British Guiana's border dispute with Venezuela is…
1852 CE to 1863 CE
British settlers move into the region, and the British Guiana Mining Company is formed to mine the deposits.
Over the years, Venezuela will make repeated protests and proposed arbitration, but the British government is uninterested.
Venezuela will finally break diplomatic relations with Britain in 1887 and appeal to the United States for help.
The British will at first rebuff the United States government's suggestion of arbitration, but when President Grover Cleveland threatens to intervene according to the Monroe Doctrine, Britain will agree to let an international tribunal arbitrate the boundary in 1897.
For two years, the tribunal consisting of two Britons, two Americans, and a Russian will study the case.
Their three-to-two decision, handed down in 1899, will award ninety-four percent of the disputed territory to British Guiana.
Venezuela will receive only the mouth of the Orinoco River and a short stretch of the Atlantic coastline just to the east.
Although Venezuela will be unhappy with the decision, a commission will survey a new border in accordance with the award, and both sides will accept the boundary in 1905.
The issue will be considered settled for the next half-century.
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