British Honduras
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
British Honduras was the former name of what is now the independent nation of Belize and was a British colony on the east coast of Central America, adjacent to the southeast of Mexico. First settled by Europeans in the 17th century, it was a crown colony from 1871 through 1964, when it became self-governing. Belize became fully independent from the United Kingdom in 1981. Belize was the last continental possession of the United Kingdom in the Americas.
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[edit] History of the colony
[edit] Establishment and territorial disputes
The first European settlement of British Honduras was by British loggers in 1638. The colony was of value to the British Empire for production of dyes and for mahogany lumber, used in vessels of the Royal Navy.
The colony was frequently attacked by neighbouring Spanish settlers throughout the 17th and 18th centuries due to economic rivalry and the territorial claim of Spain to the entire colony. In one notable clash in April 1754, a small British force of 250 men repelled an invasion by a Spanish expeditionary force of 1,500. In the Treaty of Paris of 1763, Spain finally recognized the right of British settlers to log the territory, which logging rights were further confirmed by the Treaty of Versailles (1783). Significantly, Spain did not surrender its territorial claim in either treaty.
The treaties did little to abate the warfare between British and Spanish colonists. A Spanish attack on September 15, 1779 led to the destruction of Belize City and the taking of many prisoners to Havana, Cuba. In 1797, war broke out between Great Britain and Spain, leading to an increase of Spanish attacks on the colony. With Royal Navy support, the British settlers finally won a decisive victory over the Spanish in the Battle of St. George's Caye on September 10, 1798.
As British loggers moved into the interior of the colony in search of mahogany, they came into contact with the native Maya people. Eventually, this led to conflict, with the Maya attempting to evict British loggers and troops from their forest lands in many clashes during the 18th and 19th centuries. One Maya attack in 1866 successfully captured a logging camp and routed a small British force, causing panic among the colonists. An unsuccessful attack on a British fort at Orange Walk in 1872 marked the last significant Maya attack on the British.
The breakup of the Spanish Empire in the New World (1811-1822) did not end the territorial dispute regarding the Spanish claim. The colony's neighbor to the west, the newly independent Republic of Guatemala, saw itself as the heir to the Spanish claim. In 1859, the United Kingdom and Guatemala formed a treaty acknowledging British sovereignty and establishing a boundary between the republic and the colony. The treaty in part provided that the parties would co-operate in building a road between Belize City and Guatemala City. In 1940 Guatemala abrogated this treaty, asserting lack of co-operation by the British on the road project, and renewed its claim. Guatemala on several occasions thereafter threatened to resolve the matter by military invasion, but unlike the Spanish before them, did not attempt to do so.
The Guatemalan claim delayed the independence of the colony, renamed Belize in 1973, until intervention by the United Nations in 1980, which adopted a resolution demanding independence for Belize. Belize formally declared its independence on September 21, 1981. Guatemala refused to extend diplomatic recognition to Belize until 1991. As of October, 2006, a boundary dispute still exists between Belize and Guatemala.
[edit] Administration
Before 1884 the colonial administration of British Honduras was rather haphazard. In the early days, the colonists governed themselves under a public meeting system, similar to the town meeting system used in New England. A set of regulations called "Burnaby's Code" was adopted in 1765, which continued in force until 1840, when an Executive Council was created. Also in 1840, the colony formally became known as British Honduras, although it was also referred to as "the Belize". In 1853 the public meeting system was abandoned in favor of a Legislative Assembly, part of which was elected by a restricted franchise. The Assembly was presided over by the British Superintendent, an office created in 1784.
From 1749 until 1884, British Honduras was governed as a dependency of the British colony of Jamaica. Upon its designation as a crown colony in 1871, a Lieutenant Governor under the Governor of Jamaica replaced the Superintendent, and a nominated Legislative Council replaced the Legislative Assembly. When the colony was finally severed from the administration of Jamaica in 1884, the colony gained its own Governor.
In 1935 legislative franchise was reintroduced with a lower income qualification. Universal adult franchise was adopted in 1954, and a majority of seats in the legislature were made elective. A ministerial system was introduced in 1961, and the colony achieved Self Government status in 1964.
[edit] Economy
Forestry dominated the economy of British Honduras. Initially, the focus was upon logwood, which was used in dye manufacture. Falling prices for logwood in the 1770s led to a shift toward logging mahogany, which would dominate the economy until the mid-20th century. As the logging of mahogany was far more labor intensive, this also led to a significant increase of the importation of African slaves to the colony, mainly from Britain's Caribbean colonies. Due largely to extremely harsh working conditions the colony experienced four slave revolts; the first in 1765, and the last in 1820. Slavery was finally abolished in 1838. Exports of mahogany continued as an economic mainstay, as commercial agriculture remained unprofitable due to unfavorable colonial tax policies and trade restrictions.
The lack of diversification in the economy left the colony very susceptible to swings in the mahogany market. The Great Depression of the 1930s, and an especially destructive hurricane in 1931, further depressed the economy and already low living conditions. From 1914 on, the forestry industry was in steady decline, outside of a brief revival during World War II (1939-1945). In the 1950s agriculture finally became a dominant part of economy, and in the 1970s fishing became significant. Land reform after World War II aided this expansion of the ecomony.
[edit] People
By the time of the colony's 1790 census, three-fourths of the population of British Honduras were African slaves. These slaves were ancestors of the Garifuna and Creole peoples of modern Belize. However, the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, high death rates, and low birth rates substantially reduced the ethnic African portion of the population. The white portion of the population remained consistently at around 10%. The largest portion of the population became the Mestizo people, now about 50% of modern Belize. The Mayans are still present in Belize, at around 11%.
The population of the colony was always fairly small. In 1790, it was around 4,000. In 1856, it was estimated to be 20,000. By 1931, this grew to just over 50,000; and in 1946 to just under 60,000. However, by 1970 the population doubled to just under 120,000. On the eve of independence in 1980, the population stood at over 145,000.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Government of Belize website
- History of Belize - The British Commonwealth
- U.S. Library of Congress country study
- "A History of Belize" at Naturalight Productions' Belize tourism website
- British Honduras Paper Money
Legend
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* now a Commonwealth Realm · now a member of the Commonwealth of Nations
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1 Now the San Andrés y Providencia Department of Colombia. |
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3 Now part of the *Realm of New Zealand. |
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7 Dependencies of St. Helena since 1922 (Ascension Island) and 1938 (Tristan da Cunha). |
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