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Akkismat — Alternate Flag - Guianas

Published: 2011-07-24 07:58:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 4011; Favourites: 16; Downloads: 74
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Description This flag I made for a flag challenge on ah.com:


Federation of the Guianas
During the Great War of 1815-1821 between the different European nations,
a small contingent was sent by the Dutch in 1815 to defend the small colony of Surinam with it's small number of gold mines against possible British, Germanic, French aggression. Although the Dutch were able to stay neutral for a year, in 1815 the country itself and most of it’s great colonial possessions (in the period 1815-1817) were soon run over by the Germanic-French alliance. Most of it’s small possessions were lost to different nations, allies or foes.

Except for Surinam, who wrote it’s own chapter in this turbulent era:
Although formally the Kingdom of the Netherlands surrendered in 1816 to the Germanic and French Empires, the local colonials( enforced by the commandant of the small contigent sent in 1815, Kolonel Willem Benjamin van Panhuis) declared independance from the Kingdom, establishing the Republic of Surinam. Within weeks the newly-formed republic was recognised by most independant South- and Middle- American republics.
After defeating a small French force at Jodensavanne in the spring of 1816, the former contingent was re-established as the “Regiment Republikeinse Gardisten*”. After being strengthened by the local “Regiment Surinaamse Jagers**” and the “Koninklijke Goejana Regiment***” the Korpsgeneraal Van Panhuis (by now the commander of the army) attacked the capital of French Guiana during the autumn of 1816 and captured it after a quick battle outside Cayenne.

Fearing French retribution Van Panhuis retreated to Surinam at the end of 1816, but not after establishing a Republic of Cayenne.
In 1817 however, war broke out between the former allies, the Germanic and French Empires, diverting the attention of the French to more important war theatres. The Republic of Cayenne by then was a place of disarray (from the view of the leaders of the Republic of Surinam) as former slaves had succesfully rebelled against the leading establishment. Fearing a similar rebellion in their newly-founded republic, Van Panhuis again marched on Cayenne. This time however a small regiment of the Para Free Republic joined them at quelling the rebellion. The territory was subsequently divided between the Republic of Suriname (85% of the territory) and the Para Free Republic (15% of the territory).

Late in 1817 the British Empire joined the side of the Germanic Reich and began to voice a claim on the former French territory of Guiana. In 1818 the U.S. however recognised the Republic of Surinam, making a military campaign by the British against the Surinamese hard, if not impossible, as the none of the European nations were interested in getting the U.S. involved in their “European” wars.

In Summer 1818 there was a small incident (later known as the Coconut-incident) at the borders between British Guiana and the Republic of Surinam which would have world-wide implications.
What exactly did happen and who fired the first shot, was never to be known, but a fact was that during the incident several soldiers were killed. One of them was in fact not a British nor Suriname subject, it was Ferdinand Johnson , the son of the American consul in Surinam.
The British reluctance to take responsibility for the incident together with the huge public outcry forced the then very popular president John C. Calhoun to come with his “Calhoun Doctrine” which at the bottomline was nothing more than a dictate:
All European nations should within 2 decades offer independance to all colonies on the Western Hemisphere.

The British, who were losing already heavly on their South Asian and European war theatres were the first to cave in, declaring in 1819 that all British territories were to be granted independance by 1824. The French,Germanics, Danish , Portuguese and Italians soon followed within a year with their own declarations with their colonies granted independance from per direct (like Italian Virgin Islands) to after 20 years (like Danish Eastern Kouba).

The British colony of British Guiana would not wait 5 years though: being secretly helped by the Republic of Surinam, the U.S. and several other South American nations the local colonials declared independance in late 1819, starting a small civil war within the territory. This prompted the, by then newly-elected President of the Republic of Surinam, Van Panhuis to invade British Guiana for the reason of restoring peace to it’s neughbour nation. Although the U.S. politically disapproved the invasion, it didn’t try to stop the Suriname either, even covertly helping them out militarily and financially.

By 1820 all of former British Guiana was pacified and the Republic of Demerara declared independance from the British, although being more a puppet-state under control of the Surinamese than a truly independant nation .

It didn’t took Van Panhuis long (in his second term as president) to realize a Federation of the Guianas in 1824 (a country made of the Republics of Demerara, Suriname and the re-established Cayenne Republics).
In 1829 the Federation (or “De Federatie” as it was locally called) joined Brazil in it’s war against the Para Free State and Gran Venezuela. After the war, which Brazil won, it gained several territories from the Para Free State and Gran Venezuela, combining all the Guianan territories under one flag and nation for the first time in history.

In the 2 decades there-after, during the 3rd term of President Van Panhuis and 1st and 2nd term of Van Panhuis Jr., the Federation had a relatively prosperous and peacefull existence.
It managed to stay united untill 1897, when the Red Revolution broke out across the continent.

* translation: Regiment Republican Guards
** translation: Regiment Surinamese Rifles (actually Jaegers [link] )
*** translation: Royal Guianese Regiment
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Comments: 3

AY-Deezy [2011-07-24 09:01:33 +0000 UTC]

Very pretty and clean flag

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Neoteros [2011-07-24 08:39:32 +0000 UTC]

nice flag... but i think that a state like this would last less than 2 decades, not everyone is Switzerland XD

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Akkismat In reply to Neoteros [2011-07-24 10:16:09 +0000 UTC]

I was thinking that under the "protection" from the U.S. internationally it wouldn't come to harm, maybe turning it into its staunchest ally in the Carribean and South American regions.

But then again, the country falls apart within 70-80 years.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0