Editing Suriname (section)

== History ==
{{main|History of Suriname}}

=== Pre-colonial ===
Indigenous settlement of Suriname dates back to 3,000 BC. The largest tribes were the [[Arawak]], a nomadic coastal tribe that lived from hunting and fishing. They were the first inhabitants in the area. The [[Kalina people|Carib]] also settled in the area and conquered the Arawak by using their superior sailing ships. They settled in Galibi (''Kupali Yumï'', meaning "tree of the forefathers") at the mouth of the [[Marowijne River]]. While the larger Arawak and Carib tribes lived along the coast and savanna, smaller groups of indigenous people lived in the inland rainforest, such as the [[Akurio people|Akurio]], [[Tiriyó people|Trió]], [[Warao people|Warao]], and [[Wayana]].

===Colonial period===
{{main|Surinam (English colony)|Surinam (Dutch colony)}}

Beginning in the 16th century, [[Kingdom of France|French]], [[Habsburg Spain|Spanish]] and [[Kingdom of England|English]] explorers visited the area. A century later, [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] and [[Kingdom of England|English]] settlers established [[plantation]] colonies along the many rivers in the fertile Guiana plains. The earliest documented colony in [[The Guianas|Guiana]] was an English settlement named Marshall's Creek along the Suriname River.<ref name="Marshall" /> After that, there was another short-lived English colony called [[Surinam (English colony)|Surinam]] that lasted from 1650 to 1667.

Disputes arose between the Dutch and the English for control of this territory. In 1667, during negotiations leading to the [[Treaty of Breda (1667)|Treaty of Breda]] after the [[Second Anglo-Dutch War]], the Dutch decided to keep the nascent plantation colony of Surinam they had gained from the English. In return the English kept [[New Amsterdam]], the main city of the former colony of [[New Netherland]] in North America on the mid-Atlantic coast. The British renamed it [[New York City|New York]], after the [[Duke of York]] who would later become King [[James II of England]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/new-amsterdam-becomes-new-york/article_dd6e910f-a882-5b2e-9771-a2caa1574e07.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201120328/https://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/new-amsterdam-becomes-new-york/article_dd6e910f-a882-5b2e-9771-a2caa1574e07.html|title=1664 New Amsterdam becomes New York Dutch rulers surrender to England|first=Etta|last=Badoe|publisher=[[Queens Chronicle]]|date=11 November 2015|archive-date=1 February 2017|access-date=13 March 2021|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1683, the [[Society of Suriname]] was founded by the city of [[Amsterdam]], the [[Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck|Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck]] family, and the [[Dutch West India Company]]. The society was chartered to manage and defend the colony. The planters of the colony relied heavily on [[Slavery in Africa|African slaves]] to cultivate, harvest and process the commodity crops of coffee, cocoa, sugar cane and cotton plantations along the rivers. Planters' treatment of the slaves was notoriously brutal even by the standards of the time<ref>{{cite book|last=Streissguth|first=Tom|title=Suriname in Pictures|url=https://archive.org/details/surinameinpictur0000stre|url-access=registration|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books|year=2009|pages=[https://archive.org/details/surinameinpictur0000stre/page/23 23]–|isbn=978-1-57505-964-8}}</ref>—historian [[C. R. Boxer]] wrote that "man's inhumanity to man just about reached its limits in Surinam"<ref>{{cite book|last=Boxer|first=C.R.|author-link=C. R. Boxer|title=The Dutch Seaborne Empire|publisher=Penguin|date=1990|pages=271–272|isbn=978-0140136180}}</ref>—and many slaves escaped the plantations. In November 1795, the Society was nationalized by the [[Batavian Republic]] and from then on the Batavian Republic and its legal successors (the Kingdom of Holland and the Kingdom of the Netherlands) governed the territory as a national colony – barring two periods of British occupation, between 1799 and 1802, and between 1804 and 1816.


[[File:Vente d'esclaves au Suriname en 1831.jpg|thumb|left|[[Slavery in Suriname|Slave]] auction in Paramaribo, in 1831]]

With the help of the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|native South Americans]] living in the adjoining rain forests, runaway slaves established a new and unique culture in the interior that was highly successful in its own right. They were known collectively in English as [[Maroon (people)|Maroons]], in French as ''Nèg'Marrons'' (literally meaning "brown negroes", that is "pale-skinned negroes"), and in Dutch as ''Marrons''. The Maroons gradually developed several independent tribes through a process of [[ethnogenesis]], as they were made up of slaves from different African ethnicities. These tribes include the [[Saramaka]], [[Paramaccan people|Paramaka]], [[Ndyuka people|Ndyuka]] or Aukan, [[Kwinti]], [[Aluku]] or Boni, and [[Matawai people|Matawai]].

The Maroons often raided plantations to recruit new members from the slaves and capture women, as well as to acquire weapons, food, and supplies. They sometimes killed planters and their families in the raids. Colonists built defenses, which were significant enough that they were shown on 18th-century maps.<ref>[http://www.wdl.org/en/item/524/ Simon M. Mentelle, "Extract of the Dutch Map Representing the Colony of Surinam"], c.1777, Digital World Library via Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 May 2013</ref>

The colonists also mounted armed campaigns against the Maroons, who generally escaped through the rainforest, which they knew much better than the colonists did. To end hostilities, in the 18th century, the European colonial authorities signed several peace treaties with different tribes. They granted the Maroons sovereign status and trade rights in their inland territories, giving them autonomy.

===Abolition of slavery===
{{further|Human rights in Suriname}}
From 1861 to 1863, with the [[American Civil War]] underway, and enslaved people escaping to Northern territory controlled by the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]], United States President [[Abraham Lincoln]] and [[Presidency of Abraham Lincoln|his administration]] looked abroad for places to relocate people who were freed from [[enslavement]] and who wanted to leave the United States. It opened negotiations with the Dutch government regarding African American emigration to and colonization of the [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Dutch colony of Suriname]]. Nothing came of the idea, which was dropped after 1864.<ref>
{{cite journal|author=Douma, Michael J.|year=2015|url=https://michaeljdouma.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/douma-cwh.pdf|title= The Lincoln Administration's Negotiations to Colonize African Americans in Dutch Suriname|journal=Civil War History|volume=61|issue=2|pages=111–137|doi=10.1353/cwh.2015.0037|s2cid=142674093}}</ref>

The Netherlands abolished slavery in Suriname in 1863, under a gradual process that required slaves to work on plantations for 10 transition years for minimal pay, which was considered as partial compensation for their masters.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zaken |first=Ministerie van Algemene |date=2023-11-08 |title=Slavery Memorial Year - Discrimination - Government.nl |url=https://www.government.nl/topics/discrimination/history-of-slavery/slavery-memorial-year |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=www.government.nl |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Zaken |first=Ministerie van Algemene |date=2022-10-21 |title=Slavery Memorial Year 1 July 2023 to 1 July 2024 - Ministry of Education, Culture and Science - Government.nl |url=https://www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-education-culture-and-science/events/slavery-memorial-year |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=www.government.nl |language=en-GB}}</ref> After that transition period expired in 1873, most [[freedmen]] largely abandoned the plantations where they had worked for several generations in favor of the capital city, [[Paramaribo]]. Some of them were able to purchase the plantations they worked on, especially in the district of Para and Coronie. Their descendants still live on those grounds today. Several plantation owners did not pay their former enslaved workers the pay they owed them for the ten years following 1863. They paid the workers with the property rights of the ground of the plantation in order to escape their debt to the workers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Suriname View Geschiedenis|url=https://www.surinameview.com/sranan/geschiedenis/suriname-geschiedenis-deel-5-weer-nederlands-en-nieuwe-immigranten/|date=30 July 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 10030464 Kappen van suikerriet.jpg|thumb|left|[[Javanese people|Javanese]] [[indentured servants]] in Marienbourg plantation, c. 1930]]

As a plantation colony, Suriname had an economy dependent on labor-intensive commodity crops. To make up for a shortage of labor, the Dutch recruited and transported contract or [[indentured laborer]]s from the [[Dutch East Indies]] (modern Indonesia) and India (the latter through an arrangement with the British, who then ruled the area). In addition, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, small numbers of laborers, mostly men, were recruited from China and the Middle East.

Although Suriname's population remains relatively small, because of this complex colonization and exploitation, it is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse countries in the world.<ref>{{cite news|title=Suriname Country Profile|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1211306.stm|publisher=BBC News|date=14 September 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://dutch.berkeley.edu/mcnl/immigration/the-netherlands/the-surinamese/|title=Multicultural Netherlands|year=2010|publisher=UC Berkeley|access-date=13 August 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723092050/http://dutch.berkeley.edu/mcnl/immigration/the-netherlands/the-surinamese/|archive-date=23 July 2012}}</ref>

===Decolonization===
{{see also|Decolonization of the Americas|Suriname in World War II}}

[[File:Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch West-Indië-Surinam north-Benj004ency01ill stitched.jpg|thumb|Suriname in 1914]]

[[File:Presidentieel Paleis.jpg|thumb|[[Presidential Palace of Suriname]]]]

During [[World War II]], on 23 November 1941, under an agreement with the [[Dutch government-in-exile|Netherlands government-in-exile]], the United States sent 2,000 soldiers to Suriname to protect the [[bauxite]] mines to support the Allies' war effort.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120105003256/http://faculty.virginia.edu/setear/students/fdrneutr/38%20to%2041%20Alt.htm#November1 World War II Timeline]. Faculty.virginia.edu. Retrieved 15 August 2012.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.trisonline.nl/de-tris/tweede-wereldoorlog/|title=Tweede wereldoorlog|website=TRIS Online|access-date=6 January 2022|language=nl}}</ref> In 1942, the Dutch government-in-exile began to review the relations between the Netherlands and its colonies in terms of the post-war period.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/wilhemina-preekt-de-revolutie/|title=Wilhemina preekt de revolutie|date=October 2013|author=Maurice Blessing|access-date=6 January 2022|language=nl}}</ref>[[File:Maroon village, Suriname River, 1955.jpg|thumb|left|Maroon village, along [[Suriname River]], 1955]][[File:Water-front houses in Paramaribo, 1955.jpg|thumb|Waterfront houses in [[Paramaribo]], 1955]]

In 1954, Suriname became one of the constituent countries of the [[Kingdom of the Netherlands]], along with the [[Netherlands Antilles]] and the Netherlands. In this construction, the Netherlands retained control of its defense and foreign affairs. In 1974, the local government, led by the [[National Party of Suriname]] (NPS) (whose membership was largely [[Creole peoples|Creole]], meaning ethnically African or mixed African-European), started negotiations with the Dutch government leading towards full independence; in contrast to [[Indonesia]]'s earlier [[Indonesian National Revolution|war for independence]] from the Netherlands, the path toward Suriname's independence had been an initiative of the [[Den Uyl cabinet|then left-wing Dutch government]]. Independence was granted on 25 November 1975. A large part of Suriname's economy for the first decade following independence was fueled by foreign aid provided by the Dutch government.

===Independence===
[[File:Henck Arron, Beatrix, Johan Ferrier 1975.jpg|thumb|Prime Minister [[Henck Arron]], future queen [[Beatrix of the Netherlands]] and President [[Johan Ferrier]] on 25 November 1975]]
The first President of the country was [[Johan Ferrier]], the former governor, with [[Henck Arron]] (the then leader of the NPS) as Prime Minister. In the years leading up to independence, nearly one-third of the population of Suriname emigrated to the Netherlands, amidst concern that the new country would fare worse under independence than it had as a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Surinamese politics did degenerate into ethnic polarisation and corruption soon after independence, with the NPS using Dutch aid money for partisan purposes. Its leaders were accused of fraud in the [[1977 Surinamese general election|1977 elections]], in which Arron won a further term, and the discontent was such that a large portion of the population fled to the Netherlands, joining the already significant Surinamese community there.<ref>Obituary, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 24 January 2001.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:64e1aae0-e515-4779-9e21-8b64ff65b4d2/files/sjs956g29b|format=PDF|date=November 2014|title=The evolution of Surinamese emigration across and beyond independence: The role of origin and destination states|first=Simona|last=Vezzoli|id=DEMIG project paper 28|work=IMI Working Papers Series|publisher=[[International Migration Institute]] (IMI), University of Oxford}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Foreign Relations, 1977–1980, Volume XXIII, Mexico, Cuba, and the Caribbean – Office of the Historian|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v23/d334}}</ref>

===1980 military coup===
{{main|1980 Surinamese coup d'état}}
On 25 February 1980, a [[1980 Surinamese coup d'état|military coup]] overthrew Arron's government. It was initiated by a group of 16 sergeants, led by [[Dési Bouterse]].<ref name=cia>{{cite web|work=[[The World Factbook]]|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|title=Suriname|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/suriname/|year=2013|access-date=4 August 2013}}</ref> Opponents of the military regime attempted counter-coups in April 1980, August 1980, 15 March 1981, and again on 12 March 1982. The first counter attempt was led by [[Fred Ormskerk]],<ref name="Janssen2011">{{cite book|author=Roger Janssen|title=In Search of a Path: An Analysis of the Foreign Policy of Suriname from 1975 to 1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXdhAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA60|date=1 January 2011|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-25367-4|pages=60–}}</ref> the second by [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist-Leninists]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://refuge.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/refuge/article/download/21454/20129|title=Refugees from Suriname|author=Betty Sedoc-Dahlberg|access-date=26 August 2016|archive-date=13 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180413153357/https://refuge.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/refuge/article/download/21454/20129|url-status=dead}}</ref> the third by [[Wilfred Hawker]], and the fourth by [[Surendre Rambocus]].

Hawker escaped from prison during the fourth counter-coup attempt, but he was captured and summarily executed. Between 2&nbsp;am and 5&nbsp;am on 7 December 1982, the military, under Bouterse's leadership, rounded up 13 prominent citizens who had criticized the military dictatorship and held them at [[Fort Zeelandia (Paramaribo)|Fort Zeelandia]] in Paramaribo.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.starnieuws.com/index.php/welcome/index/nieuwsitem/9910|title=Bouterse heeft Daal en Rambocus doodgeschoten|date=23 March 2012|publisher=Network Star Suriname, Paramaribo, Suriname }}</ref> The dictatorship had all these men [[December murders|executed over the next three days]], along with Rambocus and [[Jiwansingh Sheombar]] (who was also involved in the fourth counter-coup attempt).

===Civil war, elections, and constitution===
The brutal [[Suriname Guerrilla War|civil war between the Suriname army and Maroons]] loyal to rebel leader [[Ronnie Brunswijk]], begun in 1986, continued and its effects further weakened Bouterse's position during the 1990s. Due to the civil war, more than 10,000 Surinamese, mostly Maroons, fled to [[French Guiana]] in the late 1980s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.blada.com/data/File/2012pdf/panoimmigr102012.pdf|title=Panorama de la population immigrée en Guyane|publisher=[[INSEE]]|access-date=2019-02-02}}</ref>

National elections were held in 1987. The National Assembly adopted a new constitution that allowed Bouterse to remain in charge of the army. Dissatisfied with the government, Bouterse summarily dismissed the ministers in 1990, by telephone.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} This event became popularly known as the "Telephone Coup". His power began to wane after the 1991 elections.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

At the [[1988 Summer Olympics]] in [[Seoul]], Suriname became the smallest independent South American state to win its first ever Olympic medal as [[Anthony Nesty]] won gold in the [[Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics|100-metre butterfly]].

The first half of 1999 was marked by non-violent [[1999 Surinamese protests|national protests]] against poor general economic and social conditions. By mid-year, the Netherlands tried Bouterse ''[[Trial in absentia|in absentia]]'' on drug-smuggling charges. He was convicted and sentenced to prison but remained in Suriname.<ref>{{cite news|last=Neilan|first=Terence|title=World Briefing|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/17/world/world-briefing.html|work=The New York Times|date=17 July 1999|access-date=1 May 2010}}</ref>

===21st century===
In 2002, the inner historic city in Suriname's capital, [[Paramaribo]], was inscribed on the list as a [[UNESCO World Heritage Site]], for its outstanding collection of Dutch colonial architecture.

On 19 July 2010, Bouterse returned to power when he was elected as the president of Suriname.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10690930 ''Suriname ex-strongman Bouterse back in power''], In: [[BBC News]], 19 July 2010</ref> Before his election in 2010, he, along with 24 others, had been charged with the murders of 15 prominent dissidents in the [[December murders]]. However, in 2012, two months before the verdict in the trial, the National Assembly extended its [[amnesty]] law and provided Bouterse and the others with amnesty of these charges. He was reelected on 14 July 2015.<ref>[https://www.voanews.com/a/suriname-bouterse-secures-second-presidential-term/2862157.html Suriname's Bouterse Secures Second Presidential Term], ''Voice of America News'', 14 July 2015</ref> However, Bouterse was convicted by a Surinamese court on 29 November 2019 and given a 20-year sentence for his role in the 1982 killings.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/world/americas/suriname-president-convicted-in-1982-killings.html|title=Suriname President Convicted in 1982 Killings|last=The Associated Press|date=2019-11-29|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-12-01|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
[[File:Rellen op 17 februari 2023, bestorming DNA.PNG|thumb|Protesters stormed the [[National Assembly (Suriname)|National Assembly]] building in February 2023]]
After winning the [[2020 Surinamese general election|2020 elections]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.gfcnieuws.com/vhp-grote-winnaar-verkiezingen-25-mei-2020/|title=VHP grote winnaar verkiezingen 25 mei 2020|website=GFC Nieuws|access-date=26 May 2020|language=nl}}</ref> [[Chan Santokhi]] was the sole nomination for [[president of Suriname]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.dbsuriname.com/2020/07/08/breaking-ndp-dient-geen-lijst-in/|title=Breaking: NDP dient geen lijst in|website=Dagblad Suriname|access-date=8 July 2020|language=nl}}</ref> On 13 July, Santokhi was elected president by acclamation in an [[uncontested election]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://dwtonline.com/laatste-nieuws/2020/07/13/live-blog-verkiezing-president-en-vicepresident-suriname/|title=Live blog: Verkiezing president en vicepresident Suriname|website=De Ware Tijd|access-date=13 July 2020|language=nl|archive-date=15 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115220444/http://dwtonline.com/laatste-nieuws/2020/07/13/live-blog-verkiezing-president-en-vicepresident-suriname/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was inaugurated on 16 July in a ceremony without public attendance due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic in Suriname|COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.waterkant.net/suriname/2020/07/12/inauguratie-nieuwe-president-van-suriname-op-onafhankelijkheidsplein/|title=Inauguratie nieuwe president van Suriname op Onafhankelijkheidsplein|website=Waterkant|access-date=13 July 2020|language=nl}}</ref>

In February 2023, there were heavy protests against rising living costs in the capital Paramaribo. Protesters accused the government of President Chan Santokhi of corruption. They stormed the National Assembly, demanding the government to resign. However, the government condemned the protests.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kuipers|first=Ank|title=Protesters storm Suriname's parliament as anti-austerity rally turns chaotic|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/protesters-storm-surinames-parliament-rampage-through-capital-rally-turns-ugly-2023-02-17/|publisher=Reuters|date=18 February 2023}}</ref> In December 2024, Desi Bouterse, Suriname’s fugitive former president, died.<ref>{{cite news |title=Desi Bouterse, Suriname's fugitive former president, dies at 79 |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/25/desi-bouterse-surinames-fugitive-former-president-dies-at-79 |work=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref>