boundary between the Colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela|website=[[United Nations]]|date=October 3, 1899|pages=331–340 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605010704/https://legal.un.org/riaa/cases/vol_XXVIII/331-340.pdf |archive-date=June 5, 2023}}</ref> Their three-to-two decision, handed down in 1899, awarded 94 percent of the disputed territory to British Guiana. Venezuela received only the mouths of the Orinoco River and a short stretch of the Atlantic coastline just to the east. Although Venezuela was unhappy with the decision, a commission surveyed a new border in accordance with the award, and both sides accepted the boundary in 1905. The issue was considered settled for the next half-century.<ref name="borderdispute" />

From 1990 to 2017, the [[United Nations Secretary-General]] attempted to find a solution to the border dispute, with [[Ban Ki-moon]] sharing a draft framework to end the dispute. Then, in January 2018, 
[[António Guterres]] chose the [[International Court of Justice]] to resolve the dispute, believing that he remained committed to helping remove this dispute.<ref name="borderdispute">{{cite web|url=https://dppa.un.org/en/mission/border-controversy-between-guyana-and-venezuela|title=Border Controversy between Guyana and Venezuela|website=Political and Peacebuilding Affairs|publisher=[[United Nations]]|access-date=July 12, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519042155/https://dppa.un.org/en/mission/border-controversy-between-guyana-and-venezuela|archive-date=May 19, 2023|url-status=live}}</ref> Guyana then filed an application beginning "proceedings against Venezuela" in March 2018. This led to ongoing decisions by the International Court of Justice, aimed at ending the dispute.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.icj-cij.org/case/171|title=Arbitral Award of 3 October 1899 (Guyana v. Venezuela)|website=[[International Court of Justice]]|access-date=July 12, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530202202/https://icj-cij.org/case/171|archive-date=May 30, 2023|url-status=live}}</ref>

===The early British Colony and the labor problem===
[[File:Plate 6 Provisional Battalion.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Georgetown in 1823 CE.]]
Political, economic, and social life in the 19th century was dominated by a European planter class. Although the smallest group in terms of numbers, members of the [[plantocracy]] had links to British commercial interests in London and often enjoyed close ties to the governor, who was appointed by the monarch. The plantocracy, including those from [[Scotland]], also controlled exports and the working conditions of the majority of the population.<ref name="singh2019" /> The next social stratum consisted of a small number of [[freed slaves]], many of mixed African and European heritage, in addition to some [[Portugal|Portuguese]] merchants. At the lowest level of society was the majority, the African slaves who lived and worked in the countryside, where the plantations were located. Unconnected to colonial life, small groups of Amerindians lived in the hinterland.{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=9}} The British believed that Indigenous people in Guyana would be an important as a form of security "in times of slave uprisings".{{sfn|Thompson|1991|pp=19}} Under the British, the colonies even became probably the biggest cotton producers in the world, something that was only possible because of the basis that was laid during the Dutch colonial era. One scholar, Bram Hoonhout, believed that without support from Indigenous groups, there would have been many more uprisings by enslaved people.<ref name="lei2020" />

Colonial life was changed radically by the demise of slavery. Although the international slave trade was [[Slave Trade Act 1807|abolished]] in the [[British Empire]] in 1807, slavery itself continued. In what is known as the [[Demerara rebellion of 1823]] 10–13,000 slaves in [[Demerara-Essequibo]] rose up against their oppressors.{{sfn|Révauger|2008|pp=105–106}} Although the rebellion was easily crushed,{{sfn|Révauger|2008|pp=105–106}} the momentum for abolition remained, and by 1838 total emancipation had been effected. The end of slavery had several ramifications. Most significantly, many former slaves rapidly departed the plantations. Some ex-slaves moved to towns and villages, feeling that field labor was degrading and inconsistent with freedom, but others pooled their resources to purchase the abandoned estates of their former masters and created village communities. Establishing small settlements provided the new [[Afro-Guyanese people|Afro-Guyanese]] communities an opportunity to grow and sell food, an extension of a practice under which slaves had been allowed to keep the money that came from the sale of any surplus produce. The emergence of an independent-minded Afro-Guyanese peasant class, however, threatened the planters' political power, inasmuch as the planters no longer held a near-monopoly on the colony's economic activity.{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=9-10}}

For some plantation owners, Guyana had more "fertile territory"{{sfn|Ward|1991|pp=81}} and gained more "substantial profits", even after abolition of slavery, than any of their plantations elsewhere, whether in [[Trinidad and Tobago]], [[St. Lucia]], [[Nevis]], or [[Jamaica]]. At the time that the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]] was passed, [[chattel slavery]] was ended, and the 46,000 slaveowners in Britain and its colonies were compensated for "property" loss.<ref name="singh2019">{{cite web|last=Singh|first=Yvonne|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/apr/16/scotland-guyana-past-abolitionists-slavery-caribbean|title=How Scotland erased Guyana from its past|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=April 16, 2019|access-date=July 11, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425131253/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/apr/16/scotland-guyana-past-abolitionists-slavery-caribbean|archive-date=April 25, 2023|url-status=live}}</ref> Some scholars stated that 
British Guinea used more fixed capital per slave than other colonies, like use of large boiling-houses and steam engines.{{sfn|Ward|1991|pp=85}}

Emancipation also resulted in the introduction of new ethnic and cultural groups into British Guiana.<ref name="bocthis" /> The departure of the Afro-Guyanese from the sugar plantations soon led to labour shortages. After unsuccessful attempts throughout the 19th century to attract Portuguese workers from [[Madeira]], the estate owners were again left with an inadequate supply of labour. [[Portuguese Guyanese]] had not taken to plantation work and soon moved into other parts of the economy, especially retail business, where they became competitors with the new Afro-Guyanese middle class. Some 14,000 Chinese came to the colony between 1853 and 1912. Like their Portuguese predecessors, the [[Chinese Guyanese]] forsook the plantations for the retail trades and soon became assimilated into Guianese society.{{sfn|MacDonald|1993|pp=10}}

Concerned about the plantations' shrinking labor pool and the potential decline of the [[sugar]] sector, British authorities, like their counterparts in Dutch Guiana, began to contract for the services of poorly paid [[indentured workers from India]].{{sfn|Shameerudeen|2020|pp=146-147}}<ref name="ciawfguy" /> The East Indians, as this group was known locally, signed on for a certain number of years, after which, in theory, they would return to India with their savings from working in the sugar fields. The introduction of indentured East Indian workers alleviated the [[labor shortage]] and added another group to Guyana's ethnic mix. A majority of the [[Indo-Guyanese]] workers had their origins in eastern Uttar Pradesh, with a smaller amount coming from Tamil and Telugu speaking areas in southern India. A small minority of these workers came from other areas such as Bengal, Punjab, and Gujarat.{{sfn|Shameerudeen|2020|pp=146}} The indenture service in Guyana, which began with arrival of 396 immigrans from India known as the "Gladstone Coolies" in May 1838,<ref name="mangru1986">{{cite journal |last1=Mangru |first1=Basdeo |date=April 1986 |title=Indian Labour in British Guiana |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/indian-labour-british-guiana |journal=[[History Today]] |volume=36 |issue=4 |access-date=July 12, 2023}}</ref> would not end until 1917.{{sfn|Shameerudeen|2020|pp=146}}