Guyana – from Dutch plantations to an independent republic
Long before Europeans arrived, Guyana was home to Indigenous peoples such as the Arawak, Carib and Warao, whose descendants still live in the country today. From the seventeenth century the Dutch established the colonies of Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara, where enslaved Africans were forced to work on sugar plantations. In 1763 a major slave uprising in Berbice, led by Cuffy, became a symbol of resistance.
In the early nineteenth century the colonies passed to Britain and were united as British Guiana. After the abolition of slavery, the planters brought indentured labourers, above all from India, as well as from Portugal and China. This shaped Guyana's multi-ethnic society, whose Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese communities remain its largest groups.
In the twentieth century a strong independence movement emerged around figures such as Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham. Guyana became independent in 1966 and in 1970 was proclaimed a Co-operative Republic. The following decades were marked by economic difficulties and ethnic political tensions, and a long-standing border dispute with Venezuela over the Essequibo region continues. The discovery of offshore oil in the 2010s began a new economic chapter.
Today Guyana is shaped by its rainforests and rivers, its diverse cultural heritage and its identity as the only English-speaking country in South America.
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