Demerara

Demerara was a Dutch colony on the northern coast of South America, centred on the lower reaches of the Demerara River in what is now Guyana. It was administered by the Dutch West India Company from 1745 and became a colony of the Dutch state in 1792. Its fertile coastal soils were devoted to sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans, and the colony's main settlement, Stabroek, later renamed Georgetown, served as its administrative and commercial centre. British forces occupied Demerara during the French Revolutionary Wars, and in 1812 the British merged its administration with neighbouring Essequibo. The colony was formally ceded to Britain in 1815. In 1823 a major enslaved uprising broke out in Demerara, one of the largest in the British Caribbean, and was suppressed with heavy loss of life. In 1831 Demerara-Essequibo was united with Berbice to form the colony of British Guiana, ending Demerara's separate existence. Its name survives in the Demerara River and in the sugar that was long its principal export.