Page 214 - Central America

t was not until the 1930s that a more sustained that finally forced Britain to make political con- turn, stationed a large number of troops in the

Ianticolonial movement arose. It began as the cessions. Universal suffrage was extended to all west. Guatemala barked, but did not bite. By the
motley ‘Unemployed Brigade, staging week- adults and limited home rule was permitted in 1960s, the border threat was stabilized and the

end rallies in Battlefield Park in Belize City. The the colony. The imperial foundations of the old demand for independence was renewed.

movement fed on the daily discontents of im- ruling elite crumbled, as the colony’s ethnically
poverished black workers, and spewed its wrath Bdivided peoples now danced to a common Be-
at prosperous white merchants. It soon was elizeans waited patiently. In 1964 the col-
lizean drum beat. ony became fully self-governing, installing

organizing boycotts and strikes, and shortly a Westminster-style parliamentary system. In
Fthereafter its leaders were thrown into jail. Fi- 1971 the capital was relocated to Belmopan, a
ull independence for Belize was put off un- geographic center symbolically uniting all re-
nally, in the early 1950s, a national independ- til a nagging security matter was resolved.

ence party, the People’s United Party (PUP), Spain never formally renounced her territorial gions and peoples. In 1973 the name was offi-

became politically active. When WWII caused claim to Belize, which was later appropriated cially changed from the colonial sounding Brit-

the sudden closing of export markets, the col- by Mexico and Guatemala. In the 19th century, ish Honduras to the more popular Belize. And

ony experienced a severe economic crisis that Britain signed agreements with both claimants in September 1981 Belize was at last declared

lasted until well after the war’s end. Anti-British to recognize the existing colonial borders, but an independent nation-state within the British

demonstrations spread all across Belize, be- the one with Guatemala did not stick. Guatema- Commonwealth. Even Guatemala recognized

coming more militant and occasionally violent. la’s caudillo rulers – mostly inept at managing Belize as a sovereign nation in 1991, although

Colonial authorities declared a state of emer- their own affairs – remained obsessed with the to this day it maintains its territorial claim, what-

gency, forbidding public meetings and intimi- perceived wealth of British Honduras. The 1945 ever that means.

dating independence advocates. In response, Guatemalan constitution explicitly included

the PUP organized a successful general strike Belize as part of its territorial reach. Britain, in