Page 213 - Central America

ogwood is a tree from which a valuable dye zens began cultivating small farms in Northern the United States surpassed Britain as the main
Belize. In Southern Belize, the Kekchi and Mo- des­tination of the mahogany harvest; by 1930
Lused to colour woolen cloth was made. It pan Maya sought refuge in the hills of the Maya the US was taking in 80% of all Belizean exports.
Mountains. A small band of Confederate Civil
was the economic basis for the British settle- War veterans settled in what is now Punta Gor- The colonial elite’s economic position was
ment in Belize for over 100 years. There was da. And from the Bay Islands of Honduras, the further undercut by the rise of a London-
frequent conflict between the British and the Garifuna people migrated and settled along the based conglomerate, the British Estate and Pro-
Spanish over the right of the British to settle in coast of Belize. By the early 1900’s, Belize had duce Company, which bought out local land-
Belize and cut logwood. During the 18th cen- grown to nearly 40,000 inhabitants. But a de- owners and took over the commodity trade.
tury the Spanish attacked the settlement many structive 1931 hurricane destroyed Belize City Declining timber fortunes caused colonial capi-
times, and in 1717, 1730, 1754 and 1779 forced and by the 1940’s, the economy was so poor talists to impose a 50% wage cut on mahogany
the settlers to leave. However, the Spanish nev- that the residents began to call for independ- workers in Belize City, which provoked riotous
er settled in Belize, and the British returned and ence. By 1954 voting rights were extended to all protests and the first stirrings of social move-
expanded their settlements and trade. In 1763, Belize remained a British colony until 1981; rath- ment. During the first half of the 20th century,
the Treaty of Paris gave the British rights to cut er late for the West Indies. Spain and France lost Belizean nationalism deve­loped in explosive
and export logwood. But Spain still claimed sov- most Caribbean possessions in the early 19th fits and starts. During WWI, a regiment of local
ereignty over the land. By this time the logwood century, while Her Majesty’s island colonies Creoles was recruited for the Allied cause. The
trade declined, but the mahogany trade started were liberated in the 1960s. With its deep ethnic experience proved both disheartening and en-
to grow, and the Baymen continued to log the divisions, a unifying national identity formed lightening. Ill-treated because of their dark skin,
area. slowly, and the Belizean independence move- they were not even allowed to go to the front
ment displayed more patience than resistance. line and fight alongside white troops. They may
During the 1840’s, Great Britain declared Be- As the 19th century closed, the orderly ways of have enlisted as patriotic Brits, but they were
lize to be the colony of British Honduras. colonial life in British Honduras showed signs of discharged as resentful Belizeans. Upon their
Development of Belize became more organ- breakdown. The old elite was becoming more return, in 1919, they coaxed several thousand
ized and multiethnic through a series of cultural isolated and less feared. Its cozy connections to into the streets of Belize City in an angry dem-
changes. The European settlers began to marry the mother country were unraveling. By 1900 onstration against the existing order.
freed slaves forming the Creole majority that
still is dominant in the population. Mexican citi-