Brazil–Guyana border

A savanna in dispute

Britain and Brazil had disputed the boundary between British Guiana and Brazil since 1842. Brazil accepted a British proposal for arbitration in 1899, and a treaty signed in London on 6 November 1901 asked the King of Italy to decide. A declaration signed with it fixed the rest of the border along the watershed between the Amazon basin and the Corentyne and Essequibo basins, leaving the arbitrator to settle the northern zone between the Takutu and the Cotinga.^[1]

Occupation, not discovery

The king’s award began from a principle: discovering trade routes gives no title, and sovereignty over unclaimed land needs effective, uninterrupted and permanent possession in the name of the state. He found that Portugal and then Brazil had held only some places in the zone, while the Dutch West India Company and then Britain had exercised authority over traders and some local peoples in part of it, but that neither side had proven rights over the whole.^[1]

Unable to divide the land into equal halves given what was known of its geography, he followed natural lines: from Mount Yakontipu along the watershed to the source of the Ireng, down the Ireng to the Takutu, and up the Takutu to its source. Everything east of the line went to Britain and everything west to Brazil. The line was said to be the one Lord Salisbury had proposed in 1891, which Brazil had rejected.^[1]

“…the occupation cannot be held to be carried out except by effective, uninterrupted, and permanent possession being taken in the name of the State…”^[1]