What is the capital of Suriname?

Paramaribo grew as the administrative centre of a Dutch plantation colony on the Suriname River, a short way inland from the Atlantic where ocean vessels could still reach it. The colony changed hands between English and Dutch control in the seventeenth century in an exchange that also involved New Amsterdam on the other side of the ocean, and Dutch rule then lasted until independence in 1975, which is why Dutch remains the official language and why the wooden colonial buildings along the waterfront look so distinctly northern European despite the tropical setting. The plantation economy brought enslaved Africans and later indentured labourers from India, Java and China, giving the city an unusually layered population, so a synagogue and a mosque stand side by side on one street and Hindu temples, churches and Javanese communities share the same small capital.

The three Guianas were colonised by the British, Dutch and French respectively, and only the French territory is not independent today.