{{lang|es|Americano-Hondureño}}"},"image":{"wt":"Honduras 1980 - San Pedro Sula Grupo.jpg"},"caption":{"wt":""},"population":{"wt":"21,908 {{cite web |url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/outofdate/bgn/honduras/146160.htm |title=Honduras (11/23/09) |author= |date=November 23, 2009 |work=Previous Editions of Honduras Background Note |publisher=United States Department of State |access-date=December 17, 2012 |quote=U.S.-Honduran ties are further strengthened by numerous private sector contacts, with an average of between 80,000 and 110,000 U.S. citizens visiting Honduras annually and about 15,000 Americans residing there. |archive-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101043019/https://2009-2017.state.gov/outofdate/bgn/honduras/146160.htm |url-status=live }}"},"langs":{"wt":"{{hlist|[[American English]]|[[Honduran Spanish]]}}"},"religions":{"wt":"[[Christianity]] (Mayority [[Protestantism]], minority [[Roman Catholicism]])"},"related":{"wt":"[[Americans]] and [[American diaspora]]"}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwAg">Ethnic group
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Total population | |
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21,908 [1] | |
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Christianity (Mayority Protestantism, minority Roman Catholicism) | |
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Americans and American diaspora |
United States citizens have emigrated to the Republic of Honduras (1821) for many reasons including agriculture, mining endeavours, business, military service and missionary work. In the last two centuries, the United States has developed many interests in Honduras. These have included banana farming and mining of gold and silver. Honduras also represents a route to the isthmus between North and South America and the Panama Canal. The United States has deployed armed forces to Honduras on numerous occasions to protect these interests. In geopolitical terms, Honduras has represented a bulwark against socialist forces in Central America and has a permanent United States military presence. Honduras has also received United States foreign aid. All of these factors have led to a gradual increase over many decades of American immigrants to Honduras.
The American Civil War (1861 – 1865) instigated a wave of migration to the northern and western areas of the United States, to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. In smaller numbers, people also immigrated to Central America. [2] José María Medina (1826–1878), President of The Republic of Honduras received the immigrants. In 1856, an American legation was opened in Tegucigalpa. In 1862, James R. Partridge (1823–1884), a Unionist, became the first U.S. government representative to reside in Honduras. [3]
The first record of immigration from the U.S. to Honduras was made in the city of San Pedro Sula, on May 3, 1867. Sixty-one immigrants from the South, led by Colonel Malcom Green, made a formal request for immigration. [4]
Marco Aurelio Soto (1846–1908) was President of Honduras from 1876 to 1883. Soto owned the mining rights to mineral deposits at El Rosario, San Juancito, Honduras. Soto offered companies that invested in his mine an exemption from Honduras taxes for a period of twenty years. In 1880, Julius Valentine, of New York City, founded the "New York and Honduras Rosario Mining Company". Valentine gave Soto fifty percent of the company's stock for mining rights at El Rosaria. [5]
On April 1, 1895, President of Honduras, José Policarpo Bonilla Vasquez (1858–1899), issued another immigration law. He sought to regulate immigration to Honduras from the United States, Germany, England, France, Italy, China, and Palestinian (Arabia). A law of 1906 applied to immigrants from the United States, Europe, Palestine and to people of the Jewish faith. [6] Other new laws encouraging immigration followed in the presidencies of Vicente Mejía Colindres (1878–1966) and Tiburcio Carías Andino (1876–1969).
In the late 19th century and early twentieth century, immigrants from the United States worked in Honduras' banana growing and mining industries. They made up the majority of the workers in these industries. [7] American investment began with the Rosario Mining Company, followed by the founding of the United Fruit Company, and the Standard Fruit Company.
The first missionaries in Honduras were the Mercedarians who arrived with the Spanish in 1563. [8] In 1793, the first Church of England missionary, Christian Frederick Post arrived in British Honduras. [9] In 1896, the first American Protestant missionaries, arrived in Honduras. They were Evangelists from the Central American Mission founded by Cyrus I. Scofield. [10] From the 1930s, the Unity of Brethren have been important in Honduras religion. [11]
For many years, the U.S. has had vested interests in Honduras and a focus on keeping access to the isthmus between North and South America. Protection of these interests has involved keeping the Honduras government stable, preventing Communist influence in the Honduras region and intervening to stop neighbouring unrest, using Honduras as a launch pad.
From March 23 to 31, 1903, Marines protected the U.S. consulate and the steamship wharf at Puerto Cortes when Manuel Bonilla deposed Juan Ángel Arias Boquín. [12] Between February and June 1907, during a war between Honduras and Nicaragua, U.S. Marines under the command of Captain William Freeland Fullam (1885–1926) protected Americans in Puerto Cortes, La Ceiba and Trujillo. [12] In 1911 and 1912, Marines protected U.S. interests during Honduran civil unrest. [13]
In 1919 and 1924, the U.S. again intervened to ease Honduran civil unrest. The 1919 episode ended with general elections. On February 15, 1924, nine officers and 167 marines from the USS Milwaukee landed at Ampala. The force remained to protect the U.S. Legation until April 30, 1924. Other troops arrived including troops from the USS Billingsley under the command of V. H. Godfrey; troops from the USS Denver under E. W. Sturdevant from March 3 to 15, 1924; and under T. H. Cartwright from February 19, 1924 to January 27, 1925. Further troops landed at La Cieba under the command of R. L. Nelson between March 8 and 15, 1924 and under J. M. Bain between September 7 to 21, 1924. [14]
On March 16, 1988, the U.S. launched Operation Golden Pheasant. 3,200 U.S. troops were deployed to Honduras at the request of the President of Honduras, José Azcona del Hoyo (1925–2005). Their mission was to contain the Sandinista National Liberation Front of Nicaragua which was considered by President Reagan to be supported by the Soviet Union. [15]
From the 1980s, the United States Air Force has had a permanent presence of about 600 troops in Honduras at the Soto Cano Air Base at Palmerola, south of Comayagua. It has been a base for security and for foreign aid in Central America.
The number of American immigrants to Honduras has gradually increased.
Year | Registered |
1887 | 185 people |
1910 | 668 people |
1926 | 1,757 people |
1930 | 1,313 people |
1935 | 1,508 people |
In 2013, approximately 29,000 people who were not native to the nation lived in Honduras. 23,577 individuals were from North America. 2,939 were from Europe, 2,603 from Asia (1,415 Chinese), 56 from Africa, and 19 from Oceania. [16] However the increase of foreigners liveing in Honduran solil has increased the last decade, by 2023 more than 21,000 americans live in Honduras. [17]
Important factors that US immigration has contributed to Honduras: Source of work, English language, culture, agriculture, industry, gastronomy, etc. Many North American sports that were introduced by American migrants in Honduras are widely enjoyed by the Honduran population, being Basketball and Baseball the most watched sports in Honduras, second only to Soccer.
Benneth, Connor, Douglas, Jackson, Johnson, Neal, Post, Stewart, Thomas,Yearwood, Watson.
Honduras was inhabited by many indigenous peoples when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. The western-central part of Honduras was inhabited by the Lencas, the central north coast by the Tol, the area east and west of Trujillo by the Pech, the Maya and Sumo. These autonomous groups traded with each other and with other populations as distant as Panama and Mexico. Honduras has ruins of several cities dating from the Mesoamerican pre-classic period that show the pre-Columbian past of the country.
The Football War, also known as the Soccer War or the 100 Hour War, was a brief military conflict fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. Existing tensions between the two countries coincided with rioting during a 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifier. The war began on 14 July 1969 when the Salvadoran military launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American States (OAS) negotiated a cease-fire on the night of 18 July, hence its nickname. Salvadoran troops were withdrawn in early August.
Comayagua is a city, municipality and old capital of Honduras, located 80 km (50 mi) northwest of Tegucigalpa on the highway to San Pedro Sula and 594 m (1,949 ft) above sea level.
USS Denver (C-14/PG-28/CL-16) was the lead ship of her class of protected cruisers in the United States Navy. She was the first Navy ship named for the city of Denver, the capital of Colorado.
This timeline of United States military operations, based in part on reports by the Congressional Research Service, shows the years and places in which United States Armed Forces units participated in armed conflicts or occupation of foreign territories. Items in bold are wars most often considered to be major conflicts by historians and the general public.
The United States occupation of Nicaragua from August 4, 1912, to January 2, 1933, was part of the Banana Wars, when the U.S. military invaded various Latin American countries from 1898 to 1934. The formal occupation began on August 4, 1912, even though there were various other assaults by the United States in Nicaragua throughout this period. American military interventions in Nicaragua were designed to stop any nation other than the United States of America from building a Nicaraguan Canal.
The Banana Wars were a series of conflicts that consisted of military occupation, police action, and intervention by the United States in Central America and the Caribbean between the end of the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the inception of the Good Neighbor Policy in 1934. The military interventions were primarily carried out by the United States Marine Corps, which also developed a manual, the Small Wars Manual (1921) based on their experiences. On occasion, the United States Navy provided gunfire support and the United States Army also deployed troops.
Honduran Americans are Americans of full or partial Honduran descent. Hondurans are the eighth largest Hispanic group in the United States and the third largest Central American population, after Salvadorans and Guatemalans. Hondurans are concentrated in Texas, Florida and California, and are now the largest immigrant group in Louisiana.
The New York and Honduras Rosario Mining Company (NYHRMC), known as Rosario Mining Company, was an American-owned corporation that owned and operated the Rosario mine, a gold and silver producer in central Honduras and Nicaragua.
Honduras and the United States have had formal relations since 1830. There is close cooperation between the two countries, particularly in the areas of the war on drugs while the National Port Authority in Puerto Cortés is part of the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection's Container Security Initiative.
Honduras is a republic in Central America, at times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize.
San Juancito is a small town in central Honduras, located 40 km northeast of Tegucigalpa, the nation's capital. The town is in the department of Francisco Morazán. Including the dependent hamlets of Nuevo Rosario, Guacamaya, and Plan Grande, the population totals at about 1400. Its central neighborhood is depicted on the back of the 500-lempira bill.
Tegucigalpa —formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District, and colloquially referred to as Tegus or Teguz—is the capital and largest city of Honduras along with its sister city, Comayagüela.
Ramón Rosa Soto was a lawyer, journalist, politician and liberal writer of the second half of the nineteenth century. He was the ideologue of educational changes of Liberal Reform in Guatemala and then in Honduras. He served as Principal Minister during the rule of his cousin, Dr. Marco Aurelio Soto and was associated with Soto's mining investments.
Spanish-Hondurans or Honduran-Spaniards refers to the number of Spanish immigrants and Hondurans with direct Spanish ancestry living in the Republic of Honduras. This country has an important Spanish community that has spread throughout the national territory, this people are part of the white Honduran population. According to the National Institute of Statistics of Spain, in 2009 1,982 Spanish citizens lived in Honduras and by 2017, more than 2,888. Today there are many people with Spaniard ancestry who benefit from the dual nationality that is legally allowed between both countries.
Arab immigration to the Republic of Honduras began in the 19th century with the liberal reforms of President Marco Aurelio Soto (1876–1883), who saw immigration as a determining factor in the development of capitalism in Central America, and sought to establish an attractive environment for foreign investment. The largest Arab community in Honduras is the people of Palestinian descent, the majority of whom (95%) are Christian. The approximate population of Honduran Arabs is more than 300,000 people, around 280,000 Palestinians and 20,000 Lebanese, estimates place the Muslim population at about 11,000.
The First Honduran Civil War or Revolution of 19 was an armed conflict that took place in the Republic of Honduras in 1919. This was the first conflict in Honduran soil where the weapons and technological advances of the 20th century were felt.
The Second Honduran Civil War or the Reclamation Revolution was the armed conflict that took place in the Republic of Honduras in 1924. This was the first conflict in Honduras where airplanes were used for aerial bombardment, and new war tactics inherited from the First World War were employed.
Comayagua International Airport, also known as Palmerola International Airport, is an international airport located 6 km (4 mi) south of the centre of Comayagua, Honduras. The airport was inaugurated in October 2021 as the country's new international airport for civil and commercial use. It was built at the facilities of the Soto Cano Air Base.
Immigration to the Republic of Honduras is a complex demographic phenomenon that has been an important source of population growth and cultural change through the centuries throughout much of Honduran history. In the ten months to October 2022, about 120,000 migrants passed through Honduras, most of them being irregular.
U.S.-Honduran ties are further strengthened by numerous private sector contacts, with an average of between 80,000 and 110,000 U.S. citizens visiting Honduras annually and about 15,000 Americans residing there.