Page 215 - Central America

n 1866, the Maya leader Marcos Canul led a
Iraid on a mahogany camp at Qualm Hill on the
Rio Bravo in what is today the Orange Walk Dis-
trict. Two men died and a ransom was demand-
ed for the captured prisoners. The Mestizo fam-
ily also demanded rent to be paid for the use
of the land the British occupied. Later that year pay rent whether to the Crown or the owner
Canul’s army defeated a detachment of British
troops. Five British soldiers were killed and 16
wounded. The settlers were very scared. The
British sent more troops and weapons, went
into Maya villages and burnt their houses and
fields. Their intention was to drive the Maya out of years, were forced off their land. The British
by destroying their food supplies. Over the next
five years the Maya rebuilt their villages and
replanted their fields. Canul and his men con-
tinued to fight. In 1870 they took over Corozal
Town. In 1872 they attacked the British barracks
at Orange Walk, New River but they could not
capture it. Canul was mortally wounded, and
they retreated. This was the last major Maya at-
tack on the British.
The British had been determined to get
the Maya from their lands so they could
cut mahogany in the areas surrounding the
colony. They saw them as an obstacle to their
mahogany business. They felt the Maya could
provide them with cheap labour, and try to pre-
vent them from owing land. In 1867, Governor
Austin ruled that “No Indians will be at liberty
to reside upon or occupy or cultivate any land
without previous payment or engagement to
of the land”. By 18XX, the British wanted to at-
tract white settlers to the land. Refugees from
the United States Civil War were encouraged
to settle in Belize and farm. The Maya, who
had farmed the interior of Belize for hundreds
woodcutters who settled Belize in the 18th cen-
tury soon looked for people who could work for
them. They could not find enough labourers lo-
cally, and so they began to use the same source
of labour used in the sugar plantations of the
Caribbean - slaves from Africa.
The Europeans severely reduced the popu-
lation of the Caribbean through war and
disease. When they began to use the lands to
grow sugar and tobacco and other crops, they
needed workers. They took the lands of the
indigenous people and forced them to do the
work. As the plantations grew larger and larger,
more people were needed. They then looked for
white labour. Convicts from Europe were sent to
the Caribbean and forced to work. Poor white
people came from Europe as “indentured serv-
ants”. However, there were not enough Europe-
ans who were willing to come to the Americas
under these conditions. In the 15th century the
Portuguese began slave trading with Africa. Eu-
ropeans in the Americas now became involved
in this trade to satisfy their need for workers.
With colonization the European system of
land ownership was brought to Belize.
A small class of rich, absentee landlords devel-
oped. They took over the land for their own
profit and excluded others from owning and
often even from using the land. This system
resulted in the growth of private wealth along-
side wide-spread poverty while rich resources
lay unused.