[8] Europeans arrived in the Guianas in the search for gold in the New World, eventually settling in and colonizing Guyana and the Americas.

[9] The climate of Guyana was deemed suitable for growing sugar cane, sparking a demand for labour unmet by the Europeans themselves or the local Amerindians, so slaves from Africa were brought into the country.

The high mortality and low birthrate of plantation slavery was supplemented by bringing in more enslaved people until the slave trade was abolished in 1838.

The diversity of the country is a point of pride as well as a challenge; conflicts along racial lines have been a source of significant social tension.

Racism in Guyana has roots in the control of labour, so that plantation owners could maintain a stratified society of subservient workers and limit competition for the highest social class.