The Schomburgk Line is the name given to a survey line that figured in a 19th-century territorial dispute between

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

and

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...

. The line was named after German-born English explorer and naturalist Robert Hermann Schomburgk (1804–1865). The dispute arose because when the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

acquired British Guiana (known as the colonies of Essequibo,

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

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 ...

until 1831) from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in 1814, the western border with Venezuela was not defined.

Line

In 1835, under the aegis of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

, Schomburgk was sent on a trip of

botanical Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

geographical Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

exploration to British Guiana, which resulted in a sketch of the territory with a line marking what he believed to be the western boundary claimed by the Dutch. As a result of this in 1840 he was commissioned by the

British Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

to carry out a survey of Guiana's boundaries. This survey resulted in what came to be known as the Schomburgk Line. Schomburgk's initial sketch, which had been published in 1840, was the only version of the "Schomburgk Line" published until 1886, which led to later accusations by

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

that the line had been extended "in some mysterious way". R. A. Humphreys (1967), "Anglo-American Rivalries and the Venezuela Crisis of 1895", Presidential Address to the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

10 December 1966, ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'', 17: pp131-164 The Line went well beyond the area of British occupation, and gave British Guiana control of the mouth of the

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...

River. Venezuela disputed Schomburgk's survey, claiming that the United Kingdom had illegally acquired an extra of territory. Venezuela claimed its borders extended as far east as the

Essequibo River The Essequibo River (; originally called by Alonso de Ojeda; ) is the largest river in Guyana, and the largest river between the Orinoco and Amazon River, Amazon. Rising in the Acarai Mountains near the Brazil–Guyana border, the Essequibo flows ...

, citing

Pope Alexander VI Pope Alexander VI (, , ; born Roderic Llançol i de Borja; epithet: ''Valentinus'' ("The Valencian"); – 18 August 1503) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503. Born into t ...

and his

Treaty of Tordesillas The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in Tordesillas, Spain, on 7 June 1494, and ratified in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian (geography) ...

which led to the

Captaincy General of Venezuela The Captaincy General of Venezuela (), was an administrative district of colonial Spain, created on September 8, 1777, through the Royal Decree of Graces of 1777, to provide more autonomy for the provinces of Venezuela, previously under the ju ...

in 1777. In October 1886 Britain declared the Line to be the provisional frontier of British Guiana, and in February 1887 Venezuela severed diplomatic relations. Venezuela appealed to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to intervene, citing the

Monroe Doctrine The Monroe Doctrine is a foreign policy of the United States, United States foreign policy position that opposes European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. It holds that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign ...

as justification. The United States expressed concern but did little in the way of resolving the situation, until Venezuela's hiring of William L. Scruggs as a lobbyist in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

brought the dispute to a head in the shape of the

Venezuelan crisis of 1895 The Venezuelan crisis of 1895 occurred over Venezuela's longstanding dispute with Great Britain about the territory of Essequibo, which Britain believed was part of British Guiana and Venezuela recognized as its own Guayana Esequiba. The issue ...

. The key issue in the crisis became Britain's refusal to include in the proposed international arbitration the territory east of the Schomburgk Line. The crisis ultimately saw Britain accept the United States' intervention in the dispute to force arbitration of the entire disputed territory, and tacitly accept the United States' right to intervene under the

. An international arbitration panel resolved the dispute in 1899. The Schomburgk Line was, with small deviations, re-established as the border between

and Venezuela. The first deviation from the Schomburgk line was that Venezuela's territory included

Barima Point Barima Point (), is a small settlement in the Antonio Díaz municipality of Delta Amacuro state in Venezuela, at the mouth of the Barima River. It has a lighthouse, Faro Barima, and a Coast Guard Station. The city was controlled by British Guian ...

at the mouth of the Orinoco, giving it undisputed control of the river, and thus the ability to levy duties on Venezuelan commerce. The second was drawing the border at the

Wenamu River Wenamu River (Venamo River) is a river in South America. It forms a portion of the international boundary between Venezuela and Guyana. It is part of the Essequibo River basin. Mango Landing is a small settlement on the Guyana side of the Wanamu ...

rather than the Cuyuni River, giving Venezuela a substantial territory east of the line – territory which Britain had originally refused to include in the arbitration. However, Britain received most of the disputed territory, and all of the gold mines.King (2007:260) On a related issue the southern boundary between British Guiana and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

was settled after arbitration by the

King of Italy King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by ...

in 1904, where Schomburgk's survey also played a role.

Notes

{{reflist

References

*Walter LaFeber. "The Background of Cleveland's Venezuelan Policy: A Reinterpretation". The American Historical Review 66 (July 1961), pp. 947–967. *Lars Schoult. A History of U.S. Policy Toward Latin America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998).
U.S. Department of State, "Venezuela Boundary Dispute, 1895–1899"
*Peter Rivière (ed.), ''The Guiana Travels of Robert Schomburgk 1835–1844'', 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate for the Hakluyt Society, 2006). *Otto A. Schomburgk (ed.), ''Robert Hermann Schomburgk's Travels in Guiana and on the Orinoco During the Years 1835–1839'' (Georgetown: The Argosy Company, 1931). *Robert Schomburgk, ''A Description of British Guiana, Geographical and Statistical'' (London, 1840). *Walter E. Roth (ed. and trans.), ''Richard Schomburgk's Travels in British Guiana 1840–1844'', 2 vols (Georgetown: Daily Chronicle Office, 1922, 1923). Guyana–Venezuela territorial dispute Borders