evidence: The Guianas, region of South America, located on the continent’s north-central coast and covering an area of about 181,000 square miles (468,800 square km). It includes the independent nations of Guyana and Suriname and French Guiana, an overseas département of France. The region is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, on the east and south by Brazil, and on the west by Venezuela. In the late 20th century, boundary disputes remained unsettled between Venezuela and Guyana, Guyana and Suriname, and Suriname and French Guiana. [...] The Guianas’ population ranges from indigenous American Indians to descendants of European colonizers, African slaves, East Indian, Chinese, and Indonesian indentured servants, Southeast Asian refugees, and Haitians. The languages of The Guianas are also varied and set the region apart from the rest of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking South America. French, Dutch, and English are the official languages, respectively, of French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana, but there are also many speakers of a creole language combining the three with African and Asian dialects. [...] In British Guiana settlers discovered gold in 1879, thereby inaugurating the exploitation of mineral resources that have since become the dominant industries of Guyana and Suriname. Bauxite was first discovered (1915) in Suriname and subsequently in British Guiana. French Guiana in 1946 became a French overseas département, while Suriname underwent constitutional reform (1948–51) and was granted self-government by the Netherlands in 1954 and independence in 1975. British Guiana was granted its own constitution in 1953 and achieved independence as Guyana in 1966.