As I wrote here, the Guianas (Las Guayanas in spanish) refers to a region which includes French Guiana, Guyana (former British Guiana), Suriname (former Dutch Guiana), the Guayana Region in Venezuela (former Spanish Guyana), and Brazilian State of Amapá (former Portuguese Guiana). Colonized by the English and the Dutch in the 17th century, Suriname was captured by the Dutch in 1667, who governed it as Dutch Guiana until 1954, when became one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and in 1975 an independent country. It is the smallest sovereign state in South America, with a population of only 566,000, most of whom live on the country's north coast, where the capital Paramaribo is located. Founded at the beginning of the 17th century, Paramaribo houses more than half of Suriname's population, and the historic inner city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002.
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