Demerara-Essequibo

The Colony of Demerara-Essequibo was created on 28 April 1812, when the British combined the neighbouring Dutch colonies of Demerara and Essequibo during the Napoleonic Wars. The two settlements on the northern coast of South America had shared a governor since 1783 but retained separate courts, and their union simplified administration from the capital at Georgetown. Britain formally acquired the colony by cession on 13 August 1814, and the Netherlands ratified the transfer in November 1815. The economy depended on sugar, coffee and cotton plantations worked by enslaved Africans, and the colony was among the most profitable in the British Caribbean. In August 1823 a major slave rebellion involving more than ten thousand people was suppressed with hundreds of deaths, an event remembered as one of the largest uprisings in the British Empire. On 21 July 1831 Demerara-Essequibo was united with Berbice to form British Guiana, with Georgetown as its capital.