History of French Guiana

Overview of French Guiana's History

Key Dates

• 1498: During his third voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus sailed near French Guiana, then inhabited by 30,000 Amerindians.

• Mid-16th to mid-17th centuries: The territory saw several attempts by the English, Dutch, and especially the French to establish settlements at the mouths of rivers.

• 1612: The "French colonies of South America," including the Cayenne region, took the name of "Equinoctial France". Over the following decades, French Guiana experienced a series of rivalries between the French, English, and Dutch.

• 1677: The colony of Cayenne officially and permanently became French after the French retook it from the Dutch the previous year.

• 1762-1765: To populate the territory, France sent thousands of settlers, who, ill-prepared and victims of disease, resulted in only a few remaining in place.

• 1792: The French Revolution turned French Guiana into a place of exile.

• 1809-1817: French Guiana was lost during the Napoleonic Wars to the Portuguese and English, who held it until 1817 before returning it to France.

• 1848: Slavery was abolished in French Guiana, as in all French colonies.

• 1852: To address the labor shortage following the abolition of slavery, Napoleon III established a penal colony in French Guiana (and thus also closed the mainland penal colonies).

• 1855: Discovery of the first gold deposits in the territory and the beginning of a (small) gold rush that lasted until World War II. This also led to the near-disappearance of the indigenous populations (only 1,500 recorded in 1900!), victims of disease and gold prospectors.

• Late 19th century: Arrival of Lebanese and Chinese migrants. It was also around this time and shortly after that the borders with the Brazilian and Dutch (Surinamese) neighbors were "stabilized."

• 1930: Creation of the Territory of Inini, corresponding to the Amazonian part, with the aim of implementing specific development for this region compared to the coast. Following the project's failure, Inini was "reintegrated" into French Guiana in 1946.

• 1938: After years of campaigning, notably by journalist Albert Londres, a law ended the penal colony. However, due to the world war, it was not effectively closed until 1946.

• 1946: French Guiana, which then had only a few thousand inhabitants, became an Overseas Department.

• 1965: Construction of the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou. It opened three years later and boosted the department, particularly with the success of the Ariane rockets.

• 1970: To protect indigenous populations and their environment, a "Restricted Access Zone" corresponding to the south of French Guiana was established by the prefecture. It is increasingly being questioned today.

• 1983: Creation of a Regional Council.

• 1997-1998: A new gold rush in the Saint-Laurent and Maroni River region.

• 2002: On January 1st, like everywhere in France, the euro replaced the French franc.

• 2012: Cayenne’s Rochambeau Airport was officially renamed "Félix Éboué Airport."

• 2014: Officially, French Guiana had 250,000 inhabitants, including around ten thousand Amerindians.