Description: A map from 1899 showing the territorial dispute and border claims between British Guiana and Venezuela at the time. "The quarrel between Great Britain and Venezuela was an old one. Between the mouths of the Orinoco River and the Amazon, along the northeast coast of South America, lies the territory which down to 1810 was known as the Guianas. In the year named a large part of this territory was ceded to Venezuela by Spain, while another portion went to Great Britain from Holland in 1814. The boundary between the Dutch and Spanish possessions had never been fixed by treaty. As might have been anticipated, the "earth hunger" of England soon led to a dispute, which continued until 1887, when it reached a stage that led to a breaking off of the diplomatic relations between her and Venezuela. Venezuela claims all territory west of the Essequibo River and southward to the border with Brazil, in support of which she presents a long array of historical facts. [É] England persistently refused all appeals while dealing with this weak power. It was not until the latter part of the year 1840 that she advanced beyond the Pomaron River. Then she entered the region named, and set up a claim to the whole Atlantic coast to the Orinoco delta. In 1841, Sir Robert Schomburgk, the English commissioner, erected the boundary since known by his name. Venezuela was indignant, and ordered the Schomburgk frontier marks at Barima removed. Matters rested until 1844, when England proposed a boundary line beginning a short distance west of the Pomaron River, but in 1881 she once more set up a claim that included the valleys of the Pomaron and Moroco; five years later her claim extended to the bank of the Guiana river, and in 1890 she suggested a divisional line that gave her practical control of the Orinoco delta. Finally in 1893, she proposed a boundary line beginning at the mouth of the Amacuro and taking such a course as to include the upper waters of the Cumana and thence to the sierra of the Usupamo. The territory in dispute is larger than the State of New York, and contains gold mines of great richness, a fact that doubtless has much to do with the persistency of England in refusing to submit the dispute to arbitration. Should she succeed in maintaining her claim she would control the navigable outlet of the great Orinoco river, which represents one-fourth of the commerce of South America, and she would in addition exert a marked influence upon the commercial and political relations of Venezuela, Columbia, and Brazil." — Ellis, 1899, pp. 1639-1640.
Place Names: Guyana, Amuay, Barquisimeto, Caracas, Ciudad Guayana, Maracaibo, Maracay, Peurto La Cruz, Puerto Ayacucho, Puerto Caballo, San Cristoba
ISO Topic Categories: oceans,
location,
inlandWaters
Keywords: Territorial Dispute between British Guiana and Venezuela, physical, physical features, oceans,
location,
inlandWaters, Unknown, 1865–1898
Source: Edward S. Ellis, A. M., Ellis' History of the United States From the Discovery of America to the Present Time (Minneapolis, MN: Western Book Syndicate, 1899) 1639
Map Credit: Courtesy the private collection of Roy Winkelman |
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