What is the history of Belize?
Therese Jonch - Programme for Belize
Belize used to be a colony of Britain. We we gained our independence in 1981, so this year is 34th year of independence. We have had a lot of British influence, even in the slang that we use and the different tendencies and traditions. Belize is now a democratic country, living a democratic way of life and form of government. Belize was called British Honduras. It was a country that very few people knew about. It was left for religious...
Belize used to be a colony of Britain. We we gained our independence in 1981, so this year is 34th year of independence. We have had a lot of British influence, even in the slang that we use and the different tendencies and traditions. Belize is now a democratic country, living a democratic way of life and form of government. Belize was called British Honduras. It was a country that very few people knew about. It was left for religious explorers who wanted to go into the wild. Everything was very different, and Belize was not as developed as we are now.
Tourism is currently our main contributor to GDP, but back before the British came, we used to get our money from exporting the wood from different kinds of native trees. Mahogany was the predominant species that was logged then. That used to be the country’s main source of income.
There had been a dispute with Guatemala many years ago that Belize was actually a small territory that belonged to Guatemala. Belize has always been seen as a tucked away in the middle of Guatemala and Mexico, but it has never been a part of Mexico.
Posted January 28, 2015
Macarena Rose - Rainforerst Realty
The history of Belize is so amazingly, incredibly diverse, and I have been blessed to learn much of it from one of our magnificent historians here, Hector Silva. Hector is actually one of the founding members of the country. Going back, Belize used to be British Honduras, but in June of 1973, England gave us complete independence, and Belize became a county officially on September 21, 1981.
The neat thing about that is...
The history of Belize is so amazingly, incredibly diverse, and I have been blessed to learn much of it from one of our magnificent historians here, Hector Silva. Hector is actually one of the founding members of the country. Going back, Belize used to be British Honduras, but in June of 1973, England gave us complete independence, and Belize became a county officially on September 21, 1981.
The neat thing about that is that Belize is a very small country and we are less than 34 years old. Belize is a baby country and that is why people are finding it to be a land of opportunity.
Many years ago, we used to have Chicleros. A Chiclero is a man who would go out to the depths of the rainforest and put spikes on their shoes in order to climb up a Chiclet tree (also called a “Chicklet tree”), and then they would score the tree with their machete. The Chiclet is a sap that comes out of the Chiclet tree and falls down to the bottom. The Chicleros would harvest the Chiclet sap, boil it, take it out of the jungle, and then ship it to Wrigley, which used it to make gum. Wrigley’s gum used to get their Chiclet from Belize.
England took a lot of the mahogany for a lot of the buildings that are in England that were made from trees that were then in what was called British Honduras, but is now Belize.
The way it started was with the founding men, including George Price, who is the father of Belize, and the first prime minister of Belize. He had a core group of people, including Hector Silva, who helped him write the laws and to figure out how to structure the whole country.
A lot of our laws and regulations are based on the British system. We have a parliamentary system, and we have a prime minister, just like England. We have the United Democratic Party and People’s United Party, which is similar to what we are used to as the Red and Blue parties in the US.
The history of Belize is really worth studying because it shows how, in 34 short years, a group of people who have the same common thought process can truly build a country.
(Kneading chicle gum into blocks in British Honduras ( Belize), pictured.)
Posted February 15, 2015
Wendy Miller - RE/MAX Property Center South
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It is estimated at their peak by archeologists that 1 to 2 million Mayans lived within the borders of Belize. They built mighty cities such as Caracol, Xunantunich and Lamanai with small agricultural communities farming the land between. No one knows for certain what caused the disappearance of the Mayas. Perhaps it was war, loss of faith, famine or a series of natural disasters. Christopher Columbus sailed...
It is estimated at their peak by archeologists that 1 to 2 million Mayans lived within the borders of Belize. They built mighty cities such as Caracol, Xunantunich and Lamanai with small agricultural communities farming the land between. No one knows for certain what caused the disappearance of the Mayas. Perhaps it was war, loss of faith, famine or a series of natural disasters. Christopher Columbus sailed along the coast of central America after and named the bay of Honduras which bordered the southern part of the barrier reef.
Various bands of shipwrecked sailors, buccaneers, and pirates established permanent base in Belize, harassing the Spanish galleons taking gold, silver, and hardwood from central America to Europe. It wasn't long before logging became the dominant occupation.
Spain continually attempted to expel these British buccaneers from the Spanish territory but finally signed a treaty allowing them to harvest timber in exchange for protection. The European settlers began to intermarry the free slaves, forming the Creole which is the dominant species today and from the bay island of Honduras, the Garifuna people migrated and settled along the coast of Belize.
Belize had about 40,000 people in the 1900's but a destructive hurricane in 1931 destroyed Belize and the economy was poor and began to call for independence. in 1973 the colony's name changed from British Honduras to Belize. On September 21, 1981 Belize gained its Independence.
(Thomas Vincent Ramos, a, Methodist, a preacher, hymn composer, leader and spokesman of the Garifuna was responsible for Settlement Day, which celebrates the Garifunas arrival in Belize, pictured.)
Posted September 1, 2015