The
Co-operative Republic of Guyana Is a country on the northern
coast of South
America that is culturally part of the Anglophone
Caribbean. Guyana has been a former colony of the British, Dutch and for a brief
period, the French. It is the only country of the Commonwealth
of Nations on mainland South America, and is also a member of the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM), which has its secretariat headquarters in Guyana's capital,
Georgetown. Guyana achieved independence from the United
Kingdom on 26 May 1966 and became a Republic on 23 February 1970.
Historically, the region known as "Guayana" was the large
shield landmass north of the Amazon
River and East of the Orinoco
River. Five sub-regions were carved out
of the landmass by colonial powers in the late 17th and early 18th century: Spanish
Guiana, Portuguese Guiana, British Guiana, Dutch Guiana, and the present French overseas
department of French
Guiana. Historic Guyana is made up of three Dutch colonies: Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice. Modern Guyana is bordered to the east by Suriname, to the south and southwest by Brazil, to the west by Venezuela, and on the north by the Atlantic
Ocean.
Area 83,012 sp mi (215,000 km2), Guyana is the third-smallest independent
country on the mainland of South America (after Uruguay and Suriname). Its population is approximately 770,000. It is
one of the five non-Spanish-speaking countries on the continent, along with Brazil (Portuguese), Suriname (Dutch), the Falkland Islands (English) and French Guiana (French).
