Essequibo (colony)

Kolonie Essequebo (till 1803) Colony of Essequibo (1803-1812) County of Essequibo (1838-1958) Essequibo
1616-1812 1838-1958
Flag (1616-1792) Flag (1803-1831)
Dutch Essequibo in 1800
Status	Colony of the Dutch West India Company (1621-1792) Dutch colony (1792-1815)[a] British occupation (1781-1782; 1796-1802; 1803-1815)[b] French occupation (1782-1783) De facto Colony of the United Kingdom (1803-1812) Combined with Demerara as a de facto Colony of the United Kingdom (1812-1815) Combined with Demerara as a Colony of the United Kingdom (1815-1831) County of British Guiana (1838-1958)
Capital	Fort Kyk-Over-Al (1616 - 1739) Fort Zeelandia (1739 - 1803)
Common languages	Dutch, Skepi Creole Dutch, English, Guyanese Creole, Guyanese Hindustani, Tamil, South Asian languages, African languages, Akawaio, Macushi, Waiwai, Arawakan, Patamona, Warrau, Carib, Wapishana, Arekuna, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Chinese
Religion	Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Afro-American religions, Traditional African religions, Indigenous religions
Governor
• 1616–24	Adrian Groenewegen
• 1796–1802	Abraham Jacob van Imbijze van Batenburg
History
• Commencement of building Fort Kyk-Over-Al	1616
• Established as a Dutch West India Company colony	1621
• Raid on Essequibo and Demerara	24–27 February 1781
• Capture of Demerara and Essequibo	22 January 1782
• Peace of Paris	1783
• Colony of the Dutch Republic	1 January 1792
• Treaty of Amiens	27 March 1802
• Joined with Demerara to form Demerara-Essequibo	28 April 1812
• Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814	20 November 1815
• Demerara-Essequibo merges with Berbice to become British Guiana	21 July 1831
• County of Essequibo	1838
• Merged into the new regions	1958
Currency	Spanish dollar, Dutch guilder, British Guiana dollar, British West Indies dollar
Preceded by Succeeded by Pomeroon (colony) Demerara Demerara-Essequibo
Today part of	Guyana
^ After 1803 it was a de jure Dutch colony but was a de facto British colony. Dutch Republic (1792-1795) Batavian Republic/Commonwealth (1795-1806) Kingdom of Holland (1806-1810) First French Empire (1810-1813) Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands (1813-1815) United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815) ^ Great Britain (1781-1800) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1800-1802)

Part of a series on the
History of Guyana
Arawak peoples Carib people
Essequibo 1616–1815 Berbice 1627–1815 Pomeroon 1650–1689 Demerara 1745–1815 British Guiana 1814–1966 Independence 1966–1970 Co-operative Republic 1970–present
Guyana portal
v t e

Essequibo (Dutch: Kolonie Essequebo,^[1][2] [koˈloni ɛsəˈkʋebo]) was a Dutch colony in the Guianas and later a county on the Essequibo River in the Guiana region on the north coast of South America. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1616 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state from 1792 until 1815. It was merged with Demerara in 1812 by the British who took control. It formally became a British colony in 1815 until Demerara-Essequibo was merged with Berbice to form the colony of British Guiana in 1831. In 1838, it became a county of British Guiana till 1958. In 1966, British Guiana gained independence as Guyana and in 1970 it became a republic as the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. It was located around the lower course of the Essequibo River.