Belize is an English-speaking country in Central America, with the world’s second-largest barrier reef offshore and Maya cities a morning’s drive inland. Its history explains why it feels so different from its neighbors.
The Maya
From roughly 1500 BCE through the first millennium CE, Maya city-states flourished here. They built stone pyramids and traded along the coast in seagoing canoes, and the region held far more people than Belize does today. The reef and its cayes were part of their world too, used for fishing, salt, and trade.
Classic Maya power faded centuries before the Spanish arrived, but their descendants remain a pillar of modern Belize. The ruins at Caracol, Lamanai, Xunantunich, and Altun Ha draw visitors inland.
Logwood and the Baymen
Spain claimed the territory but never really settled it. In the 1600s English and Scottish buccaneers moved in to cut logwood, a tree prized in Europe for its dye. These settlers, the Baymen, camped along the rivers and coast and answered to no one in particular.
Enslaved Africans cut and hauled the timber. Their descendants, and the Creole culture and language that grew up around them, are central to Belizean identity. The Garifuna, of mixed African and Indigenous Caribbean heritage, arrived in the early 1800s. Mestizo, Maya, East Indian, Mennonite, Chinese, and Lebanese communities followed over time.
In 1798 the Baymen and their allies drove off a Spanish naval attack at the Battle of St. George’s Caye. From then on Britain controlled the territory in practice.
British Honduras
The settlement became the colony of British Honduras in 1862 and stayed one for more than a century, the last British colony on the American mainland. That is why English is the official language, though Spanish, Belizean Creole, Maya languages, and Garifuna are all widely spoken. The economy ran on timber, logwood first and then mahogany.
On October 31, 1961, Hurricane Hattie hit as a Category 5 storm and destroyed much of Belize City, then the capital. Instead of rebuilding on the exposed coast, the government built a new capital inland. Work on Belmopan began in 1967 and the government moved there in 1970. Belize City is still the largest city and the commercial center.
Independence
George Cadle Price, widely seen as the father of the nation, led the push for self-rule. The colony won internal self-government in January 1964 and took the name Belize in 1973. A territorial claim from Guatemala delayed international recognition, but Belize became independent on September 21, 1981, a parliamentary democracy within the Commonwealth. Independence Day anchors a month of celebrations, one of the liveliest times to visit.
- c.1500 BCEMaya settlement and the rise of city-states across present-day Belize.
- 1600sEnglish & Scottish Baymen begin cutting logwood along the coast.
- 1798Battle of St. George’s Caye secures British control in practice.
- 1862The settlement becomes the colony of British Honduras.
- 1961Hurricane Hattie devastates Belize City on October 31.
- 1970The new inland capital, Belmopan, officially opens.
- 1973British Honduras is renamed Belize.
- 1981Belize gains independence on September 21.
What it means for your trip
English makes travel easy, the Maya sites are a day trip away, and the Belize Barrier Reef, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been central to life here for thousands of years.
On Ambergris Caye, the largest island, San Pedro grew from a small fishing and trading community into the main town. Secret Beach is on the leeward western shore, so the water stays calm and clear and is largely free of the sargassum that lands on more exposed coasts. Black Orchid Oasis, our private beachfront villa, sits there. Our guest guide covers getting here, dining, and the island.
Share this articleStay on the calm side of the island
A private beachfront villa with a chef on Secret Beach, Ambergris Caye.
Book Today