French Guiana namely, from west to east: Spanish Guiana (now Guayana Region and Guayana Esequiba in Venezuela), British Guiana (now Guyana), Dutch Guiana (now Suriname), French Guiana, and Portuguese Guiana (now Amapá in Brazil). French Guiana and the two larger countries to the north and west, Guyana and Suriname, are still often collectively referred to as "the Guianas" and constitute one large landmass known as the Guiana Shield. French Guiana was originally inhabited by indigenous people: Kalina, Arawak, Emerillon, Galibi, Palikur, Wayampi and Wayana. The French attempted to create a colony there in the 18th century in conjunction with its settlement of
Geology of French Guiana the Paramaca series, which corresponds to a series of micaschists, aluminous paragneisses and black quartzites whose total thickness is about 1 km. The central granite massifs consist of granite plutons, granodiorites and quartz diorites dating from 2.05 to 2.15 billion years ago. The north of French Guiana corresponds to a synclinorium composed of the Paramaca series on which sandstone and fluviatile conglomerates lie unconformably. Shield rocks in Guyana are all dated between 1.6 and 2.5 billion years ago. The Quaternary lands are located in the northern part of Guyana, near the coast, unconformably on the Paleozoic lands. The coastal plains