Monday, May 5, 2014
GUYANA
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oday marks the eleventh year that Arrival Day is being observed and while it represents to arrival of five of the ethnic groups in Guyana, it is celebrated on the day that East Indians first set foot on the shores of this country. Arrival Day was first celebrated in Guyana as Indian Arrival day on May 5, 2004. However, Opposition parties in Parliament had argued that others also came and they too should have a day to observe their arrivals. It was unanimously decided that it would not be feasible to recognise the arrival of every ethnic group and hence, the holiday became Arrival Day.
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The f i r s t g r o u p outside of the Amerindians to arrive in Guyana was the Spanish who arrived in 1499. Little is known of the first settlements, though they were almost certainly Spanish or Portuguese. In 1499, Alonzo de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci, sailing together, reached the northern coast of South America in the region of Suriname. They then sailed west along the coast of Guyana but no attempt to land was made then.
Immediately after, the territorial discoveries were made by Christopher Columbus and King Ferdinand, and Queen Isabella petitioned Pope Alexander IV to recognise the “new” lands as Spanish possessions. The Dutch began exploring and settling in Guyana in the late sixteenth century, followed by the English. Both began trading with the Amerindian peoples native to the land. The first Dutch settlement was established in the Pomeroon River in 1581.
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Britain took the region from the Dutch in 1796. The Dutch took it back in 1802, before being ousted again by the British in 1803. Immediately after the British took possession of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice, they began to implement changes in the administration of the colonies, with the aim of removing the strong Dutch influence. The Dutch, Spanish and British are all natives of Europe. The date of the first arrival of African slaves in Guyana is not known, but it is believed the first group was brought by Dutch settlers who migrated from Tobago from as early as the mid-seventeenth century. turn to page 7
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