Dutch colonisation of the Guianas

Dutch colonies of the Guianas
Dutch colonies of the Guianas
1621–1959
	Flag Coat of arms
Suriname remains under Dutch control	1959
• Disestablished	1959
Currency	Dutch guilder, Surinamese guilder
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Dutch West India Company
	Demerara
	Berbice
	Essequibo (colony)
	Suriname (Dutch colony)
	State of Maranhão (colonial)
	New Andalusia Province
British Guiana
Suriname (Dutch colony)
Kingdom of Brazil
French Guiana

The

Hanau and the loss of sections to Portugal, Britain, and France—the section actually settled and controlled by the Netherlands became known as Dutch Guiana (Dutch

: Nederlands-Guiana).

The colonies of Essequibo and Demerara were controlled by the Dutch West India Company, while Berbice and Surinam were controlled by the Society of Berbice and the Society of Suriname, respectively. Cayenne also came under brief periods of Dutch control. After the Napoleonic Wars in 1814, Britain gained control of the three colonies (Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo) west of the Courantyne River, which became British Guiana and then modern Guyana. The remaining colony, Suriname (also called "Dutch Guiana"), remained under Dutch control until its independence in 1975.

History

Origin

In 1598, a fleet of three Dutch ships visiting the Wild Coast mention passing the river "Surinamo" a year after the English had done the same.

bartering posts, were founded by French, Dutch, and English

colonists. Due to the effects of disease and attacks from natives, these colonies rarely lasted long.

Establishment

The Dutch West India Company was created in 1621, and given unsupervised control of the colonies in South America. The colony was administered by Abraham van Peere, a Dutch explorer who had founded the settlement of Berbice. After the Third Anglo-Dutch War, England ceded the colony of Suriname, in exchange for New Amsterdam.

Dutch Guiana was not a political entity, but, rather, a geographical indication. The colonies that formed along Dutch Guiana were, initially, controlled by several entities.

Portuguese Guiana, now the Brazilian state of Amapá, was under Dutch control from 1630 to 1654. Cayenne (French Guiana

) was also briefly controlled by the Dutch between 1660 and 1664, and again between 1676 and 1677.

Dissolution

Under the Batavian Republic, much of Dutch Guiana was once again occupied by the British. After the Napoleonic Wars in 1814, Britain gained control of the three colonies (Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo) west of the Courantyne River. These three colonies became British Guiana. After 1815, there were five Guianas, referred to by their dominant languages: Spanish Guayana (Venezuela), British Guiana, Dutch Guiana, French Guiana, and Portuguese Guiana (Brazil).^[2]

The colony that remained was part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1975, when it became independent as the Republic of Suriname.

Geography

Dutch Guiana covered the majority of the Guiana Shield, with its borders ranging from the Orinoco Delta in the northwest, the eastern banks of the Caroní River in the southwest, to the Marajó island of the Amazon River delta in the southeast.

Dutch Guiana or Suriname

Although the

Dutch Guiana did not describe only Suriname, but rather all colonies under Dutch sovereignty in the region taken together: a set of polities, with distinct governments, whose external borders changed much over time.^[5]

Notes

^ Dates in this article are given in the Gregorian calendar, then ten days ahead of the Julian calendar in use in England.

References

Citations

JSTOR 41847495
.

^ Jacobs, Frank (2012-01-16). "The Loneliness of the Guyanas". Opinionator. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2021-02-01.

^ See for example this royal decree Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine separating Suriname from Curaçao and Dependencies (1845).

^ In treaties between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the colony is consistently referred to as the Colony of Surinam, e.g. Convention between Great Britain and the Netherlands, relative to the Emigration of Labourers from India to the Dutch Colony of Surinam, the Accession of the Dutch colonies of Curaçao and Surinam to the International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property.

^ This is, e.g., how Jan Jacob Hartsinck uses the term in his Beschryving van Guiana, of de wilde kust in Zuid-America (Hartsinck 1770, pp. 257).

Books

Hartsinck, J.J. (1770), Beschryving van Guiana, of de wilde kust in Zuid-America, Amsterdam: Gerrit Tielenburg

External links

Dutch West Indies 1630-1975

"New Map of the Wonderful, Large and Rich Land of Guiana..." from 1598

[1] Dates in this article are given in the Gregorian calendar, then ten days ahead of the Julian calendar in use in England.

[De_Naam_Suriname-2] JSTOR 41847495
.

[3] Jacobs, Frank (2012-01-16). "The Loneliness of the Guyanas". Opinionator. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2021-02-01.

[4] See for example this royal decree Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine separating Suriname from Curaçao and Dependencies (1845).

[5] In treaties between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the colony is consistently referred to as the Colony of Surinam, e.g. Convention between Great Britain and the Netherlands, relative to the Emigration of Labourers from India to the Dutch Colony of Surinam, the Accession of the Dutch colonies of Curaçao and Surinam to the International Union for the Protection of Industrial Property.

[6] This is, e.g., how Jan Jacob Hartsinck uses the term in his Beschryving van Guiana, of de wilde kust in Zuid-America (Hartsinck 1770, pp. 257).

[a]

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[5]