Pre-colonial period Before the arrival of European colonials, the Guianas were populated by scattered bands of native
Arawak people. The native
tribes of the Northern
amazon forests are most closely related to the natives of the
Caribbean; most evidence suggests that the Arawaks immigrated from the
Orinoco and
Essequibo River Basins in Venezuela and Guiana into the northern islands, and were then supplanted by more warlike tribes of
Carib Indians, who departed from these same
river valleys a few centuries later. Over the centuries of the
pre-colonial period, the ebb and flow of power between Arawak and Carib interests throughout the Caribbean resulted in a great deal of intermingling (some forced through capture, some accidental through contact). This ethnic mixing, particularly in the Caribbean margins like the Guianas, produced a hybridised culture. Despite their political rivalry, the ethnic and cultural blending between the two groups had reached such a level that, by the time the Europeans arrived, the Carib/Arawak complex in Guiana was so homogeneous that the two groups were almost indistinguishable to outsiders. (1625). Situated on the west coast of the lake, the so-called city Manoa or El Dorado
European colonisation Christopher Columbus first spotted the coast of the Guianas in 1498, but real interest in the exploration and colonisation of the Guianas, which came to be known as the "Wild Coast," did not begin until the end of the sixteenth century. In 1542, when
Francisco de Orellana reached the mouth of the Amazon, he was pushed by winds and currents northwest along the Guiana coast until he reached a Spanish settlement west of Trinidad.
Walter Raleigh began the exploration of the Guianas in earnest in 1594. He was in search of a great golden city at the headwaters of the
Caroní River. A year later
he explored what is now
Guyana and
eastern Venezuela in search of "Manoa", the legendary city of the king known as
El Dorado. Raleigh described the city of El Dorado as being located on
Lake Parime far up the
Orinoco River in Guyana. Much of his exploration is documented in his books
The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana, published first in 1596, and
The Discovery of Guiana, and the Journal of the Second Voyage Thereto, published in 1606. After the publication of Raleigh's accounts, several other
European powers developed interest in the Guianas. The Dutch joined in the exploration of the Guianas before the end of the century. Between the start of the
Dutch Revolt in 1568 and 1648, when the
Treaty of Münster was signed with the Spanish, the Dutch cobbled together different ethnicities and tribes and religious faiths into a viable economic entity. When beginning an empire, the Dutch concerned themselves more with trade and establishing viable networks and outposts than with claiming tracts of land to act as a buffer against neighbouring states. With this goal in mind, the Dutch dispatched explorer
Jacob Cornelisz to survey the area in 1597. His clerk, Adriaen Cabeliau, related the voyage of Cornelisz and his survey of Indian groups and areas of potential trade partnerships in his diary. Throughout the seventeenth century, the Dutch made gains by establishing trading colonies and outposts in the region and in the neighbouring Caribbean islands under the banner of the
Dutch West India Company. The company, established in 1621 for such purposes, benefited from a larger investment of capital than the English, primarily through foreign investors like
Isaac de Pinto, a Portuguese Jew. The area was also cursorily explored by
Amerigo Vespucci and
Vasco Núñez de Balboa, and in 1608 the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany also organised an expedition to the Guianas, but this was cut short by the untimely death of the Grand Duke. and the Guianas in 1831, according to English cartography. English and Dutch settlers were regularly harassed by the Spanish and Portuguese, who viewed settlement of the area as a violation of the
Treaty of Tordesillas. In 1613, Dutch trading posts on the
Essequibo and
Corantijn Rivers were completely destroyed by Spanish troops. The troops had been sent into the Guianas from neighbouring Venezuela under the premise of stamping out
privateering and with the support of a cédula passed by the Spanish
Council of the Indies and
King Philip III. Nonetheless, the Dutch returned in 1615, founding a new settlement at present-day
Cayenne (later abandoned in favour of
Suriname), one on the
Wiapoco River (now more commonly known as the Oyapock) and one on the upper Amazon. By 1621, a charter was granted by the
Dutch States-General, but even a few years prior to the official chartering a fort and trading post had been built at Kijkoveral, under the supervision of Aert Groenewegen, at the confluence of the Essequibo,
Cuyuni, and
Mazaruni Rivers. British settlers also succeeded in establishing a small settlement in 1606 and a much larger one in modern-day
Suriname in 1650, under the leadership of former Barbadian governor Francis
Willoughby, Lord Parham. Gravesande’s tenure brought significant change to the colonies, though his policy was in many ways an extension of his predecessor, Hermanus Gelskerke. Commandeur Gelskerke had begun pressing for change from a trading focus to one of cultivation, especially of
sugar. The area east of the existing Essequibo colony, known as
Demerara, was relatively isolated and encompassed the trading areas of just a few indigenous tribes, thus it contained only two trading outposts during Gelskerke’s term of office. Demerara, though, showed great potential as a sugar-cultivating area, so the commandeur began shifting focus toward the development of the region, signifying his intentions by transferring the administrative center of the colony from Fort Kijkoveral to Flag Island, on the mouth of the Essequibo River, further east and closer to Demerara. These operations were carried out by Gravesande, acting as the Secretary of the Company under Gelskerke. Upon Gelskerke’s death, Gravesande continued the policy of Demerara expansion and the move to sugar cultivation. Conflict among the British, Dutch, and French continued throughout the seventeenth century. The
Treaty of Breda (1667) sealed peace between the English and the Dutch. The treaty allowed the Dutch to retain control over the valuable sugar plantations and factories on the coast of
Suriname which had been secured by
Abraham Crijnssen earlier in 1667. All the colonies along the Guiana coast were converted to profitable
sugar plantations during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. War continued off and on among the three principal powers in the Guianas (the Netherlands, France, and Britain) until a final peace was signed in 1814 (the
Convention of London), heavily favouring the British. By this time France had sold off most of its North American territory in the
Louisiana Purchase and had lost all but
Guadeloupe,
Martinique, and
French Guiana in the Caribbean region. The Dutch lost
Berbice, Essequibo, and Demerara; these colonies were consolidated under a central British administration and would be known after 1831 as
British Guiana. The Dutch retained Suriname. After 1814, the Guianas came to be recognised individually as
British Guiana,
French Guiana, and
Dutch Guiana. == Demographics ==