Cayenne, currently the capital of

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

, was a hotly contested area between French and Dutch colonizers in the 17th century. In 1615, Theodore Claessen founded a Dutch colony at Cayenne, but it seems to have perished quickly. Another expedition to found a settlement at Cayenne left Flushing in 1626, under the captaincy of Claude Prevost. Whereas these early Dutch colonization attempts were organized from the

County of Zeeland The County of Zeeland () was a county of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries and it later became one of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic. It covered an area in the Scheldt and Meuse (river), Meuse delta roughly corresponding to t ...

, in 1635 an expedition was organized from the city of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

in the

County of Holland The County of Holland was a Imperial State, state of the Holy Roman Empire from its inception until 1433. From 1433 onward it was part of the Burgundian Netherlands, from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands and from 1581 onward the leading pro ...

, much to the dismay of Zeelanders. Under the leadership of David Pietersz. de Vries, a group of about thirty colonists restored an abandoned French fort on Mecoria island on the Cayenne River and tried to cultivate the land. The colonization attempt seems to have ended with De Vries' departure. In the late 1650s, a more serious attempt at colonization followed. Jan Claessen Langendyck's request to colonize the area again was approved by the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

, and he had set up a colony by 1659. He remained in charge of the colony until 1663, when Quirijn Spranger took over the leadership of the colony. The Langendyck colony was followed by a Jewish settlement initiated by David Cohen Nassy, consisting mainly of Jewish planters who had to leave

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil (; ), also known as New Holland (), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas. The main cities of the colony were the c ...

upon its recapture by Portugal. Nassy received permission to found a colony in January 1658, to be located at some distance from the older colony of Langendyck. Both the Langendyck colony and the Nassy colony were seized by the French in 1664. Nassy and his Jewish colonists then moved to the neighbouring colony of Surinam, at the time still an English colony, where they joined the Jewish colonists at

Jodensavanne ''Jodensavanne'' (Dutch language, Dutch, "Jewish Savanna") was a Jewish plantation community in Suriname, South America, and was for a time the centre of Jewish life in the colony. It was established in the 1600s by Sephardi Jews and became more d ...

. During the

Franco-Dutch War The Franco-Dutch War, 1672 to 1678, was primarily fought by Kingdom of France, France and the Dutch Republic, with both sides backed at different times by a variety of allies. Related conflicts include the 1672 to 1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War and ...

, Jacob Binckes captured Cayenne for the Dutch in 1676. Later the same year, the French recaptured their colony under the command of

Jean II d'Estrées Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * J ...

. By that time, contention over the colonies in

the Guianas The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, are a geographical region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, formerly British, Dutch, and French Guiana respectiv ...

had ended, and little changed until the United Kingdom took over the colonies of

Berbice Berbice () is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of the Dutch West India Company and between 1792 and 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom of Great Brita ...

Demerara Demerara (; , ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state from 1792 unti ...

and Essequibo in 1814.

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Caye ...

is still a French

overseas department The overseas departments and regions of France (, ; DROM) are the five departments and regions of the French Republic which are located outside European France (also known as " metropolitan France"). These overseas entities have exactly the s ...

to this day.

Notes

References

* {{coord missing, South America Dutch colonisation of the Guianas History of French Guiana 1615 establishments in the Dutch Empire