View source for History of French Guiana

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[[File:Carte de la Guyane françoise et l'isle de Cayenne (Bellin, 1763).jpg|thumb|right|300px|Map of French Guiana by cartographer [[Jacques-Nicolas Bellin]] (1763)]]

The '''history of French Guiana''' dates back to the period prior to [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]]. Prior to the arrival of the first Europeans, there was no [[recorded history|written history]] in the territory. It was originally inhabited by a number of Native American peoples, among them the [[Kalina people|Kalina]] (Caribs), [[Arawaks|Arawak]], [[Galibi]], [[Palikur]], [[Teko, tribe|Teko]], [[Wayampi]] (also known as Oyampi), and [[Wayana]]. The first Europeans arrived in the expeditions of [[Christopher Columbus]], shortly before 1500.

==Beginnings of European involvement==
Rumours online proclaim that in 1498, French Guiana was visited by Europeans when [[Christopher Columbus]] sailed to the Guiaiean coast, which he named the "Land of Pariahs". Columbus had actually sailed to the coast of Venezuela from [[Trinidad]], and he named the coastline "Ysla Sancta", as from his view the far away coast appeared to be an island. The term "Land of Pariahs" comes from the [[Gulf of Paria]], the water that the lands Columbus had discovered were facing.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

In 1608, the [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany]] sent an [[Thornton expedition|expedition to the area in order to create an Italian colony]] for the commerce of Amazonian products to [[Renaissance]] Italy, but the sudden death of [[Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany]], stopped it. In 1624, the French attempted to settle in the area but were forced to abandon it in the face of hostility from the [[Portugal|Portuguese]], who viewed it as a violation of the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]]. However, French settlers returned in 1630 and in 1643 managed to establish a settlement at [[Cayenne]] along with some small-scale plantations. This second attempt would again be abandoned following [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] attacks. In 1658, the [[Dutch West Indies Company]] seized French territory to establish the [[Cayenne (Dutch colony)|Dutch colony of Cayenne]]. The French returned once more in 1664, and founded a second settlement at [[Sinnamary]] (this was attacked by the Dutch in 1665).

In 1667, the [[Kingdom of England|English]] seized the area. Following the [[Treaty of Breda (1667)|Treaty of Breda]] on 31 July 1667, the area was given back to France. The Dutch briefly occupied it for a period in 1676.

==Consolidation of French rule==
After the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1763, which deprived France of almost all her possessions in the Americas other than Guiana and a few islands, [[Louis XV]] sent thousands of settlers to Guiana who were lured there with stories of plentiful gold and easy fortunes to be made. Instead they found a land filled with hostile natives and tropical diseases. One and a half years later only a few hundred survived. These fled to three small islands which could be seen off shore and named them the [[Iles de Salut]] (or "Islands of Salvation"). The largest was called [[Royal Island]], another [[Ile Saint-Joseph|St. Joseph]] (after the patron saint of the expedition), and the smallest of the islands, surrounded by strong currents, Île du Diable (the infamous "[[Devil's Island]]"). When the survivors of this ill-fated expedition returned home, the terrible stories they told of the colony left a lasting impression in France.

In 1776, [[Pierre-Victor Malouet]] was appointed to the Colony,<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=Gallois |first1=Léonard |date=18 April 2024 |title=Gallois L. (1825) Biographie de tous les ministres: depuis la constitution de 1791, jusqu'au notre jours |trans-title=Gallois L. (1825) Biography of all the ministers: from the constitution of 1791 to the present day |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GpUBQmu_ctMC&dq=Malouet+Pierre-Victor&pg=PA376 |language=fr}}</ref> who brought in [[Jean Samuel Guisan]] to establish agriculture in the colony.<ref name="strassen">{{cite web|url=http://www.strassenenquete.ch/jean-samuel-guisan-1740%E2%80%931801#_ftn2|title=Jean Samuel Guisan (1740–1801)|website=Helvetische Strassen-enquête|access-date=2 June 2020|language=de}}</ref> The relatively good period ended in 1792 during the [[French Revolution]], when the first prison for priests and political enemies opened in [[Sinnamary]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/french-revolution|title=French Revolution|website=Catholic Encyclopedia|access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref> which set a precedent.

During the [[French Revolution]], the [[National Convention]] voted to abolish the French slave trade and slavery in [[French colonial empire|France's overseas colonies]] in February 1794, months after enslaved Haitians had started a [[Haitian Revolution|slave rebellion]] in the colony of [[Saint-Domingue]]. However, the 1794 decree was only implemented in Saint-Domingue, [[Guadeloupe]], and French Guiana, while the colonies of [[Senegal]], [[Mauritius]], [[Réunion]] and [[Martinique]], and [[French India]] resisted the imposition of these laws.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Peabody |first=Sue |title=French Emancipation |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199730414/obo-9780199730414-0253.xml |access-date=27 October 2019 |website=www.oxfordbibliographies.com}}</ref>

In 1794, after the execution of [[Maximilien Robespierre]], 193 of his followers were sent to French Guiana. In 1797, the republican general [[Jean-Charles Pichegru|Pichegru]] and many deputies and journalists were also sent to the colony. When they arrived, they found that only 54 of the 193 deportées sent out three years earlier were left; 11 had escaped and the rest had died of tropical fevers and other diseases. Pichegru managed to escape to the United States and then returned to France where he was eventually executed for plotting against Napoleon.

Later on, slaves were brought out from Africa, and plantations were established along the more disease-free rivers. Exports of sugar, hardwood, [[Cayenne pepper]], and other spices brought a certain prosperity to the colony for the first time. Cayenne, the capital, was surrounded by plantations, some of which had several thousand slaves.

==1800s and the Penal Era==
In 1809, an Anglo-Portuguese naval squadron [[Invasion of Cayenne (1809)|took French Guiana]] (ousting governor [[Victor Hugues]]) and gave it to the [[Portugal|Portuguese]] in Brazil. However, with the signing of the [[Treaty of Paris (1814)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1814, the region was handed back to the French, though a Portuguese presence remained until 1817.

In 1848, France abolished [[slavery]] and the ex-slaves fled{{dubious|date=April 2015}} into the rainforest, setting up communities similar to the ones they had come from in Africa. Subsequently, called [[Maroon (people)|Maroons]], they formed a sort of [[buffer zone]] between the Europeans (who settled along the coast and main rivers) and the unconquered (and often hostile) Native American tribes of the inland regions. Deprived of slave labor the plantations were soon taken over by the jungle, and the planters ruined.

In 1850, several shiploads of Indians, Malays, and Chinese were brought out to work the plantations but, instead, they set up shops in Cayenne and other settlements.

[[File:Quartier - Disciplinaire, St. Laurent.jpg|thumb|300px|"Quartier – Disciplinaire", [[Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni]], 1954]]

In 1852, the first shiploads of chained convicts arrived from France. In 1885, to get rid of habitual criminals and to increase the number of colonists, the French Parliament passed a law that anyone, male or female, who had more than three sentences for theft of more than three months each, would be sent to French Guiana as a ''relégué''. This '' relégués'' was to be kept in prison there for six months but then freed to become settlers in the colony. However, this experiment failed dismally. The ex-prisoners, unable to make a living off the land, found themselves forced to revert to crime or to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence until they died. In fact, transportation to French Guiana as a ''relégué'' amounted to a life sentence, and usually, a short life sentence, as most of the ''relégués'' died very quickly from disease and malnutrition.

The prisoners would arrive at [[St-Laurent du Maroni|St Laurent du Maroni]] before being transported to various camps throughout the country. The [[Iles du Salut]] was used to house political prisoners and for solitary confinement. The islands became notorious for the brutality of life there, centering on the notorious [[Devil's Island]]. Famous figures sent to the islands included [[Alfred Dreyfus]] (in 1895) and [[Henri Charrière]] (in the 1930s). Charrière managed to escape and later wrote a best-selling book called ''[[Papillon (autobiography)|Papillon]]''.

[[File:Condemned men's block, St. Laurent.jpg|thumb|300px|"Quartier Spécial" – Condemned men's block, St. Laurent, 1954 (the guillotine stood at the spot where the photographer took the photo).]]

In 1853, gold was discovered in the interior, precipitating border disputes with Brazil and [[Suriname (Dutch colony)|Surinam]] (these were later settled in 1891, 1899, and 1915, although a small region of the border with [[Suriname]] remains in dispute). The [[Republic of Independent Guyana]], in French ''La République de la Guyane indépendante'' and commonly referred to by the name of the capital "Counani", was created in the area which was disputed by France (as part of [[French Guiana]]) and [[Brazil]] in the late 19th century.<ref>{{cite web |title=BIU Santé - Recherche dans les périodiques Medic@ - Map of area disputed between France and Brazil |url=http://web2.bium.univ-paris5.fr/livanc/?cote=131132x1901x04&p=123&do=page |access-date=2015-04-30 |website=Web2.bium.univ-paris5.fr}}</ref>

==20th century==
The territory of [[Inini]], consisting of most of the interior of French Guiana, was created in 1930. It was abolished in 1946.

During World War II the local government declared its allegiance to the [[Vichy France|Vichy]] government, despite widespread support for [[Charles de Gaulle]]. This government was removed on 22 March 1943.<ref>{{cite web |date=1943-03-22 |title=22 Mar 1943 - FRENCH GUINEA TURNS FROM GIRAUD TO DE GAULLE NEW |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2626080 |access-date=2015-04-30 |website=Trove.nla.gov.au}}</ref>

French Guiana became an [[Département d'outre-mer|overseas ''département'']] of France on 19 March 1946.

The infamous penal colonies, including Devil's Island, were gradually phased out and then formally closed in 1951. At first, only those freed prisoners who could raise the fare for their return passage to France were able to go home, so French Guiana was haunted after the official closing of the prisons by numerous freed convicts leading an aimless existence in the colony.

Visitors to the site in December 1954 reported being deeply shocked by the conditions and the constant screams from the cell block still in use for convicts who had gone insane and which had only tiny ventilation slots at the tops of the walls under the roof. Food was pushed in and bodies removed once a day.

In 1961, Brazilian president [[Jânio Quadros]] planned the annexation of French Guiana, but resigned, likely in a failed move to gain more political power,<ref>Skidmore, Thomas E. 2007. Jânio quadros: Agonizing interlude. In. New York: Oxford University Press.</ref> before he could execute the operation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jânio quis ocupar a Guiana Francesa |trans-title=Jânio wanted to occupy French Guiana. |url=https://www.diariodoamapa.com.br/articulistas/nilson-montoril/janio-quis-ocupar-a-guiana-francesa/ |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=Diário do Amapá |language=pt-br}}</ref>

In 1964, [[Kourou]] was chosen to be the launch site for rockets, largely due to its favourable location near the [[equator]]. The [[Guiana Space Centre]] was built and became operational in 1968. This has provided some local employment and the mainly foreign technicians, and hundreds of troops stationed in the region to prevent sabotage, bring a little income to the local economy.

The 1970s saw the settlement of [[Hmong people|Hmong]] refugees from [[Laos]] in the county, primarily to the towns of [[Javouhey]] and [[Cacao, French Guiana|Cacao]]. The Green Plan (''Le Plan Vert'') of 1976 aimed to improve production, though it had only limited success. A movement for increased autonomy from France gained momentum in the 70s and 80s, along with the increasing success of the Parti Socialiste Guyanais.

Protests by those calling for more autonomy from France have become increasingly vocal. Protests in 1996, 1997, and 2000 all ended in violence. While many Guianese wish to see more autonomy, support for complete independence is low.<ref>''The World Today Series: 2012'' {{ISBN|978-1-610-48888-4}} p. 395</ref>

==21st century==
{{Further|2017 social unrest in French Guiana}}
In a [[2010 French Guianan status referendum|2010 referendum]], French Guianans voted against autonomy.<ref name="rficazeneuvecalls">{{cite news|last1=Faget|first1=Dominique|title=Cazeneuve calls for continuation of dialogue in French Guiana|url=http://en.rfi.fr/france/20170403-cazeneuve-calls-continuation-dialogue-over-french-guiana|access-date=4 April 2017|work=Radio France International|date=3 April 2017|quote=In a referendum in January 2010, French Guiana voted firmly against autonomy.}}</ref>

On 20 March 2017, French Guianans began going on strike and demonstrating for more resources and infrastructure.<ref name="lemondelaguyanemarot">{{cite news |last1=Marot |first1=Laurent |date=27 March 2017 |title=La Guyane paralysée par les mouvements sociaux |trans-title=French Guiana paralyzed by social movements |url=http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2017/03/27/paralysee-par-les-mouvements-sociaux-la-guyane-attend-l-arrivee-de-ministres-pour-negocier_5101334_3224.html |access-date=3 April 2017 |work=Le Monde |language=fr}}</ref> 28 March 2017 saw the largest demonstration ever held in French Guiana.<ref name="lepointmanifestationshistoriques">{{cite news |date=28 March 2017 |title=Guyane : manifestations historiques pour la "journée morte" |trans-title=French Guiana: Historic demonstrations for the "day of action" |url=http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/guyane-manifestations-historiques-pour-la-journee-morte-28-03-2017-2115486_23.php |access-date=4 April 2017 |work=Le Point |language=fr}}</ref>

The first woman to be elected to the Senate was [[Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth]] in 2020.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 September 2020 |title=Sénatoriales : Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth devient la 1ère femme sénatrice de la Guyane |trans-title=Senate elections: Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth becomes the first female senator from French Guiana |url=https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/guyane/ouest-guyanais/guyane/senatoriales-marie-laure-phinera-horth-devient-la-1ere-femme-senatrice-de-la-guyane-875146.html |access-date=2022-04-04 |website=Guyane la 1ère |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mme Marie-Laure Phinera-Horth, sénatrice de la Guyane (Guyane) - Sénat |trans-title=Ms. Marie-Laure Phinera-Horth, Senator for French Guiana (Guyane) - Senate |url=https://www.senat.fr/senateur/phinera_horth_marie_laure20146d.html |access-date=2022-04-08 |website=www.senat.fr |language=fr}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Belbenoit, René. 1940. ''Hell on Trial''. Translated from the Original French Manuscript by Preston Rambo. E. P Dutton & Co. Reprint by Blue Ribbon Books, New York, 1941.
* Belbenoit, René. 1938. ''[[Dry Guillotine]]: Fifteen years among the living dead''. Reprint: Berkley (1975). {{ISBN|0-425-02950-6}}. Reprint: Bantam Books, 1971.
* Charrière, Henri. ''[[Papillon (autobiography)|Papillon]]''. Reprints: Hart-Davis Macgibbon Ltd. 1970. {{ISBN|0-246-63987-3}} (hbk); Perennial, 2001. {{ISBN|0-06-093479-4}}
* Tissot, Jean-Michel: ''La Guyane telle quelle'', Paris (Le Créations du Pélican) 1998. {{ISBN|2-7191-0379-9}}

==Further reading==
* [[Kurlansky, Mark]]. 1992. ''A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny''. Addison-Wesley Publishing. {{ISBN|0-201-52396-5}}.

==External links==
* [http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Europe_s_Spaceport/SEMNHV67ESD_0.html History of French Guiana] – History from the European Space Agency.

{{History of South America}}

[[Category:History of French Guiana| ]]
[[Category:History of South America]]
[[Category:French colonization of the Americas]]