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Belize History

The Maya civilization spread over Belize between 1500 BC and AD 300 and flourished until about AD 900. European settlement began with British Jews, privateers and shipwrecked English seamen as early as 1638.

The origin of the name Belize is relatively unclear, but one theory is that it derives from the Spanish pronunciation of the surname of the pirate who created the first settlement in Belize in 1638, Peter Wallace. Another possibility is that the name is from the Maya word belix, meaning "muddy water", applied to the Belize River.

The early "settlement of Belize in the Bay of Honduras" grew from a few habitations located at Belize Town and St George's Caye into a de-facto colony of the United Kingdom during the late eighteenth century. In the early nineteenth century the settlement was called British Honduras, and in 1871 it became a Crown Colony.

Taking advantage of Spain’s inability to establish--and apparent lack of interest in establishing--control over present-day Belize, Englishmen began to cut logwood (Haematoxylon campechianum L.), a dyewood greatly valued in Europe as the principal dyestuff for the expanding woollen industry. By the 1770s, a second tropical exotic timber, mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King), replaced logwood as the main export from Belize. The economy of Belize remained based on the extraction of mahogany until the early 1900s when the cultivation of export crops such as citrus, sugar cane, and bananas came to dominate the economy.

Hurricane Hattie inflicted significant damage upon Belize in 1961. The government decided that a coastal capital city lying below sea level was too risky. Over several years, the British colonial government designed a new capital, Belmopan, at the exact geographic centre of the country, and in 1970 began slowly moving the governing offices there.

British Honduras became a self-governing colony in January 1964 and was renamed Belize on June 1, 1973; it was the United Kingdom's last colony on the American mainland. George Price led the country to full independence on 21 September 1981 after delays caused by territorial disputes with neighbouring Guatemala, which did not formally recognize the country.

Throughout Belize's history, Guatemala has claimed ownership of all or part of the territory. This claim is occasionally reflected in maps showing Belize as Guatemala's most eastern province. As of March 2007, the border dispute with Guatemala remains unresolved and quite contentious; at various times the issue has required mediation by the United Kingdom, CARICOM heads of Government, the Organization of American States and, on one occasion, the United States. Since independence, a British garrison has been retained in Belize at the request of the Belizean Government. Notably, both Guatemala and Belize are participating in the confidence-building measures approved by the OAS, including the Guatemala-Belize Language Exchange Project.

Belize was recently the site of unrest directed at the country's ruling party, concerning tax increases in the national budget.

Click here for a more detailed history of Belize.

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