Suriname - History
The population, very cosmopolitan (English, Dutch, German, French, Marranes), is devoted to the plantations of sugar cane. The British, who occupied the colonies of Holland during the wars of the Revolution and the Empire (1796-1802 and 1804-1816), returned Suriname to the Netherlands (1816).
The indigenous inhabitants of Suriname relied on a subsistence economy for survival. Shifting cultivation and gardening were the main source of starches, vegetable and fruits, while hunting and fishing were the main sources of proteins. However, areas with the remnants of more permanent systems of agriculture were located in the coastal area. Gathering was also an important source of food.
Because the indigenous communities were rather small it is generally assumed that these groups were politically acephalous (head-less), implying the absence of a strong or centralized leadership. Cohesion came through family ties, charismatic leadership and marriage alliances with members of other groups. Apparently strong leaders did take control of the indigenous societies during periods of war.
Arawak and Carib tribes lived in the region before Columbus sighted the coast in 1498. Spain officially claimed the area in 1593, but Spanish and Portuguese explorers of the time gave the area little attention. Dutch settlement began in 1616 at the mouths of several rivers between present-day Georgetown, Guyana, and Cayenne, French Guiana.
During the six-year war of resistance, a strong leader by the name of Kaikusi led the indigenous fighters in the struggle against the Dutch colonial settlers. The indigenous population withdrew from the areas surrounding Paramaribo as well as lands that was cultivated under the plantation system.
In 1667, the Dutch gained control over the former English colonies in the northeast of South America. The largest of these was Surinam. Thousands of slaves worked on sugar and coffee plantations there. When France occupied Holland from 1795 to 1813, the British took control of Surinam, until the colony was reinstated to the new Dutch kingdom under Willem I.
In the 18th century, Surinam was run by the Surinam Society. This was a private company, founded by the city of Amsterdam, the Dutch West Indies Company (West-Indische Compagnie or WIC) and the Van Sommelsdijck merchant family.
A constant problem for the planters was the Maroons: fugitives from slavery who raided plantations from the forest. Governor Joan Jacob Mauricius tried in vain in the mid-18th century to come to terms with the rebellious Maroons. The planters were not impressed by his approach. They eventually managed to ensure that Mauricius was relieved of his duties. Yet subsequent governors were equally unsuccessful in dealing with the insurgents: in 1757, a massive rising took place on the plantations. In 1793, governor Jurriaan de Friderici managed to subdue the main group, the Boni, in a military campaign. Yet the unrest caused by those who had escaped slavery remained an ongoing problem for the planters.
In the Treaty of Paris (1815), Surinam was restored to the new Dutch monarch, Willem I. Although the new government had made slavery illegal for Dutch subjects, it remained in place in the colony. It was not until 1863 that the Netherlands abolished slavery there too.
In 1975 Suriname became independent. A bilateral treaty fund was set and was worth about one billion US Dollars at the time. The post-independence period was one of optimism for the bauxite industry and the treaty fund assured a steady foreign currency income. The government assumed the lead role in the development of the economy and began investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the Kabalebo project - a project to mine and project bauxite in Western Suriname. Another hydro-lake was anticipated, several times larger than the Brokopondo lake, that would provide energy to an alumina processing plant and an aluminum smelter. A 60-kilometer railroad would connect the mine site in the Bakhuys Mountains to the Corantijn river. The railroad was built, but the dam and the processing plants were never built.
A few years after the project idea was launched, pessimism set in. Questions began to surface about the preparation of the project. Certain fundamental issues were not resolved yet, such as the water rights agreement with Guyana to divert water from the Upper-Corantijn to the lake. Funding was also an issue. Only a small portion of the large investment needed to complete the project had been secured.
A labor conflict between the military and the government came to a head when the leaders of an effort to establish a union in the military were jailed. On February 25th 1980 the military took over the country. Human rights violations during the seven years of military rule that followed prompted the Dutch to suspend development aid.
In 1986 an internal war broke out initially pitting a group of rebel insurgents against the military. In 1989 the conflict expanded and several other contra-guerilla groups became involved. During this conflict millions of dollars of damage was done to industrial and agricultural facilities in the rural and interior areas.
In 1987 democracy was restored and the traditional political parties returned to power with a landslide election victory. In 1990 the military removed the elected government for the second time again, but within six months a plebiscite was held and a democratically elected government was sworn. In 1992 a peace accord with signed with the guerilla groups, and the government gradually restored in authority in the rural and interior areas. The decade of turmoil, however, took its toll and the economy suffered significant setbacks.
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