The Spanish explored the region in 1500 and began colonization of Colombia soon after with Santa Marta founded in 1525, followed by Cartagena in 1533, the New City of Granada (soon renamed Santa Fe) in 1535, and Cali in 1536.

Spain

Spanish

Colombia as a Spanish colony It’s curious to learn that Colombia was named after the one conquistador who never actually set foot in the country. It was Alonso de Ojeda, and not Christopher Columbus, who was the first European to ever set foot in Colombia in 1499.

New Granada officially changed its name in 1858 to the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 the name was again changed, this time to United States of Colombia, before finally adopting its present name – the Republic of Colombia – in 1886.

European Colombians Most Colombians of European descent are primarily descended from Spanish settlers, while other Europeans arrived during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Colombians are the seventh-largest population of Hispanic origin living in the United States, accounting for 2% of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2017. Since 2000, the Colombian-origin population has increased 148%, growing from 502,000 to 1.2 million over the period.

For example, Mexicans, Argentinians, Colombians, among others are considered Hispanics. They can also be considered Latinos, as they are each part of a Latin American country.

The largest Colombian community lives in the South Florida area (Doral, Kendall, Weston, and Hialeah) with a population of 338,768, and Jackson Heights in Queens County, New York city.

When talking about people of Latin American descent in the U.S. you can generally use Latino (or Latina for a woman). Hispanic is also correct if you are talking to someone who speaks Spanish.

The Indo-Guyanese (Guyanese of South Asian descent) form the largest ethnic group in the country, representing about two-fifths of the population.

Most Guyanese, and the smaller number of Trinidadians in Richmond Hill, are descendants of Indians who were brought over to the Caribbean starting in 1838 as contract laborers on sugar plantations after slavery was outlawed in the region’s British colonies.

208,899 Guyanese Americans

Sandwiched between Venezuela and Suriname, the former British colony of Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America. Since independence from the UK in 1966, Guyana has seen fierce political rivalry between the two main ethnically-based parties.

Most visits to Guyana are trouble-free. Crime levels are high. You should take sensible precautions to protect yourself and your belongings. Political demonstrations sometimes take place.

Afro-Guyanese people are generally descended from the enslaved people brought to Guyana from the coast of West Africa to work on sugar plantations during the era of the Atlantic slave trade.

Guyana is home to six ethnic groups – Indigenous, East Indian, African, Portuguese, European and Chinese.

The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle modern-day Guyana. The Netherlands had obtained independence from Spain in the late 16th century and by the early 17th century had emerged as a major commercial power, trading with the fledgling English and French colonies in the Lesser Antilles.

29.2 per cent

The people of Guyana, or Guyanese, come from a wide array of backgrounds and cultures including aboriginal Amerindians, and those who descended from the slaves brought to work in the sugar industry of the Caribbean by various European interests, mostly of African or Indian origin.

With a population of 758,000, Guyana is the third smallest country in South America. It is at once considered a middle-income country and the third poorest in the Western Hemisphere.