Longchamps: The Founding of Georgetown

Even though Guyana is the only English speaking country in South America, the capital of Georgetown was originally founded by the French, owned by the Dutch, invaded by the British and its all because of the American Revolution… Yeah the story is pretty wild…

 Origins

Our story begins on 18 October 1745, The Dutch West India Company established Demerara as a separate colony from Essequibo. Fast forward to 1776, and our rebellious neighbor to the North decided that it was high time to introduce a little “freedom” to the New World, thus triggering the American Revolution. This war drew battle lines across Europe. In fact, the French sent troops ships and military commanders to help the Americans fight the British. No not for any love of America, but rather to spite England, a country that they’ve hated since the Norman Invasion. (look it up) Some countries stayed neutral so they were left alone. But when Holland decided to sell weapons to the Americans, the British declared war on them thus triggering the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.

Admiral Lord Rodney: Naval officer... and uh, apparently a raging anti-s*mite...

Rodney’s Robbery Spree

To put it bluntly it was less of a war and was more like a four-year robbery spree against Dutch colonists. Their colonies were poorly defended, and the British knew this. In fact, the British had been eyeing up the Dutch possessions for so long that Admiral Lord Rodney immediately attacked the islands of St. Eustatius, Saba, and Saint Martin, the second he received the declaration of war. His island looting campaign was so swift and successful that many of the people he attacked didn’t even know a war had been declared. Historians still ridicule Rodney for this action… and his anti-Semitism. After Rodney was done pillaging the merchants of St Eustatius, in February 1781, he set his sights on Demerara.

The British are coming!

On February 27, two warships triumphantly entered the harbor and took it the colony without firing a shot. That’s because the colonists had basically surrendered already. Several days prior, the crew of six British privateer ships got the same idea as Rodney and decided to raid the colony of its naval defenses. So seeing as there was no resistance The British immediately put Lieutenant Governor Robert Kingston in charge and he hastily ordered the construction of Fort St George and several administrative buildings at the mouth of the Demerara River, in hopes of securing their newly captured land. At the time the capital of this colony was on Borelsson Island, several miles upriver. The Dutch originally rejected the idea of even settling on the coast because even back then they could tell that the coastland was prone to flooding.

But the British didn’t care they just wanted to put something down as soon as possible. A year later, on February 2, 1782, England’s old enemy, France crashed the party and kicked them out. Immediately, the French set about to build the tiny settlement into a full port town. So building they did. And by “they” I mean the enslaved Africans the French forced to build it.

Georgetown circa 19th century

Identity Crisis

So after all that work, the French took one look at this burgeoning settlement by the river side and declared THY NAME SHALL BE CALLETH LONGCHAMPS, L-O-N-G-C-H-A-M-P-S! LONGCHAMPS. Which is a terrible name if you ask me. Apparently, the colonizers agreed as later the name was changed to La Novelle Ville, literally New Town. Which honestly sucks as a name too. This settlement was bordered by Croal Street to the north; Hadfield Street to the south; Vlissingen Road to the east and the Demerara River to the west. So a year later, after the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 the Dutch got their colony back.

 Seeing this nice little town the French left them with, they decided to make it the new capital and renamed it Stabroek after Nicholas Gleevinck, Lord of Stabroek and President of the Dutch West India Company. They greatly expanded the town’s drainage system and arranged the streets into the rectangular pattern we recognize today. By 1789, the town had a population of 780 residents.

The British are coming…. AGAIN!

By 1796, the French and British were at war again. So the British being the British, naturally saw this as another chance for COLONY ROBBERY. That same year an expeditionary force recaptured Demerara, again without having to fire a shot. Since Holland was too busy being invaded by France, they couldn’t put up much of a resistance in the New World. So the Brits left the local Dutch administration of the colony relatively uninterrupted because they didn’t pose a threat to their money yet….

Treaty of Amiens 1802

The British are coming… YET AGAIN!

Both Berbice and the United Colony of Demerara and Essequibo were under external British control from 1796 to 1802. But the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 demanded the British return to it to Holland. Which they did, only to seize it once again when England and France resumed fighting less than a year, later. In 1812, the Capital was officially renamed Georgetown after King George III of England. While the originally town of Stabroek, and surrounding settlements became "wards" of the newly renamed capital of Essequibo-Demerara.