Back to Homepage Caribbean History Caribbean until 1900 1900s Caribbean Caribbean Area Bahama Islands Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Morant and Pedro Cays Leeward Islands Windward Islands Barbados Trinidad and Tobago Guiana Honduras Martinique   Guadeloupe and Dependencies French Guiana Clipperton Island The Territory of Curaçao Surinam Economy The International Importance of the Banana Trade United States Trade with the Caribbean Oil on the Caribbean

Surinam A Slave Family of the Loango Tribe, Surinam, from "Le Costume Ancien Et Moderne" Giclee Print Buy at AllPosters.com Surinam has an area of about 50,000 square miles, or approximately that of Wisconsin. The Territory may be divided into three main zones roughly parallel with the coast: a narrow, alluvial coastal plain 10 to 50 miles wide, a belt of "savanas" about 30 to 40 miles wide, and the littleknown hilly to mountainous region in the interior, which comprises most of the country. The low shifting shore line is fringed by mud banks, and ships can approach only through the estuaries. Part of the salt marshland was diked, drained, and converted into polders by Dutch planters with slave labor in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The heavy marine clays of the coastal strip are very fertile and are indeed the only part of the Territory in which cultivation is practicable under present conditions. The "savana" zone is somewhat hilly; a sparse forest is here interrupted by open areas on which only shrubs grow. There are desolate sandy areas and some swamps. Most of the 3zone is worthless for agricultural purposes. Strips of alluvial soil along the rivers, however, offer local areas suitable for small farms but not for large-scale commercial plantations. The interior is inhabited only by a few Indians and Bush Negroes. The general level is between 300 and 1600 feet, although the summits of the Wilhelmina Mountains near the center of the Territory, rise above 3000 feet (highest peak 4120 feet). Most of the interior is covered with virgin tropical rain forest, though there is an area of true grassy savana near the Brazilian border. Logging and balata bleeding are the principal industries. Access to the interior is almost exclusively by river and is difficult owing to many falls and rapids. CLIMATE The climate is everywhere tropical, characterized by high temperatures with small seasonal variations. Along the coast the steady trade winds from the east-northeast and east moderate the extremes of temperature. There are two rainy and two dry seasons. The driest part of the territory is the western coastal area, and the rainiest is in the interior. Severe droughts occur occasionally. Surinam lies entirely outside the hurricane zone. Home