HISTORY
Before the arrival of
Europeans, the region was inhabited by both Carib and Arawak tribes,
who named it Guiana, which means land of waters. The Dutch settled in
Guyana in the late 16th century, but their control ended when the
British became the de facto rulers in 1796. In 1815, the colonies of
Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice were officially ceded to Great Britain
at the Congress of Vienna and, in 1831, were consolidated as British
Guiana.
Following the abolition of
slavery in 1834, thousands of indentured laborers were brought to
Guyana to replace the slaves on the sugar cane plantations, primarily
from India but also from Portugal and China. The British stopped the
practice in 1917. Many of the Afro-Guyanese former slaves moved to the
towns and became the majority urban population, whereas the
Indo-Guyanese remained predominantly rural. A scheme in 1862 to bring
black workers from the United States was unsuccessful. The small
Amerindian population lives in the country's interior.
The people drawn from these
diverse origins have coexisted peacefully for the most part. Slave
revolts, such as the one in 1763 led by Guyana's national hero, Cuffy,
demonstrated the desire for basic rights but also a willingness to
compromise. Politically inspired racial disturbances between East
Indians and blacks erupted in 1962-64. However, the basically
conservative and cooperative nature of Guyanese society contributed to
a cooling of racial tensions.
Guyanese politics,
nevertheless, occasionally has been turbulent. The first modern
political party in Guyana was the People's Progressive Party (PPP),
established on January 1, 1950, with Forbes Burnham, a British-educated
Afro-Guyanese, as chairman; Cheddi Jagan, a U.S.-educated
Indo-Guyanese, as second vice-chairman; and his American-born wife,
Mrs. Janet Jagan, as secretary general. The PPP won 18 out of 24 seats
in the first popular elections permitted by the colonial government in
1953, and Dr. Jagan became leader of the house and minister of
agriculture in the colonial government.
Five months later, on October
9, 1953, the British suspended the constitution and landed troops
because, they said, the Jagans and the PPP were planning to make Guyana
a communist state. These events led to a split in the PPP, in which
Burnham broke away and founded what eventually became the People's
National Congress (PNC). Elections were permitted again in 1957 and
1961, and Cheddi Jagan's PPP ticket won on both occasions, with 48% of
the vote in 1957 and 43% in 1961. Cheddi Jagan became the first Premier
of British Guiana, a position he held for seven years. At a
constitutional conference in London in 1963, the U.K. Government agreed
to grant independence to the colony, but only after another election in
which proportional representation would be introduced for the first
time. It was widely believed that this system would reduce the number
of seats won by the PPP and prevent it from obtaining a clear majority
in parliament. The December 1964 elections gave the PPP 46%, the PNC
41%, and the United Force (TUF), a conservative party, 12%. TUF threw
its votes in the legislature to Forbes Burnham, who became prime
minister.
Guyana achieved independence
in May 1966, and became a republic on February 23, 1970--the
anniversary of the Cuffy slave rebellion.
From December 1964 until his
death in August 1985, Forbes Burnham ruled Guyana in an increasingly
autocratic manner, first as prime minister and later, after the
adoption of a new constitution in 1980, as executive president.
Elections were viewed in Guyana and abroad as fraudulent. Human rights
and civil liberties were suppressed, and two major political
assassinations occurred: The Jesuit priest and journalist Bernard Darke
in July 1979, and the distinguished historian and Working People's
Alliance (WPA) party leader Walter Rodney in June 1980. Agents of
President Burnham are widely believed to have been responsible for both
deaths.
Following Burnham's death,
Prime Minister Hugh Desmond Hoyte acceded to the presidency and was
formally elected in the December 1985 national elections. Hoyte
gradually reversed Burnham's policies, moving from state socialism and
one-party control to a market economy and unrestricted freedom of the
press and assembly.
On October 5, 1992, a new
National Assembly and Regional Councils were elected in the first
Guyanese elections since 1964 to be internationally recognized as free
and fair. Cheddi Jagan was elected and sworn in as President on October
9, 1992.
When President Jagan died in March 1997, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds replaced him in accordance with constitutional provisions.
source: U.S. State Department Background Notes 1998
|
Brief History
Main Country Page
Vital Statistics
Embassy Info
Travel Guides
Search Net: History
Free Clip Art w/ Flags!
|