How British Colonization Shaped Race Relations in Guyana's Politics
Open Access
- Author:
- Mohan, Kaitlyn
- Area of Honors:
- History
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- J. Marlena Edwards, Thesis Supervisor
Cathleen Denise Cahill, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Guyana
British Guiana
Race
Ethnicity
Political Parties
British
Colonization
Race Relations
Caribbean - Abstract:
- This thesis examines the cultural and political impacts of British Colonialism in its former colony of Guyana. It argues that the racial divide in Guyana’s colonial and contemporary society directly results from British behaviors and attitudes. Formerly known as British Guiana under British rule, the nation is home to diverse people. This paper examines the relations between formerly enslaved Africans and Indian Indentured Servants. Studying British behavior and the colonial mindset using British parliamentary documents that consist of official records and correspondence displays the inherent racial attitudes created by the British to divide the country on ethnic grounds to retain control of the country’s people and commerce. Due to the racial attitudes embedded in the social stratification of Guyana, there was a struggle for independence. The British successfully separated the two majority groups in the country, leading to a lack of national unification. The result was a political party system that separated based on race. Guyana’s two-party system held between the People’s Progressive Party(PPP) and People’s National Congress(PNC) exists because of British intrusion on efforts for independence and the society created from British racial attitudes to sustain influence over the country despite it becoming a sovereign state.