Suriname
Fast facts
- Official language
- Dutch, English, Sranan Tongo (lingua franca)
- Capital
- Paramaribo
- Largest city
- Paramaribo
- Currency
- Surinamese dollar
- Time zone
- ART
- Drives on
- left
- Calling code
- 597
Facts from Wikipedia’s “Suriname” page (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Suriname or Surinam is a country in South America. The official name of the country is Republiek Suriname (this is Dutch and translates to Republic of Suriname). It used to be known as Nederlands Guyana, Netherlands Guiana or Dutch Guiana. It is between Guyana and French Guiana. Paramaribo is the capital city, in which resides almost half of the country’s population. About half a million people live in the country. Suriname became independent from the Netherlands in 1975. Before that, it was a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
There are border disputes with French Guiana and Guyana all to the south of the country.
The industry of the country is centered on the mining and processing of bauxite. This makes up 15 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and more than 70% of the exports. Other exports are sugar, oil and gold. About 25% of the working people are employed in agriculture. The main trade partners are the Netherlands, the United States and countries in the Caribbean.
Dutch, French, Spanish and English explorers discovered the area in the early 16th century. A century later, sugar plantation colonies were established by the Dutch and English along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains. After the second Anglo-Dutch War England traded any claims to the territory for New Amsterdam which became New York.
In Suriname, people need to go to school until they are twelve years old, and most of them do. Literacy is very common, most people who are illiterate are women.
Written for younger readers
Suriname, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: South America
Part of Wikijunior South America project
Suriname (officially the Republic of Suriname (Dutch: Republiek Suriname)), is the smallest and least populated country in South America (French Guiana is smaller but is not a country).
Native Americans first moved to Suriname in 3000 BC. The largest tribes were the Arawaks, a nomadic coastal tribe that lived from hunting and fishing, and the Caribs. Other smaller tribes lived further into the country, in the rainforest.
The first Europeans who came to Suriname were Dutch traders who visited the area along with other parts of the South America’s coast. In 1630, and again in 1651, the English tried to settle the area. But the two English settlements were conquered by the Dutch in the 1660s.
Suriname is the smallest country in mainland South America.
Suriname consists of Javanese who first arrived in that country during the Dutch colonial period. Indians settled in that area as laborers in a plantation and they were borrowed from the neighboring country Guyana which at that time was a British colony. African slaves were also brought to Suriname and formed a new group of people called Maroon. Several Chinese entered the country as well.
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Suriname” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
Worksheets, answer keys and printable layouts elsewhere on K5Print are our own work and are not covered by this licence.