Suriname's original inhabitants are American Indians or Amerindians. The name Suriname is derived from the Surinen, an Indian tribe that lived in the present Guyana area.
| 1492 | "Discovery" of the New World by Christophorus Columbus. Start of the enslavement of the Americans. |
| 1499 | "Discovery"of the Nothern coast of South America by Amerigo Vespucci. In case you didn't know: The continent America was named afther this discovery traveller. |
| 1613 | Establishment of 50 Dutch families along the Corantijn river, the present West border of Suriname. |
| 1630 | The first English colonizers arrive. |
| 1640 | First slave transports by the West India Company (W.I.C.). |
| 1650 - 1667 | Suriname becomes the property of Sir Francis Willoughby of England. |
| 1667 | Conquest by the Zeelander Abraham Crijnssen. Zeeland is a province in the Netherlands. |
| 1674 | Revolt of the Indigenous and the Maroons under the leadership of Kaaikoesi and Ganimet. |
| 1683 | Zeeland sells Suriname to the West India Company (W.I.C.), the Sommelsdijck family and the city of Amsterdam. |
| 1688 | Mutiny in Suriname. Governor Van Sommelsdijk was Murdered. |
| 1749 | Peace Treaty with the Maroons of the Saramaccan tribe. |
| 1765 - 1793 | Guerrilla wars and the slave revolts under the leadership of Baron, Boni and Joli Coeur. |
| 1804 - 1814 | English interim Government. |
| 1808 | Prohibition of the slave trade by the English. |
| 1836 | Slave revolt in Coronie, a present province in Suriname. |
| 1853 | Start of the Chinese immigration. |
| 1863 | Official abolition of slavery on July 1sth of that year, 15 to 20 years after the English and the French stopped slavery in their colonies. The former slaves got contracts to work on the estates with payment for 10 years. |
| 1873 | Start of the British Indian immigration. Nowadays there a lot people living in Suriname, whose ancestors came from what is nowadays India. |
| 1894 | Start of the Javanese immigration. At first they would stay in Suriname for five years. Some of the Javanese people got the chance to move back. Other people was promised that they could go back to Indonesia, but that promise never was fulfilled. |
| 1917 | Establishment of the Surinaamse Bauxiet Maatshappij, the Suriname Bauxite Company. |
| 1922 | Suriname becomes part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. |
| 1931 - 1933 | Hunger and labor revolts in Paramaribo. |
| 1940 - 1942 | Occupation by the U.S. Army to protect the strategically important bauxite industry from the Germans. The Germans came to Suriname in a ship called the Goslar. Someone got the chance to open a hatch of the ship. As a result of that the Goslar capsized and sank. The wreck still lies in the Suriname river in Paramaribo as a memory of this historic event. |
| 1948 | General suffrage. |
| 1954 | Establishment of the Statute for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The first Suriname flag was introduced: The white flag with the five stars on it, each one representing one of the minority groups. The stars were connected with a ring to symbolize the unity. |
| 1965 | Hydro-electric power central at Afobaka in the province of Brokopondo. |
| 1968 | Establishment of the University of Suriname. |
| 1975 | Independence of Suriname on November 25 of that year. |
| 1975 | December 4: Suriname presents itself for the first time at the United Nations in New York. |
| 1980 | 25 February: Coup d'etat. |
| 1981 | Establishment of the Staatsolie Maatschappij, the State Oil Company. |
| 1982 | December 8: Some people murdered as a result of a bad situation during that time. |
| 1986 | Guerilla warfare in the interior. |
| 1987 | First elections in years. |
| 1990 | The so called "Telephone coup". |
| 1992 | Framework Treaty signed between Suriname and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. |
| 1995 | The Republic of Suriname becomes a member of the CARICOM, The Caribbean Community. |
| 1997 | Suriname becomes a member of the Islamic Development Bank. Remember that about 30% of the Surinamese population is Islamic. |
| 2000 | The Completition of the Bridge across the Suriname river. |
| 2000 | December 4: Henck Arron, the first Prime Minister in the independent Suriname and one of the men who made Suriname independent, suddenly dies in Alphen aan de Rijn while visiting the Netherlands. |
| 2001 | May 19: Fred Derby, trade-union leader, suddenly dies while playing soccer. |
| 2001 | October 19: Mr. Jagernath Lachmon, chairman of the Surinamese Parlement, dies while visiting the Netherlands. He like Mr. Arron had a very important role in realizing the independence of Suriname in 1975. |
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This page: Copyright © 1999 - 2009 Peter A. J. Troon