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Suriname
A small, forested mosaic of cultures
Suriname is the smallest sovereign country in South America and one of its least known, a former Dutch colony on the northeastern coast where Dutch remains the official language and the population is among the most ethnically varied on the continent. More than nine-tenths of the country is covered by pristine rainforest, making it one of the most heavily forested nations on Earth. Along the narrow coastal belt, the capital Paramaribo blends Dutch colonial architecture with mosques, temples, and synagogues that reflect a remarkable cultural patchwork.
A low coastal plain holds most of Suriname's people and its agriculture, giving way southward to a forested interior of rolling hills and the low Guiana Highlands, where Juliana Top rises to 1,230 meters. Rivers run north to the Atlantic, and the giant Brokopondo reservoir, created by a hydroelectric dam, floods part of the interior. The climate is tropical, hot and humid year-round, with the rainforest sustaining extraordinary biodiversity that the country has worked to protect through large nature reserves.
Dutch planters built a colony on sugar and enslaved labor, and after emancipation imported indentured workers from India and Java, producing a society of Hindustani, Javanese, Creole, Maroon, Indigenous, and other communities. Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands in 1975, after which many residents emigrated to the Dutch homeland. The economy leans on bauxite, gold, and increasingly oil, while the country navigates the politics of a small, diverse nation perched between the Caribbean world and the South American mainland.