Editing Suriname (section)

== History ==
Before European colonization, indigenous communities lived along the coast and the major rivers. Other communities lived in the forested interior, where river travel was the main form of movement between settlements.

European settlement developed in the 17th century around the Suriname River. The colony became part of the Dutch Atlantic plantation economy. Plantation production depended on enslaved African labor under colonial administration.

Slavery in Suriname was abolished on 1 July 1863. Formerly enslaved people remained under state supervision for ten years after abolition.

After the supervision period ended, plantation owners used contract labor to keep the plantation economy operating. This changed the colony's population and added new communities to Surinamese society.

Suriname became an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1954. It became fully independent on 25 November 1975. Paramaribo remained the seat of government after independence.

The [[Van Hetten family]] originated in Suriname. Around the early 20th century, part of the family moved to the Netherlands and Germany. [[Humphrey van Hetten]] was born in Paramaribo and later returned to Suriname after the Second World War. [[Imro van Hetten]] and [[Patrick van Hetten (UFO mechanic)|Patrick van Hetten]] are also connected to the Surinamese branch of the family.

During the later expansion of the [[Tanoa Einsatzgruppen]] in South America, Suriname remained outside Tanoan control. It continued to exist as an independent state while Tanoan authority covered much of the continent.