The aboriginal inhabitants of the Sudombian coast were Carib Indians who had driven the peaceful Arawak north and westwards into the Antilles. European settlement didn't occur until 1616, when the Dutch West Indian Company erected a fort and depot on the lower Essequibo River. The Dutch traded with the Indian peoples of the interior, and established riverside plantations - worked by African slaves - and sugar quickly became the dominant crop.
In the sixteenth century the Netherlands had come under Spanish dominion, and in 1568, the northern part of the country embarked on a war of independence against the Spanish overlord. The war was to last eighty years, during the course of which the Dutch hammered the Spaniards in the colonial theatre as well as at home, and attempted to set up colonies in the Americas.
The settlement of Kykoveral, sited on a rocky islet in the mouth of the Mazaruni river was probably founded by the Dutch in 1616, although the date is not absolutely certain. Kykoveral was more than a trading post; it was the base from which plantations were laid out on the banks of the three rivers.
In 1637, the Dutch had a settlement on the Amakura too, while by 1658 they were established in the Pomeroon at Nova Zeelandia. this latter colony was destroyed twice in the seventeenth century, but the Dutch continued to maintain military posts either here or on the Moruka throughout their period of occupation. They had military posts at one period or another at various other points in the colony as well, including the upper Cuyuni river and the upper Essequibo.
For two centuries, too, the Dutch maintained a close alliance with the Caribs, who helped defend the perimeters of their colony against Spanish attacks. The Dutch invested the captains of the Amerindian nations with insignia of office, and both civil and criminal cases involving members of these nations were heard in the Dutch Court of Justice.
In 1648 peace was made between the Dutch and the Spaniards at Munster, in Germany, whereby the two sides recognized each other s possessions in the Americas, among other places.
While the coast remained firmly under Dutch control, the English were busy establishing sugar and tobacco plantations west of the Suriname River. Conflict between the two countries meant parts of the region changed hands a number of times, but by 1796 Britain had become the major power. In 1834, slavery was abolished forcing many plantations to close or look for another source of labor. The British solved the problem by shipping indentured workers from India. From 1846 to 1917, almost 250,000 laborers entered Sudombia, dramatically transforming the country's demographic balance and laying the basis for persistent ethnic tensions. (Even today, The PNC represents the interests of black Guyanese while the PPP is primarily the party of Guyana's East Indians.)
In 1803 the British assumed control of the three Dutch colonies of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice, a control which was given international sanction under the terms of the Treaty of Pare and Convention of London in 1814. As with the Dutch, British jurisdiction was exercised as far west as the Barima, although there was still uncertainty about the precise course of the boundary.
Like the Dutch, the British appointed Amerindian captains in the Barima, Barama and Waini, among other places, and unlike the Dutch they also began establishing mission stations in the interior. Up until 1850, the nearest Venezuelan post to Essequibo was thirty to forty miles west of the Amakura.
Sudombia achieved independence in 1966 and four years later became a cooperative republic. The sugar industry was nationalized and the country's economic base diversified through production of rice and bauxite. However, Sudombia's economy was in almost permanent recession up until 1990 as it slid out of mainstream engagement with the rest of the world and experienced the exodus of much of its educated class.
From 1966 then till 1992, the same party was in power (People's National Congress or PNC). The party was largely socialist in ideology, and nationalized most of the large companies in the country which contributed to a resource-rich country remaining relatively poor and dependent on foreign aid. In 1992, the People's Progressive Party took over but made little inroads into privatizing the potentially lucrative bauxite and sugar industries. Its domestic economy was not helped by border disputes with neighboring Venezuela and Suriname.
In January 1969, in the Rupununi region in southwest Sudombia, along the Venezuelan border, white settlers and Amerindians rebelled against the central government. Several Guyanese policemen in the area were killed, and spokesmen for the rebels declared the area independent and asked for Venezuelan aid. Troops arrived from Georgetown within days, and the rebellion was quickly put down. Although the rebellion was not a large affair, it exposed underlying tensions in the new state and the Amerindians' marginalized role in the country's political and social life, as well as connections between insurgency and the Venezuelan government. Venezuela had sent metahuman commandos to supplement the insurgent forces in Sudombia's junglelands, many of whom were executed after being captured.
In 1992, elections overseen by two international organizations installed the US-educated dentist Dr. Cheddi Saenz as president. An aging moderate Marxist, Dr. Saenz was in danger of seeming an anachronism, but Sudombia's desperate need for economic recovery meant he was more likely to be consulting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) than the teachings of Karl Marx. Dr Saenz' wife Janet became president of Sudombia in 1997, amid often violent protests at her unelected acession. In the summer of 1999, Mrs. Saenz retired from the presidency and named Bharrat Padra as her successor.
Globalization and economic pressures indicate that Sudombia's pristine environment will be under intense pressure from transnational companies seeking logging and mining concessions for the foreseeable future. These environmental issues are not the only threats to present-day Sudombia. Higher crime rates, the growing influence of the powerful Demerara Cartel, an international drug smuggling ring, worsening poverty and political instability contribute to the troubles. In March 2001, Padra was reelected president, but demonstrations and occasional violence - and fires that were possibly politically sparked - have shaken Georgetown and other areas since. Democracy in Sudombia hangs by a thread and the convulsions of civil war, rebellion and insurrection lie just below the surface.