Guyana

VI

History

Before the arrival of European explorers, what is now Guyana was inhabited by tribes of Arawak, Carib, and Warrau Native Americans. Spanish explorers first charted the territory that is now Guyana in 1499. In the 1620s the Dutch established a permanent and successful colony on an island in the Essequibo River. The English and French also founded settlements on the South American coast during the 1600s. All three nations claimed rights in the whole region extending from the Orinoco River to the Amazon River.

A

The Colonial Period

By the mid-18th century, Dutch settlers and traders had prevailed over rival Spanish and British expeditions. They formed three colonies in the region. During the 17th century, the Dutch penetrated well into the interior of Guyana and developed trade contacts with the Arawak- and Carib-speaking indigenous people. The Dutch concentrated on sugar cultivation, however, and in the first quarter of the 18th century they rapidly developed sugar plantations. Under the leadership of Laurens Storm Van's Gravesande, the Dutch commander from 1742 to 1772, the Dutch built sea defenses and drainage and irrigation systems in the coastal lowlands. Many English planters from the Caribbean island of Barbados also moved to the Dutch colony.

Following the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, the French occupied Holland. In 1795 the Dutch offered administration of the colonies to the British because they did not want the colonies to fall under the control of the French. The British officially took possession of the area from the Dutch in 1814. In 1831 the British merged the three Dutch colonies that had existed on the territory that is now Guyana, forming a single colony known as British Guiana.

The Dutch and British imported African slaves to work the sugar plantations. During the years of British rule, diseases introduced from Europe killed many Native Americans. An influx of European immigrants and African slaves reduced the Native American population to a tiny minority. Following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in the 1830s, the British brought laborers from India to work the plantations. The resulting division of Guyana’s population into African and Indian ethnic groups had long-lasting effects on Guyana’s society.

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Most of the former slaves established villages on abandoned sugar plantations. They did not succeed in becoming independent farmers, but instead became dependent on wage labor. Gradually a class of black professionals developed. They sought a role in the political life of the colony. Some constitutional reforms were introduced in the late 19th century. The British governor and appointed members of the colonial legislature continued to dominate the government, but the legislature expanded to include a limited number of elected representatives.

Guyana received its first constitution under the British administration in 1928. Although the right to vote was extended at that time, it did not become universal until 1953. In the meantime, the government continued to nominate some members of the colonial legislature, and those representatives had more power than the elected representatives. Widespread unrest in Britain's Caribbean and West Indian territories led in 1938 to the appointment of a royal commission to investigate social and economic conditions. The commission recommended that the people be given a larger role in the government and administration of their territories. Progress toward self-government had to wait until after the end of World War II in 1945, however.

B

Self-Government

In 1953 Britain allowed limited self-government in Guyana. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) was a multiracial nationalist party founded in 1950 by political activists Cheddi Jagan, who was of Indian descent, and Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, of African descent. The PPP won the election and formed a government under the leadership of Jagan. His government lasted only a few months before the British government, concerned over Jagan’s left-wing political beliefs, reimposed an appointed government.

In 1955 a conflict developed within the PPP between Burnham and Jagan. Burnham founded a new party known as the People’s National Congress (PNC). Support for the parties generally split along racial lines. The urban population, which was largely of African descent, supported the PNC. Rural voters, who were mainly of Indian descent, backed the PPP.

In 1961 Guyana achieved full internal self-government, and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), under the leadership of Jagan, gained a majority in the legislative assembly. In 1962 Jagan introduced a program of severe economic austerity that caused violent riots and a general strike. British troops were called in to restore order in February 1962 and again in 1963. In 1963 the disturbances took on racial overtones; people of African descent clashed with the Indian supporters of Jagan. Calm was restored, but the nation was left on the brink of economic chaos.

Following constitutional conferences between Guyana and Britain in 1962 and 1963, elections were held in late 1964. The PPP again received the most votes, but it failed to gain a majority. The British government thereupon called on Burnham, leader of the minority People’s National Congress (PNC), to form a coalition government.

C

Independence

In 1965 the British Guiana Independence Conference met in London, England, and a new constitution was approved. On May 26, 1966, Guyana was declared an independent nation. It joined the United Nations in 1966. Guyana became a charter member of the Caribbean Free Trade Area (CARIFTA) in 1968. Elections that year confirmed Burnham in office. On February 23, 1970, Guyana was proclaimed a republic.

Burnham moved to establish government control over most of the economy. In 1971 the government nationalized the Guyanese holdings of the Canadian multinational corporation Alcan Aluminum. In 1974 it took over the properties of the U.S.-owned Reynolds Metals Company, and in 1976 the government also nationalized sugar companies, chief among them the giant British firm Booker McConnell.

In the early 1970s Guyana established diplomatic relations with China and several other communist nations. In the economic sphere, an investment plan was adopted in 1973, calling for expenditure of $1.15 billion by 1976. The country aimed to be self-sufficient in agriculture and to develop its oil resources. It also wanted to have a greater voice in the mining of its bauxite deposits and in controlling the profits from them. The government assumed control of all foreign trade in 1974.

In 1973 elections to the National Assembly gave a large majority to the PNC. However, fraud and violence were so flagrant that the PPP refused to take its allotted minority seats. The PPP ended its boycott of the assembly in 1976 to show support for Burnham’s seizure of foreign-owned companies.

D

Economic and Social Problems

In the mid-1970s the Burnham government welcomed a number of U.S. religious cults to Guyana. This brought the country international notoriety in 1978, when Guyana was the scene of the Jonestown mass suicide and murder. More than 900 members of a religious cult, primarily U.S. citizens, took poison on orders of their leader, James Warren (“Jim”) Jones, and died.

Starting in the late 1970s, the economic condition of Guyana began to deteriorate steadily. As world demand fell for its main exports, bauxite and sugar, the country was unable to pay for the imported goods it needed to maintain its already low standard of living. Inflation and shortages led to repeated strikes, which the government repressed.

In 1978 the term of the National Assembly was extended for a year beyond its five-year limit in anticipation of a new constitution; it was extended again in 1979. After the new socialist constitution was put into effect in 1980, Prime Minister Burnham was elected president and given greatly increased powers. The PNC retained its overwhelming majority in the assembly, but an international team of observers concluded that the PNC had rigged the election. Burnham governed until his death in 1985; Desmond Hoyte succeeded him. Elections that same year confirmed PNC control of the assembly and Hoyte as president. Hoyte remained in office until 1992, when, in an internationally supervised election, Jagan and the PPP returned to power.

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