History of Belize
Several Maya ruin sites, including Cahal Pech, Caracol, Lamanai, Lubaantun, Altun Ha, and Xunantunich reflect the advanced civilization and much denser population of that period.
The official name of the territory was changed from British Honduras to Belize in June 1973, and full independence was granted on 21 September 1981.
[1] The Maya civilization emerged at least three millennia ago in the lowland area of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands to the south, in what is now southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, and Belize.
Prior to about 2500 BC, some hunting and foraging bands settled in small farming villages; they domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers.
Their products fed the civilization's craft specialists, merchants, warriors, and priest-astronomers, who coordinated agricultural and other seasonal activities with rituals in ceremonial centers.
Stylized carvings and paintings, along with sculptured stelae and geometric patterns on buildings, constitute a highly developed style of art.
Archaeological and ethnohistorical research confirms that several groups of Maya peoples lived in the area now known as Belize in the 16th century.
[2] Early in the 17th century, in southeastern Mexico and on the Yucatán Peninsula, English buccaneers began cutting logwood (Haematoxylum campechianum), which was used in the production of a textile dye.
[1] One way the settler minority maintained its control was by dividing the slaves from the growing population of free Kriol people who were given limited privileges.
After 1838, the masters of the settlement continued to control the country for over a century by denying access to land and by limiting freedmen's economic freedom.
But the United States government claimed that Britain was obliged to evacuate the area, particularly after 1853, when President Franklin Pierce's expansionist administration stressed the Monroe Doctrine.
As the British consolidated their settlement and pushed deeper into the interior in search of mahogany in the late 18th century, they encountered resistance from the Maya.
[2] In the 1880s and 1890s, Mopan and Kekchí Maya fled from forced labor in Guatemala and settled in several villages in southern British Honduras.
[2] Since 1854, the richest inhabitants elected an Assembly of notables by censal vote, which was replaced in 1962 by a Legislative Council appointed by the British monarchy.
The European minority exercised great influence in the colony's politics, partly because it was guaranteed representation on the wholly appointed Legislative Council.
A short-lived boom in the mahogany trade occurred around 1900 in response to growing demand for the wood in the United States, but the ruthless exploitation of the forests without any conservation or reforestation depleted resources.
On top of this economic disaster, the worst hurricane in the country's recent history demolished Belize Town on 10 September 1931, killing more than 1,000 people.
The British government seized the opportunity to impose tighter control on the colony and endowed the governor with the power to enact laws in emergency situations.
The Belize Estate and Produce Company survived the depression years because of its special connections in British Honduras and London.
In 1931 the governor, Sir John Burdon, rejected proposals to legalize trade unions and to introduce a minimum wage and sickness insurance.
Riots, strikes, and rebellions had occurred before, but the events of the 1930s were modern labor disturbances in the sense that they gave rise to organizations with articulate industrial and political goals.
The General Workers' Union (GWU), registered in 1943, quickly expanded into a nationwide organization and provided crucial support for The Nationalist Movement (Belize) that took off with the formation of the People's United Party (PUP) in 1950.
[11] In December 1949, the governor devalued the British Honduras dollar in defiance of the Legislative Council, an act that precipitated Belize's independence movement.
The devaluation enraged labor because it protected the interests of the big transnationals while subjecting the working class to higher prices for goods.
[2] Between 1950 and 1954, the PUP, formed upon the dissolution of the People's Committee on 29 September 1950, consolidated its organization, established its popular base, and articulated its primary demands.
By January 1950, the GWU and the People's Committee were holding joint public meetings and discussing issues such as devaluation, labor legislation, the proposed West Indies Federation, and constitutional reform.
[2] By 1975, the Belizean and British governments, frustrated at dealing with the military-dominated regimes in Guatemala, agreed on a new strategy that would take the case for self-determination to various international forums.
However, when ultraright political forces in Guatemala labeled the proponents as sellouts, the Guatemalan government refused to ratify the agreement and withdrew from the negotiations.
In 2005, Belize was the site of the unrest caused by discontent with the People's United Party government, including tax increases in the national budget.
On 8 February 2008, Dean Barrow of the United Democratic Party (UDP) was sworn in as Belize's first black prime minister.
