The Guianas

The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word Guayanas (Las Guayanas), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France Guyana, formerly known as British Guiana from 1831 until 1966, after the colonies of Berbice, Essequibo, and Demerara, taken from the Netherlands in 1814, were merged into a single colony Suriname, formerly Dutch Guiana, until 1814 together with Berbice, Essequibo and Demerara In the wider context, the Guianas also includes the following two territories: Guayana Region in eastern Venezuela (Amazonas, Bolívar, and Delta Amacuro states), formerly the Guayana Province, alternatively known as Spanish Guayana (or Venezuelan Guiana) State of Amapá in northern Brazil, known as Portuguese Guiana (or Brazilian Guiana) The combined population of the three core territories is 1,718,651; 804,567 in Guyana, 612,985 in Suriname and 301,099 in French Guiana. Due to their isolated terrain and geography, the Guianas are one of the most sparsely populated regions on Earth. Before the arrival of European colonials, the Guianas were populated by scattered bands of native Arawak people. The native tribes of the Northern Amazon 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 hybridized culture.