South America · SUR
Suriname
The story · 9 chapters
How it was drawn
Indigenous land turned English sugar colony, traded to the Dutch in 1667. Suriname stayed Dutch for three centuries and still argues over its borders with both neighbours.
Play the story Take the first lessonThrough the ages
Rivals in history
The kingdoms, empires and states Suriname fought or stood against, from the first to today.
- English Colonial Empire1665 to 1667
During the Second Anglo-Dutch War a fleet from Zeeland under Abraham Crijnssen captures English Suriname in 1667. The Treaty of Breda lets the Dutch keep it, while England keeps New Amsterdam.
- Kalina and Arawak peoples1678 to 1686
As plantations spread, Indigenous peoples attack them in a war that begins in 1678. Governor Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck makes peace with them in 1686, and they stay largely outside the plantation economy.
- Maroon nations1690 to 1793
Enslaved Africans who escape into the forest build Maroon nations and raid plantations. The colony signs peace with the Ndyuka in 1760 and the Saramaka in 1762, then fights the Aluku until their leader Boni is killed in 1793.
During the War of the Spanish Succession the French captain Jacques Cassard raids Suriname in 1712 and forces the planters to pay a heavy ransom in money, sugar and enslaved people.
- British Colonial Empire1799 to 1816
During the wars with revolutionary and Napoleonic France, Britain occupies Suriname from 1799 to 1802 and again from 1804. It hands the colony back to the Netherlands in 1816.
The Dutch and French disagree over which headwater river marks the border. An 1891 award by Tsar Alexander III chooses the Lawa, but Suriname still claims the forest between the Litani and the Marouini, administered by France.
Suriname claims the New River Triangle, held by Guyana; Guyanese forces expel a Surinamese camp from it in 1969. In 2000 Surinamese gunboats chase off an oil rig licensed by Guyana. A 2007 tribunal fixes their sea border, but the land claim remains.
Today
Suriname now
The Spaniards first explored Suriname in the 16th century, and the English then settled it in the mid-17th century. Suriname became a Dutch colony in 1667. With the abolition of African slavery in 1863, workers were brought in from India and Java. The Netherlands granted the colony independence in 1975. Five years later, the civilian government was replaced by a military regime that soon declared Suriname a socialist republic.
- Capital
- Paramaribo
- Government
- presidential republic
- Head of government
- Jennifer Geerlings-Simons
- Languages
- Dutch
- Area
- 163,820 km²
Through time
Then and now
- Population628,9002023 · 195,600 in 1950
- Life expectancy73.6 years2023 · 50.7 years in 1950
- Living in cities66%2025 · 40% in 1950
- Literacy93%2012 · 73% in 1950
- Political regimeElectoral democracy2025 · Electoral autocracy in 1950
- Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950
- War deathsNone2025
Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.
Relations
Close partners and tensions
Close partners
- Brazil
- United States
- Netherlands
- China
Tensions
- Guyana
Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 24 October 2026.