Guyana Independence Day

 

Independence Day is a national holiday in the Co-Operative Republic of Guyana on May 26th.

This holiday commemorates Guyana gaining its independence on May 26th 1966.

Unusually, this is not Guyana's National Day, that takes place on February 23rd marking the country becoming a republic on that date in 1970.

History of Guyana Independence Day

Christopher Columbus was the first European to sight Guyana during his third voyage in 1498. Sir Walter Raleigh reported on the region in 1596, but it was the Dutch who first established colonies, importing African slaves to work on sugar plantations.

The British took control of the Dutch colonies during the Napoleonic Wars, creating a single colony known as British Guiana in 1831.

Trade unions formed after the first world war, with political parties emerging after the second world war along with political awareness and demands for independence.

A new constitution heralded the first elections in 1953 and a degree of self-government by the end of the 1950s.

Guyana achieved independence from the United Kingdom on May 26th 1966.