The Co-operative Republic of Guyana is a country on the northern mainland of South America, with Georgetown serving as its capital. Guyana's name means "Land of Many Waters" in Arawak, and, while Christopher Columbus visited Guyana in 1498 and Walter Raleigh in 1596, it was the Dutch who colonized Pomeroon in 1581, Essequibo in 1616, Berbice in 1627, and Demerara in 1752. The British conquered Guyana from the Batavian Republic in 1796, and British control was confirmed under the 1814 London Convention. The colonies of Demerara-Essequibo and Berbice were merged into British Guiana in 1831, although Venezuela inherited an old Spanish desire to conquer the land west of the Essequibo River and repeatedly attempted to press its claim to the region. The British emancipated the region's African slaves in 1838, leading to the abandonment of the country's sugarcane plantations; the British responded by importing Indian indentured servants from 1838 to 1917 to work the fields. Guyana gained independence from the United Kingdom on 26 May 1966 and became a republic on 23 February 1970, after which the British government and the American CIA backed Forbes Burnham's government against both Cheddi Jagan's Marxist movement and Venezuela. In 1978, Guyana made world news after the mass-suicide of 918 of cult leader Jim Jones' followers. Much of Guyana still consists of unspoiled rainforests, and rice, sugar, bauxite and gold mining, seafood, minerals, crude oil, and natural gas remain the country's main industries and exports. 90% of Guyana's 744,000 residents live along a narrow coastal strip making up 10% of the nation's total land area, and 43.5% of the population is of Indian descent, 30.2% of African descent, 16.7% of mixed descent, and 9.1% of Amerindian descent. In 2012, 62% of Guyanese were Christians (23% Pentecostal, 21% other, 7% Catholic, 5% Anglican, 5% Adventist, and 1% Methodist), 25% Hindu, 7% Muslim, 3% other, and 3% irreligious.
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