Suriname — map and facts

About Suriname

Suriname is the smallest sovereign state in South America by both area and population, located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the continent. It is bordered by Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and French Guiana to the east. The capital and largest city is Paramaribo, situated on the Suriname River near the coast, and home to over 300,000 people — more than half the country's total population of approximately 620,000. Suriname is a constitutional republic and parliamentary democracy. It is the only Dutch-speaking country in South America and a former colony of the Netherlands, which it gained independence from on 25 November 1975. The population is exceptionally diverse: Hindustani (descendants of Indian indentured workers), Maroons (descendants of escaped enslaved Africans who established free communities in the interior), Creoles, Javanese, Amerindians, Chinese, and European communities all coexist. The economy is based on oil, gold, bauxite, timber, and agriculture, though corruption and economic mismanagement have been persistent challenges.

Geography and Landscape

Suriname covers approximately 163,820 square kilometres, making it the smallest country in South America yet still sizeable. The country is divided into three broad geographic zones running east to west. The narrow northern coastal plain, lying partly below sea level and protected by dikes and polders inherited from Dutch colonial engineering, is where virtually all of the population and agricultural activity is concentrated. Behind it lies a savanna belt of higher sandy ground. The vast interior — covering more than eighty percent of the country — is occupied by dense tropical rainforest, one of the most intact and biodiverse in the world, part of the Guiana Shield. The Wilhelmina Mountains in the centre are the highest range, culminating in Juliana Top at 1,230 metres, the country's highest point. The Suriname, Saramacca, Coppename, Marowijne, and Corantijn rivers are the main waterways, all flowing north to the Atlantic. The Brokopondo Reservoir, created in the 1960s by damming the Suriname River, is one of the largest artificial lakes in the world by surface area.

History

The region was inhabited by various Amerindian peoples, including the Arawak and Carib, before European contact. The English established the first European colony at Marshall's Creek in 1651. The Dutch took control in 1667 through the Treaty of Breda, exchanging New Amsterdam — present-day New York — for the English claim on Suriname. Under Dutch rule, large sugar, coffee, and cotton plantations were worked by enslaved Africans. Resistance was strong: many enslaved people escaped into the interior rainforest and formed communities known as Maroon societies — the Saramaka, Ndyuka, Matawai, and others — which fought the Dutch colonial forces to a standstill and signed peace treaties in the 1760s. Emancipation came in 1863, but indentured labourers from India, Java, and China were subsequently brought in to work the plantations. Suriname became an autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1954 and gained full independence in 1975. The country experienced a military coup in 1980 under Dési Bouterse, who later won the 2010 and 2015 elections as a civilian president despite a 1999 conviction in absentia for drug trafficking.