Talk:History of Belize

Untitled

Why was the area "uninhabited" (by Europeans) until the 1600s? If the Spanish occupied the rest of Central America, why was Belize excepted? Brutannica 01:50, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

First, consider that part of your premise is wrong: The Spanish didn't inhabit nor control the (self-proclaimed/Manifest Destiny) borders in the entirety of LatAm at that point, yet (e.g. centuries ago, many English-speaking settlers landed on the nearby Mosquito Coast [Spain concentrated on settling the less-disease-prone West Coast], or even as far south as Costa Rica [slightly more mosquitos/rainfall causing disease, compared to CR's West Coast; no minerals & few Natives in CR for Spain to exploit]).

But specific to Belize... the reason was that Mayans at the city of Tipu kicked out the Spaniards & mounted a successful resistance (for awhile), as explained in this article's "Pre-Colombian Mayan..." section, as well as a few sentences into Guatemalan_claim_to_Belizean_territory#Early_colonial_era and the Brits settled Belize as the Mayans still fought the Spanish; the latter article also describes more minor reasons that the Brits were able to permanently settle it first, such as the Early Belizeans' alliance w/Miskquito Coast Natives (and the _local_ tribe, the Mayans, having been attacked by Spain already, saw the Belizeans as potential allies until ca. late-1600's. By the time Mayans conflicted with the Belizeans, the Belizeans had strengthened and the Mayans had been weakened as the Spanish continued attacking them from the north/west/south), and British privateers were able to get their foothold in these East Coast areas b/c nearby Jamaica was a British outpost. In Costa Rica and Misquito Coast, Anglophones simply moved in and AFAIK Spain didn't bother them or even try to "deport" them (consider that passports weren't in use at the time ;-) and that Spain didn't get around to trying to deport the Belizeans until after the Brits tried to govern them and they basically gave "a pirate's welcome" to the governor that the Brits sent), the Anglophones in Mosquito Coast and CR didn't join the British Empire for various reasons (e.g. being escaped criminals-deserters(soldiers)-slaves-debtors-etc and probably many being carefree sailors who desired liberty more than the Queen's security.) and the Anglophones of CR & Mosquito Coast, AFAIK, never even asked Britain to let them join the British Empire -- nor did the Anglo Belizeans FOR AWHILE, as explained in the last link (which this article links to, BTW).24.155.105.79 (talk) 10:10, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

British bases

The article contains the sentence "The British army continues to man bases in South America." Should this say "The British army continues to man bases in Belize." Belize is not in South America.--HarryHenryGebel 16:07, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

I don't see the relevance of the factoid, even if it is meant to say "Belize", as opposed to South America. This article is about Belizean history, not the British army. DO56 (talk) 20:56, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

The relevance is that the British Army has been a part of (recent) Belizean History & thus should be a part of this article on...Belizean History. Wow.

But yes, I'd think it's CentAm/LatAm, but not SouthAm, b/c SouthAm would be irrelevant, even if Britain has mil bases in SouthAm that I don't know about.24.155.105.79 (talk) 09:30, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Belize

Who keeps changing "Belize" to "our country Belize"? That's not very professional. DO56 21:09, 4 December 2007 (UTC)