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British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.
The area was originally settled by the Dutch as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice. These three colonies were captured by the British in 1796, officially ceded to the United Kingdom in 1814, and consolidated into a single colony in 1831. The colony's capital was at Georgetown (known as Stabroek prior to 1812). Guyana went on to become independent of the United Kingdom on 26 May 1966.
There had been at least two unsuccessful attempts by the British to colonize the lands that would later be known as British Guiana during the 17th century, when the Dutch had established two colonies in the area: Essequibo, administered by the Dutch West India Company, and Berbice, administered by the Berbice Association. A third colony, Demerara, was established under the West India Company in the mid-18th century. Effective British control began in 1796 during the French Revolutionary Wars, at which time the Netherlands were under French occupation and Great Britain and France were at war. A British expeditionary force was dispatched from its colony of Barbados to seize the colonies from the French-dominated Batavian Republic. The colonies surrendered without a struggle, and initially very little changed, as the British agreed to allow the long-established laws of the colonies to remain in force.
In 1802 the colonies were returned to the Batavian Republic under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens, but the United Kingdom seized the colonies again less than one year later upon resumption of hostilities with France in the Napoleonic Wars in 1803. The three colonies were officially ceded to the United Kingdom in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. The UK continued separate administration of the colonies until 1812, when the administration of Essequibo and Demerara was combined. In 1831, the administration Essequibo-Demerara and Berbice was combined, and the united colony became known as British Guiana.
The economy of British Guiana was completely dominated by sugarcane production until the 1880s, when falling cane sugar prices stimulated a greater shift toward rice farming, mining and forestry. However, sugarcane remained a significant part of the economy (sugar would account for nearly 50% of exports in 1959). Under the Dutch, settlement and economic activity was concentrated around sugar plantations lying inland from the coast. Under the British, cane planting expanded to richer coastal lands, with greater coastline protection. Until the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834, sugar planters relied very heavily on slave labour to produce sugar.
In the 1880s gold and diamond deposits were discovered in British Guiana, but they did not produce significant revenue. Bauxite deposits, however, proved more promising and would remain an important part of the economy. The colony did not develop any significant manufacturing industries, other than sugar factories, rice mills, sawmills, and certain small-scale industries (including a brewery, a soap factory, a biscuit factory and an oxygen-acetylene plant, among others).
The London-based Booker Group of companies (Booker Brothers, McConnell & Co., Ltd.) dominated the economy of British Guiana. The Bookers had owned sugar plantations in the colony since the early 19th century; by the end of the century owned a majority of them; and by 1950 owned all but three. The increasing success and wealth of the Bookers Group allowed them to expand internationally, and to also become involved in rum, pharmaceuticals, publishing, advertising, retail stores, lumber, and petroleum, among other industries. The Booker Group became the largest employer in the colony, leading some to refer to it as "Booker's Guiana".
The British long continued the forms of Dutch colonial government in British Guiana. A Court of Policy exercised both legislative and executive functions under the direction of the colonial Governor. A group known as the Financial Representatives sat with the Court of Policy in a Combined Court to set tax policies. A majority of the members of the Courts was appointed by the Governor, the rest were selected by a College of Kiezers (Electors). The Kiezers were elected by a restrictive franchise, limited to the larger landowners of the colony. The Courts were thus initially dominated by the sugar planters and their representatives.
In 1891 the College of Kiezers was abolished in favour of direct election of the elective membership of the Courts. The Court of Policy became half elected and half appointed, and all of the Financial Representatives were now elected. The executive functions of the Court of Policy were transferred to a new Executive Council under the control of the Governor. Property qualifications were significantly relaxed for voters and for candidates for the Courts.
In 1928 the British Government abolished the Dutch-influenced constitution and replaced it with a crown colony constitution. A Legislative Council with an appointed majority was established, and the administrative powers of the Governor were strengthened. These constitutional changes were not popular among the Guyanese, who viewed them as a step backward. The franchise was also extended to women.
In 1938 the West India Royal Commission ("The Moyne Commission") was appointed to investigate the economic and social condition of all the British colonies in the Caribbean region after a number of civil and labour disturbances. Among other changes, the Commission recommended some constitutional reforms. As a result, in 1943 a majority of the Legislative Council seats became elective, the property qualifications for voters and for candidates for the Council were lowered, and the bar on women and clergy serving on the Council was abolished. The Governor retained control of the Executive Council, which had the power to veto or pass laws against the wishes of the Legislative Council.
The next round of constitutional reforms came in 1953. A bicameral legislature consisting of a lower House of Assembly and an upper State Council was established. The voting membership of the House of Assembly was entirely elective. The State Council had a nominated membership appointed by the Governor and the House of Assembly and possessed limited revisionary powers. A Court of Policy became the executive body, consisting of the Governor and other colonial officials. Universal adult suffrage was instituted, and the property qualifications for office abolished.
The election of 27 April 1953 under the new system provoked a serious constitutional crisis. The People's Progressive Party (PPP) won 18 of the 24 seats in the House of Assembly. This result alarmed the British Government, which was surprised by the strong showing of the PPP, and which viewed the PPP as too friendly with communist organizations. As a result of its fears of communist influence in the colony, the British Government suspended the constitution, declared a state of emergency, and militarily occupied British Guiana on 9 October 1953.
Under the direction of the British Colonial Office, the Governor assumed direct rule of the colony under an Interim Government, which continued until 1957. On 12 August 1957 elections were held in which the PPP won nine of fourteen elective seats in a new legislature.
A constitutional convention convened in London in March 1960 reached agreement on yet another new legislature, to consist of an elected House of Assembly (35 seats) and a nominated Senate (13 seats). In the ensuing election of 21 August 1961 the PPP won 20 seats in the House of Assembly, entitling it to appoint eight senators as the majority party. Upon the 1961 election, British Guiana also became self-governing, except as to defence and external matters. The leader of the majority party became Prime Minister, who then named a Council of Ministers, replacing the former Executive Council.
From 1962 to 1964, riots, strikes and other disturbances stemming from racial, social and economic conflicts delayed full independence for British Guiana. The leaders of the political parties reported to the British Colonial Secretary that they were unable to reach agreement on the remaining details of forming an independent government. The British Colonial Office then intervened by imposing its own independence plan, in part requiring another election under a new proportional representation system. It was assumed that this system would reduce the number of seats won by the PPP and prevent it from obtaining a clear majority.
The 7 December 1964 elections for the new legislature gave the PPP 45.8% (24 seats), the People's National Congress (PNC) 40.5% (22 seats), and the United Force (UF) 12.4% (7 seats). The UF agreed to form a coalition government with the PNC, and accordingly the PNC leader became the new Prime Minister. In November 1965 an independence conference in London quickly reached agreement on an independent constitution, and set the date for independence as May 26, 1966. On that date, at 12 midnight, British Guiana became the new nation of Guyana.
In 1840 the British Government assigned Robert Hermann Schomburgk to survey and mark out the western boundary of British Guiana with newly independent Venezuela. Venezuela did not accept the Schomburgk Line, which placed the entire Cuyuni River basin within the colony. Venezuela claimed all lands west of the Essequibo River as its territory (see map above).
The dispute continued until 1897, when U.S. President Grover Cleveland, who favored the Venezuelan side, used diplomatic pressure to get the British to agree to arbitration of the issue. An arbitration tribunal convened in Paris in 1898, and issued its award in 1899. The tribunal awarded about 94% percent of the disputed territory to British Guiana. A commission surveyed a new border according to the award, and the parties accepted the boundary in 1905. After his death, Severo Mallet-Prevost, legal counsel for Venezuela and a named partner in the New York law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle published a letter alleging that the judges on the tribunal acted improperly as a result of a back room deal between Russia and Great Britain.
There the matter rested until 1962, when Venezuela renewed its 19th century claim, alleging that the arbitral award was invalid. The British Government rejected this claim, asserting the validity of the 1899 award. The British Guiana Government, then under the leadership of the PPP, also strongly rejected this claim. Efforts by all the parties to resolve to matter on the eve of Guyana's independence in 1966 failed. As of November 2006 the dispute remains unresolved.
Robert Schomburgk's 1840 commission also included a survey of the colony's eastern boundary with the Netherlands' colony of Dutch Guiana, now the independent nation of Suriname. The 1899 arbitration award settling the British Guiana--Venezuela border made reference to the border with Suriname as continuing to the source of the Courantyne River, which it named as the Kutari River. The Netherlands raised a diplomatic protest, claiming that the New River, and not the Kutari, was to be regarded as the source of the Courantyne and the boundary. The British Government in 1900 replied that the issue was already settled by the long acceptance of the Kutari as the boundary.
In 1962, the Netherlands finally made formal claim to the "New River Triangle", the triangular-shaped region between the New and Kutari rivers that was in dispute. The Suriname colonial government, and after 1975 the independent Suriname government, maintained the Dutch position; while the British Guiana Government, and later the independent Guyanese government, maintained the British position. On September 2007 the maritime dispute was resolved with the United Nations arbitrators favouring Guyana.
British Guiana is famous among philatelists for its early postage stamps which were first issued in 1850. These stamps include some of the rarest, most expensive stamps in the world, including the unique British Guiana 1c magenta from 1856, which sold in 1980 for close to $1 million.
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Current territory · Former territory
* now a Commonwealth Realm · now a member of the Commonwealth of Nations
18th century
1708–1757 Minorca
since 1713 Gibraltar
1782–1802 Minorca
19th century
1800–1964 Malta
1807–1890 Heligoland
1809–1864 Ionian Islands
1878–1960 Cyprus
20th century
since 1960 Akrotiri and Dhekelia
17th century
1607–1776 Virginia
1610–1907 Newfoundland
since 1619 Bermuda
1620–1691 Plymouth Colony
1629–1691 Massachusetts Bay Colony
1632–1776 Maryland
1636–1776 Connecticut
1636–1776 Rhode Island
1637–1662 New Haven Colony
1663–1712 Carolina
1664–1776 New York
1665–1776 New Jersey
1670–1870 Rupert's Land
1674–1702 East Jersey
1674–1702 West Jersey
1680–1776 New Hampshire
1681–1776 Pennsylvania
1686–1689 Dominion of New England
1691–1776 Massachusetts
18th century
1701–1776 Delaware
1712–1776 North Carolina
1712–1776 South Carolina
1713–1867 Nova Scotia
1733–1776 Georgia
1763–1873 Prince Edward Island
1763–1791 Quebec
1763-1783 Florida
1784–1867 New Brunswick
1791–1841 Lower Canada
1791–1841 Upper Canada
19th century
1818–1846 Columbia District / Oregon Country1
1841–1867 Province of Canada
1849–1866 Vancouver Island
1853–1863 Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands
1858–1866 British Columbia
1859–1870 North-Western Territory
1862–1863 Stikine Territory
1866–1871 Vancouver Island
and British Columbia
1867–1931 *Dominion of Canada2
20th century
1907–1949 Dominion of Newfoundland3
1Occupied jointly with the United States
2In 1931, Canada and other British dominions obtained self-government through the Statute of Westminster. "Dominion" remains Canada's legal title; see Canada's name.
3Gave up self-rule in 1934, but remained a de jure Dominion until it joined Canada in 1949.
17th century
1605–1979 *Saint Lucia
1623–1883 Saint Kitts (*Saint Kitts & Nevis)
1624–1966 *Barbados
1625–1650 Saint Croix
1627–1979 *St. Vincent and the Grenadines
1628–1883 Nevis (*Saint Kitts & Nevis)
1629–1641 St. Andrew and Providence Islands4
since 1632 Montserrat
1632–1860 Antigua (*Antigua & Barbuda)
1643–1860 Bay Islands
since 1650 Anguilla
1651–1667 Willoughbyland (Suriname)
1655–1850 Mosquito Coast (protectorate)
1655–1962 *Jamaica
since 1666 British Virgin Islands
since 1670 Cayman Islands
1670–1973 *Bahamas
1670–1688 St. Andrew and Providence Islands4
1671–1816 Leeward Islands
18th century
1762–1974 *Grenada
1763–1978 Dominica
since 1799 Turks and Caicos Islands
19th century
1831–1966 British Guiana (Guyana)
1833–1960 Windward Islands
1833–1960 Leeward Islands
1860–1981 *Antigua and Barbuda
1871–1964 British Honduras (*Belize)
1882–1983 *St. Kitts and Nevis
1889–1962 Trinidad and Tobago
20th century
1958–1962 West Indies Federation
4Now the San Andrés y Providencia Department of Colombia
18th century
1792–1961 Sierra Leone
1795–1803 Cape Colony
19th century
1806–1910 Cape Colony
1816–1965 Gambia
1856–1910 Natal
1868–1966 Basutoland (Lesotho)
1874–1957 Gold Coast (Ghana)
1882–1922 Egypt
1884–1966 Bechuanaland (Botswana)
1884–1960 British Somaliland
1887–1897 Zululand
1888–1894 Matabeleland
1890–1980 Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)
1890–1962 Uganda
1890–1963 Zanzibar (Tanzania)
1891–1964 Nyasaland (Malawi)
1891–1907 British Central Africa Protectorate
1893–1968 Swaziland
1895–1920 East Africa Protectorate
1899–1956 Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
20th century
1900–1914 Northern Nigeria
1900–1914 Southern Nigeria
1900–1910 Orange River Colony
1900–1910 Transvaal Colony
1906–1954 Nigeria Colony
1910–1931 South Africa
1911–1964 Northern Rhodesia (Zambia)
1914–1954 Nigeria Protectorate
1915–1931 South West Africa (Namibia)
1919–1960 Cameroons (Cameroon) 5
1920–1963 Kenya
1922–1961 Tanganyika (Tanzania) 5
1954–1960 Nigeria
18th century
1757–1947 Bengal (West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh)
1762–1764 Philippines
1795–1948 Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
1796–1965 Maldives
19th century
1819–1826 British Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore)
1826–1946 Straits Settlements
1839–1967 Colony of Aden
1841–1997 Hong Kong
1841–1941 Kingdom of Sarawak (Malaysia)
1858–1947 British India (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Burma)
1882–1963 British North Borneo (Malaysia)
1885–1946 Unfederated Malay States
1891–1971 Muscat and Oman protectorate
1892–1971 Trucial States protectorate
1895–1946 Federated Malay States
1898–1930 Weihai Garrison
20th century
1918–1961 Kuwait protectorate
1920–1932 Iraq5
1921–1946 Transjordan5
1923–1948 Palestine5
1946–1948 Malayan Union
1946–1963 Sarawak (Malaysia)
1948–1957 Federation of Malaya (Malaysia)
since 1965 British Indian Ocean Territory
18th century
1788–1901 New South Wales
19th century
1803–1901 Van Diemen's Land/Tasmania
1807–1863 Auckland Islands6
1824–1980 New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
1824–1901 Queensland
1829–1901 Swan River Colony/Western Australia
1836–1901 South Australia
since 1838 Pitcairn Islands
1841–1907 Colony of New Zealand
1851–1901 Victoria
1874–1970 Fiji7
1877–1976 British Western Pacific Territories
1884–1949 Territory of Papua
1888–1965 Cook Islands6
1888–1984 Sultanate of Brunei
1889–1948 Union Islands (Tokelau)6
1892–1979 Gilbert and Ellice Islands8
1893–1978 British Solomon Islands9
20th century
1900–1970 Tonga (protected state)
1900–1974 Niue6
1901–1942 *Commonwealth of Australia
1907–1953 *Dominion of New Zealand
1919–1949 Territory of New Guinea
1949–1975 Territory of Papua and New Guinea10
6Now part of the *Realm of New Zealand
7Suspended member
8Now Kiribati and *Tuvalu
9Now the *Solomon Islands
10Now *Papua New Guinea
17th century
since 1659 St. Helena
19th century
since 1815 Ascension Island11
since 1816 Tristan da Cunha11
since 1833 Falkland Islands12
20th century
since 1908 British Antarctic Territory13
since 1908 South Georgia and
the South Sandwich Islands12, 13
11Dependencies of St. Helena since 1922 (Ascension Island) and 1938 (Tristan da Cunha)
12Occupied by Argentina during the Falklands War of April–June 1982
13Both claimed in 1908; territories formed in 1962 (British Antarctic Territory) and 1985 (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands)
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