Dutch colonisation of the Guianas control of the three colonies (Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo) west of the Courantyne River. These three colonies became British Guiana. After 1815, there were five Guianas, referred to by their dominant languages: Spanish Guayana (Venezuela), British Guiana, Dutch Guiana, French Guiana, and Portuguese Guiana (Brazil). The colony that remained was part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1975, when it became independent as the Republic of Suriname. Dutch Guiana covered the majority of the Guiana Shield, with its borders ranging from the Orinoco Delta in the northwest, the eastern banks of the Caroní River in the southwest, to the
Republic of Independent Guiana Republic of Independent Guiana The Republic of Independent Guiana () commonly referred to by the name of the capital Counani (rendered "Cunani" in Portuguese by the Brazilians), was a short-lived independent state in South America. "Counani" was created on 23 July 1886 in the area that was disputed by France (as part of French Guiana) and Brazil in the late nineteenth century. The state was founded by French settlers and existed from 1886 to 1891. The territory of the former state of Counani is now located in the Brazilian state of Amapá. Some years after, in 1904 a Frenchman named