Surinam (Dutch colony)

For the later Republic of Suriname, see Suriname.

Kolonie Suriname
Dutch colony
1667–1954
Flag
Suriname in 1954
Capital		Fort Zeelandia
Languages		Dutch
Religion		Dutch Reformed
Political structure		Colony
Governor
•	1668-1669	Abraham Crijnssen
•	1683-1688	Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck
•	1689-1696	Johan van Scharphuizen
•	1827-1828	Johannes van den Bosch
•	1902-1905	Cornelis Lely
History
•	Capture of Surinam	26 February 1667
•	Proclamation of the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands	15 December 1954
Succeeded by Suriname (Kingdom of the Netherlands)

Surinam was a Dutch plantation colony in the Guianas, neighboured by the equally Dutch colony of Berbice to the west, and the French colony of Cayenne to the east. Surinam was a Dutch colony from 26 February 1667, when Dutch forces captured Francis Willoughby's English colony during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, until 15 December 1954, when Suriname became a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The status quo of Dutch sovereignty over Surinam, and English sovereignty over New Netherland, which it had conquered in 1664, was kept in the Treaty of Breda of 31 July 1667, and again confirmed in the Treaty of Westminster of 1674.

After the other Dutch colonies in the Guianas, i.e., Berbice, Essequibo, Demerara, and Pomeroon, were lost to the British in 1814, the remaining colony of Surinam was often referred to as Dutch Guiana, especially after 1831, when the British merged Berbice, Essequibo, and Demerara into British Guiana. As the term Dutch Guiana was used in the 17th and 18th to refer to all Dutch colonies in the Guianas, this use of the term can be confusing (see below).

History

See also: History of Suriname

An illustration of a Dutch plantation owner and slave from William Blake's illustrations of the work of John Gabriel Stedman, first published in 1792-1794.

The colonization of Surinam is marked by slavery. Plantations relied on slave labour, mostly supplied by the Dutch West India Company from its trading posts in West Africa, to produce their crops. Sugar, cotton, and indigo were the main goods exported from the colony to the Netherlands until the early 18th century, when coffee became the single most important export product of Surinam. The Amsterdam stock market crash of 1773 dealt a severe blow to the plantation economy, which was further exacerbated by the British-imposed abolition of slave trade in 1807. Many plantations went bankrupt, and without supply of slaves, many plantations were merged to increase efficiency.

Abolition of slavery

Slavery was eventually abolished in 1863, although slaves were only released after a ten-year transitory period in 1873. This spurred the immigration of indentured labourers from British India, after a treaty to that effect had been signed between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in 1870. Apart from immigration from British India, Javanese workers from the Dutch East Indies were also contracted to work on plantations in Surinam. At the same time, a largely unsuccessful attempt to colonize Surinam with impoverished farmers from the Netherlands was started as well.

20th century

In the 20th century, the natural resources of Surinam, which include rubber, gold and bauxite, were exploited. The gold rush that followed the discovery of gold on the banks of the Lawa River spurred the construction of the Lawa Railway in 1902, although construction was halted after gold production proved disappointing. In 1916, the U.S. aluminium company Alcoa began mining bauxite in on the banks of the Cottica River, near the village of Moengo. In 1938, the company built an aluminium smelter in Paranam.

Partly due to the importance of Surinamese aluminium for the allied war effort, United States troops occupied Surinam under an agreement with the Dutch government in exile on 23 November 1941. Under the provisions of the Atlantic Charter of August 1941, the Dutch government in exile promised to end the colonial relations between the Netherlands and its overseas possessions, promising them far-reaching autonomy and self-rule. This was eventually accomplished by the proclamation of the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 15 December 1954, which constituted a Kingdom in which the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Suriname participated in on a basis of equality. In 1975, Suriname left the Kingdom of the Netherlands to become the independent country of Suriname.

Administration

From 1683, the colony was governed by the Society of Suriname, a company composed of three equal shareholders, being the city of Amsterdam, the family Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck, and the Dutch West India Company. Although the organization and administration was of the colony was limited to these three shareholders, all citizens of the Dutch Republic were free to trade with Suriname. Also, the planters were consulted in a Council of Police, which was a unique feature among the colonies of Guiana.

In November 1795, the Society was nationalized by the Batavian Republic. From then on until 1954, the Batavian Republic and its legal successors (the Kingdom of Holland and the Kingdom of the Netherlands) governed the territory as a national colony, barring a period of British occupation between 1799 and 1802, and between 1804 and 1816.

After the Batavian Republic took over in 1795, the Dutch government issued various government regulations for Suriname (Dutch: Regeringsreglement voor Suriname), establishing the government of the colony. In 1865, a new government regulation replaced the previous regulation of 1832, which theoretically gave Suriname some limited self-rule. The colonial elite was given the right to elect a Colonial Council (Dutch: Koloniale Raad) which would co-govern the colony together with the Governor-General appointed by the Dutch crown. Among others, the Colonial Council was allowed to decide over the colony's budget, which was subject to approval by the Dutch crown, but which did not see any involvement of Dutch parliament.

In the wake of the 1922 Dutch constitutional revision, in which all references to the term "colony" were deleted and replaced by the term "overseas territory", the 1865 government regulation was replaced by the Basic Law of Suriname (Dutch: Staatsregeling van Suriname) on 1 April 1937. This Basic Law renamed the Colonial Council to Estates of Suriname (Dutch: Staten van Suriname) and increased the membership from 13 to 15.

After the Second World War, during which the Dutch government in exile had pledged to review the relationship between the Netherlands and its colonies, the Basic Law was heavily revised. In March 1948, revisions to the Basic Law were adopted by Dutch parliament, which introduced universal suffrage for both men and women, which increased the membership of the Estates from 15 to 21, and which introduced a College of General Government (Dutch: College van Algemeen Bestuur) which was to assist the Governor in the everyday government of the colony, and which was the precursor to the Cabinet of Ministers. The new constitution took effect in July 1948.

Dutch Guiana

Although the colony has always been officially known as Surinam or Suriname, in both Dutch and English, the colony was often unofficially and semi-officially referred to as Dutch Guiana (Dutch: Nederlands Guiana) in the 19th and 20th century, in an analogy to British Guiana and French Guiana. Using this term for Suriname is problematic, however, as historically Suriname was only one of many Dutch colonies in the Guianas, others being Berbice, Essequibo, Demerara, and Pomeroon, which after being taken over by the United Kingdom in 1814, were united into British Guiana in 1831. Before 1814, the term Dutch Guiana did not describe a distinct political entity, but rather all colonies under Dutch sovereignty taken together. While referring to post-1814 governors of Suriname as governors of Dutch Guiana seems harmless, it is problematic doing the same for the pre-1814 governors, as that would imply that they had jurisdiction over the other Dutch colonies in the Guianas, which they had not.

External links

• Dutch West Indies 1630-1975