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Suriname[2] (Dutch Suriname; Sranan Tongo Sranan), officially the Republic of Suriname (originally spelled Surinam by the English who founded the first colony at Marshall's Creek,[3] along the Suriname River, but was later officially changed into Suriname), is a country in northern South America. Its size is just under 165,000&_160;km² with an estimated population of about 470,000. Its capital is Paramaribo. Suriname is one of three non-Spanish-speaking states in South America along with Brazil, Guyana, and also French Guiana, a French overseas territory. Suriname does not border any Hispanophone nations on the South American continent. Suriname was formerly known as Nederlands Guyana, Netherlands Guiana or Dutch Guiana. Suriname is situated between French Guiana to the east and Guyana to the west. The southern border is shared with Brazil and the northern border is the Atlantic coast. The southernmost border with French Guiana is disputed along the Marowijne river; while a part of the disputed maritime boundary with Guyana was arbitrated by the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea on September 20, 2007. The country is the smallest sovereign state in terms of area and population in South America and is the only Dutch-speaking region in the Western Hemisphere that is not a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Suriname also has the highest percentage of Muslims in the Americas. European exploration of the area began in the 16th century by Dutch, French, Spanish and English explorers. In the 17th century, plantation colonies were established by the Dutch and English along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains. The earliest documented colony in Guiana was by an Englishman named Marshall called Marshall's Creek, along the Suriname River.[3] At the Treaty of Breda, in 1667, the Dutch decided to keep the nascent plantation colony of Suriname conquered from the English, while leaving the small trading post of New Amsterdam in North America, now New York City, in the hands of the English. The Dutch planters relied heavily on African slaves to cultivate the coffee, cocoa, sugar cane and cotton plantations along the rivers. Treatment of the slaves by their owners was notoriously bad, and many slaves escaped the plantations. With the help of the native South Americans living in the adjoining rain forests, these runaway slaves established a new and unique culture that was highly successful in its own right. Known collectively in English as the Maroons, and in Dutch as "Bosnegers," (literally meaning "Bush negroes"), they actually established several independent tribes, among them the Saramaka, the Paramaka, the Ndyuka or Aukan, the Kwinti, the Aluku or Boni and the Matawai.
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