Pre-colonial Indigenous settlement of Suriname dates back to 3,000 BC. The largest tribes were the
Lokono, a nomadic coastal tribe that subsisted on hunting, foraging and fishing. The Lokono represent the first described inhabitants in the area. The
Carib also settled in the area and conquered the Lokono 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 Lokono and Carib tribes lived along the coast and savanna, smaller groups of indigenous people lived in the inland rainforest, such as the
Akurio,
Trió,
Warao, and
Wayana.
Colonial period Beginning in the 16th century,
French,
Spanish and
English explorers visited the area. A century later,
Dutch and
English settlers established
plantation colonies along the many rivers in the fertile Guiana plains. The earliest documented colony in
Guiana was an English settlement named Marshall's Creek along the Suriname River. In 1825, these special rights were rescinded. Disputes arose between the Dutch and the English for control of this territory. In 1667, during negotiations leading to the
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, after the
Duke of York who would later become King
James II of England. In 1683, the
Society of Suriname was founded by the city of
Amsterdam, the
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
African slaves to cultivate, harvest and process the commodity crops of coffee, cocoa, sugar cane and cotton plantations along the rivers. Approximately 300,000 enslaved Africans were taken to Suriname during the transatlantic slave trade, from the mid-1600s to the early 1800s. The treatment of slaves was notoriously brutal even by the standards of the time—historian
C. R. Boxer wrote that "man's inhumanity to man just about reached its limits in Surinam"—and many slaves escaped 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. auction in Paramaribo, in 1831 With the help of the
native South Americans living in the adjoining rain forests, runaway African 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
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 from different African ethnicities. These tribes include the
Saramaka,
Paramaka,
Ndyuka or Aukan,
Kwinti,
Aluku or Boni, and
Matawai. The Maroons often raided plantations to recruit new members from the enslaved and capture women, as well as to acquire weapons, food, and supplies. They sometimes killed the Dutch planters and their families in the raids. European colonists built defences, which were significant enough that they were shown on 18th-century maps. The Dutch 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.
Abolition of slavery From 1861 to 1863, with the
American Civil War underway, and enslaved people escaping to Northern territory controlled by the
Union, United States President
Abraham Lincoln and
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
Dutch colony of Suriname. Nothing came of the idea, which was dropped after 1864. 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. After that transition period expired in 1873, most
freedmen largely abandoned the plantations where they had worked for several generations in favour 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. 1 July 1863 is called
Ketikoti.
indentured servants in Marienbourg plantation, As a plantation colony, Suriname had an economy dependent on labour-intensive commodity crops. To make up for a shortage of labour, the Dutch recruited and transported contract or
indentured labourers 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 labourers, mostly men, were recruited from China and the Middle East. Although Suriname's population remains relatively small, because of this complex colonisation and exploitation, it is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse countries in the world.
Decolonization During
World War II, on 23 November 1941, under an agreement with the
Netherlands government-in-exile, the United States sent 2,000 soldiers to Suriname to protect the
bauxite mines to support the Allies' war effort. 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., 1955 , 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 defence and foreign affairs. In 1974, the local government, led by the
National Party of Suriname (NPS) (whose membership was largely
Creole, meaning ethnically African or mixed African-European), started negotiations with the Dutch government leading towards full independence; in contrast to
Indonesia's earlier
war for independence from the Netherlands, the path toward Suriname's independence had been an initiative of the
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 fuelled by foreign aid provided by the Dutch government.
Independence , 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 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.
1980 military coup On 25 February 1980, a
military coup overthrew Arron's government. It was initiated by a group of 16 sergeants, led by
Dési Bouterse. 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, the second by
Marxist-Leninists, 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 am and 5 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 in Paramaribo. The dictatorship had all these men
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
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. 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. This event became popularly known as the "Telephone Coup". His power began to wane after the 1991 elections. 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
100-metre butterfly. The first half of 1999 was marked by non-violent
national protests against poor general economic and social conditions. By mid-year, the Netherlands tried Bouterse
in absentia on drug-smuggling charges. He was convicted and sentenced to prison but remained in Suriname.
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. 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. 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. building in February 2023 After winning the
2020 elections,
Chan Santokhi was the sole nomination for
president of Suriname. On 13 July, Santokhi was elected president by acclamation in an
uncontested election. He was inaugurated on 16 July in a ceremony without public attendance due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. 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. In December 2024, Desi Bouterse, Suriname's fugitive former president, died. On 6 July 2025,
Jennifer Geerlings-Simons of the
National Democratic Party (NDP) was elected as Suriname's first woman president by the parliament. == Geography ==