Dutch Empire lost a number of its colonial possessions and trade monopolies to the British Empire. Nevertheless, major portions of the empire survived until the advent of global decolonisation following World War II (1939–1945), namely the East Indies (Indonesia) and Dutch Guiana (Surinam). Three former colonial territories in the West Indies islands around the Caribbean Sea—Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten—remain as constituent countries represented within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The territories that would later form the Dutch Republic began as a loose federation known as the Seventeen Provinces, which Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and (as "Carlos I") King of Spain,
French Guiana of its 281,612 inhabitants in 2018 lived in the metropolitan area of Cayenne, its capital. Since December 2015 both the region and the department have been ruled by a single assembly within the framework of a new territorial collectivity, the French Guiana Territorial Collectivity (). This assembly, the French Guiana Assembly (), has replaced the former regional council and departmental council, which were both disbanded. The French Guiana Assembly is in charge of regional and departmental government. Its president is Rodolphe Alexandre. Before European contact, the territory was originally inhabited by Native Americans, most speaking the Arawak language, of the