Berbice, Guyana

Kolonie Berbice
Berbice
Dutch colony
1627–1815
Flag
Berbice around 1780.
Capital		Fort Nassau (1627–1785) Fort Sint Andries (1785–1815)
Languages		Dutch, Berbice Creole Dutch
Political structure		Colony
Governing company
•	1627–1712	Van Peere family
•	1714–1815	Society of Berbice
Governor
•	1627	Abraham van Peere
•	1789–1802	Abraham Jacob van Imbijze van Batenburg
History
•	Established	1627
•	Ceded to the United Kingdom	20 November 1815
Currency		Spanish dollar, Dutch guilder
Succeeded by British Guiana
Today part of		Guyana

Berbice is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1815 a colony of the Netherlands. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom in the latter year, it was merged with Essequibo and Demerara to form the colony of British Guiana in 1831. In 1966, British Guiana gained independence as Guyana.

After being a hereditary fief in the possession of the Van Peere family, the colony was governed by the Society of Berbice in the second half of the colonial period, akin to the neighbouring colony of Suriname, which was governed by the Society of Suriname. The capital of Berbice was at Fort Nassau until 1790. In that year, the town of New Amsterdam, which grew around Fort Sint Andries, was made the new capital of the colony.

Berbice was settled in 1627 by the businessman Abraham van Peere from Vlissingen, under the suzerainty of the Dutch West India Company. Until 1714, the colony remained the personal possession of Van Peere and his descendants. Little is known about the early years of the colony, other than that it succeeded in repelling an English attack in 1665 in the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

Apparently some disputes arose between the Second Dutch West India Company, which was founded to succeed the First Dutch West India Company that went bankrupt in 1674, and the Van Peere family. This was resolved when on 14 September 1678 a charter was signed which established Berbice as a hereditary fief of the Dutch West India Company, in the possession of the Van Peere family.