Pomeroon River

The Pomeroon River is located in Guyana, South America.

On the banks of the Pomeroon River Dutch colonists started their trade with the Indian tribes during the late 16th and early 17th century. Under the command of the Dutch West India Company plantations were set up and African slaves were forced to work on the plantations. A small town called Nieuw Middelburg was formed, and the fortress "Nova Zeelandia was built to protect the small colony. French privateers were a serious menace to the small colony. The French visited the colony in 1689 and destroyed it completely, the buildings and sugar-mills were burned and the slaves were taken away to French colonies. The plantations were not restored, and the colony was abandoned.

By the end of the 18th century planters started developing plantations again on the banks of the Pomeroon. Now the Pomeroon was part of the Dutch colony Essequibo and Demerara. In 1796 the British conquered the colony Essequibo and Demerara, because The Netherlands had become allies of France. At the Peace treaty of Amiens the colony was returned to the Dutch but it was reclaimed by the British within a year. At the London Convention of 1814 it was decided that Essequibo and Demerara (the Pomeroon River included) and Berbice had to be ceded to the United Kingdom and was made part of British Guiana in 1831.

See also

* History of Guyana