Editing History of Guyana (section)

===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}}