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Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a water boundary with Honduras to the southeast. It has an area of 22,970 square kilometres (8,867 sq mi) and a population of 441,471 (2022). Its mainland is about 290 km (180 mi) long and 110 km (68 mi) wide. It is the least populated and least densely populated country in Central America. Its population growth rate of 1.87% per year is the second-highest in the region and one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Its capital is Belmopan, and its largest city is the namesake city of Belize City. Belize is often thought of as a Caribbean country in Central America because it has a history similar to that of English-speaking Caribbean nations. Belize's institutions and official language reflect its history as a British colony.
Belize City is the largest city in Belize. It was once the capital of the former British Honduras. According to the 2010 census, Belize City has a population of 61,461 people. It is at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, which is a distributary of the Belize River. The Belize River empties into the Caribbean Sea eight kilometres from Belize City on the Philip Goldson Highway on the coast of the Caribbean. The city is the country's principal port and its financial and industrial hub. Cruise ships drop anchor outside the port and are tendered by local citizens. The city was almost entirely destroyed in October 1961 when Hurricane Hattie swept ashore. It was the capital of British Honduras until the government was moved to the new capital of Belmopan in 1970.
San Pedro is a town on the southern part of the island of Ambergris Caye in the Belize District of the nation of Belize, in Central America. According to the 2015 mid-year estimates, the town has a population of about 16,444. It is the second-largest town in the Belize District and largest in the Belize Rural South constituency. The once sleepy fishing village was granted the status of a town in 1984.
St. George's Caye is an island in the Caribbean Sea, eight miles east of Belize City. It is part of the Belize District of Belize, Central America. The village on the island is also known as St. George's Caye. As of 2000, St. George's Caye had a permanent population of about 20 people.
The Maya peoples are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical region. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. "Maya" is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region; however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves. There was no common sense of identity or political unity among the distinct populations, societies and ethnic groups because they each had their own particular traditions, cultures and historical identity.
Yucatec Maya is one of the 33 Mayan languages of the Mayan language family. Yucatec Maya is spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic community of Yucatec Maya speakers in San Francisco, though most Mayan Americans are speakers of other Mayan languages from Guatemala and Chiapas.
Caye Caulker is a small limestone coral island off the coast of Belize in the Caribbean Sea measuring about 5 miles (8.0 km) by less than 1 mile (1.6 km). The town on the island is known by the name Caye Caulker Village. The population of Caye Caulker is approximately 2,000 people today and still growing.
Belizean Creoles, also known as Kriols, are a Creole ethnic group native to Belize.
The Battle of St. George's Caye was a military engagement that lasted from 3 to 10 September 1798, off the coast of British Honduras. However, the name is typically reserved for the final battle that occurred on 10 September.
The Baymen were the earliest European settlers along the Bay of Honduras in what eventually became the colony of British Honduras.
Matthew Restall is a historian of Colonial Latin America. He is an ethnohistorian, a Mayanist, a scholar of the conquest, colonization, and the African diaspora in the Americas, and an historian of popular music. Restall has areas of specialization in Yucatán and Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. He is a member of the New Philology school of colonial Mexican history and the founder of a related school, the New Conquest History. He is currently Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Latin American History and Anthropology, and Director of Latin American Studies, at the Pennsylvania State University. He is a former president of the American Society for Ethnohistory (2017–18), a former editor of Ethnohistory journal (2007–17), a former senior editor of the Hispanic American Historical Review (2017–22), editor of the book series Latin American Originals, and co-editor of the Cambridge Latin American Studies book series. He also writes books on the history of popular music.
Burnaby's Code or Laws, originally entitled Laws and Regulations for the better Government of his Majesty's Subjects in the Bay of Honduras, are an early written codification of the 17th and 18th century constitution and common law of the Baymen's settlement in the Bay of Honduras. It was drafted by Sir William Burnaby or Joseph Maud, a Bayman, signed on 9 April 1765 at St. George's Caye, and subsequently confirmed by Sir William Lyttelton, governor of Jamaica.
Belize, on the east coast of Central America, southeast of Mexico, was inhabited by the indigenous peoples who fought belize off the Spaniards in an attempt to preserve their heritage and to avoid the fate of their neighbors who were conquered and under Spanish rule. While this was going on, British pirates would rob Spanish merchant ships and navigate through the shallow waters and small islands even going up river later to hide their bounty. The indigenous people of Belize did not resist the British like they did the Spanish. In the 17th century, however, the British settlement became a formal British crown colony from 1862 through 1964, where they first achieved self government and later in 1981 became an independent country recognized globally with all its territory intact. The British brought along with them slaves taken from Congo and Angola during the eighteenth century.
The History of Belize dates back thousands of years. The Maya civilization spread into the area of Belize between 1500 BC to 1200 BC and flourished until about 1000 AD. 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 first recorded European incursions in the region were made by Spanish conquistadors and missionaries in the 16th century. One attraction of the area was the availability of logwood, which also brought British settlers.
The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonisation of the Americas, in which the Spanish conquistadores and their allies gradually incorporated the territory of the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Maya occupied the Maya Region, an area that is now part of the modern countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador; the conquest began in the early 16th century and is generally considered to have ended in 1697.
The Battle of Roatán was an American War of Independence battle fought on March 16, 1782, between British and Spanish forces for control of Roatán, an island off the Caribbean coast of present-day Honduras.
Flowers Bank is a village in Belize in Belize District. It is a famous place in Belizean history due to its defence of the then British Honduras by not fleeing in the face of Spanish invasion from Yucatán.
Hispanic and Latin American Belizeans are Belizeans of full or partial Hispanic and Latin American descent. Currently, they comprise around 52.9% of Belize's population.
Belize–Spain relations are the bilateral and diplomatic relations between these two countries. Belize has an embassy and honorary consulates in Madrid, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca. Spain has a non-resident embassy for Belize in Guatemala, and an honorary consulate in Belize City.
Belizean nationality law is regulated by 1981 Constitution of Belize, as amended; the Belizean Nationality Act, as revised; and various British Nationality laws. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Belize. Belizean nationality is typically obtained either by descent or registration. Descent relies on the principles of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Belize; or under the rules of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth abroad to parents with Belizean nationality; whereas registration applies to obtaining nationality after birth. There is currently no program in Belize for citizenship by investment, as the previous program lapsed in 2002. Nationality establishes one's international identity as a member of a sovereign nation. Though it is not synonymous with citizenship, rights granted under domestic law for domestic purposes, the United Kingdom, and thus the Commonwealth of Nations, has traditionally used the words interchangeably.
References
- Bolland, O. Nigel. Colonialism and Resistance in Belize
- Restall, Matthew. The Black Middle: Africans, Mayas, and Spaniards in Colonial Yucatan