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| Nombre_oficial = The Beacon | Status = Colonia of Spanish Empire | Religion = | Was = Spanish Empire | Año_inicio = 1507-1508 | Año_fin = 1821 | Evento_inicio = Spanish Crown colony | Independence evento_fin = New Spain | Start_date = | Enddate = September 15 | Evento1 = | Fecha_evento1 = | P1 = Captaincy General of Guatemala | P2 = Federal Republic of Central America | Bandera_p1 = Flag of Spain (1785-1873 and 1875-1931). Svg | Bandera_p2 = Flag of the Federal Republic of Central America.svg | Map = LocationBelize.svg | Aclaración_mapa = Location of Belize | Equity = Santiago (1543 - 1773)
Guatemala City (1773 - 1862, British officer domain startup) | Forma_de_gobierno = Spanish Colony | Título_líder = Monarch | Language = Spanish (talked English, Garifuna, Maya (specifically indigenous languages ​​" chol "and" Mopan ") and various African languages ( Akan, Ewe, ga, Igbo, Efik, Wolof, Fula, Hausa, Kikongo)) | Notes = }} 'The Beacon, or simply 'Beacon, is the name given by the Spanish colonial maps a territory that included the current Belize during Spanish rule in the region (1507 - 1821), <ref Name="CUÑA BRITÁNICA"> III. BELIZE, BRITISH WEDGE OTHER AMERICA CORPORATION. Written by Ignacio Rios Navarro and Martha Patricia Camacho de la Vega </ ref> until the independence of New Spain belonged to Belize, said the UK territory officially incorporated in 1862. The name of the region was probably due to the confirmed existence of several beacons on the coast, which served to indicate to the Spanish navigators reefs occupied areas, pitfalls and funds Central tour operator. Central Route of indigenous peoples] </ ref> or that guided the British buccaneers to "common center" after having managed to escape persecution. <ref Name=Befronde> Google Books: Belize: Its Borders and Target]. Page 35. Written by Francesca Gargallo and Adalberto Santana. </ Ref> The Beacon was occupied by the British since the century XVI, which collided with the Spanish domination in the region-more formally than in practice, since the Spanish were few residents there, causing a series of conflicts between the two countries, which were based on Spanish attempts to oust the British colony belongs, then, to the Captaincy General of Guatemala. Over time, the British were gaining rights in the Belize settlement areas through various treaties with Spain. However, it would not be considered officially Belize British until 1862, over 40 years after the independence of New Spain (1821). The British acquisition is not yet recognized by Guatemala and Mexico. History == == First === occupations and Spanish expeditions in Belize === In 1494 he signed the Treaty of Tordesillas claiming that the entire western New World was for Spain, including the current Belize. In 1502, on his fourth trip, Columbus explored and named the Gulf of Honduras, consisting of the current Guatemala, Belize Honduras, then march south bound for Panama . In 1507, the conquistadors and Spanish explorers Finch and Solis arrived at the Gulf of Honduras and sailed along the coasts of Belize and Yucatan <ref Name="Johnson2003"> Johnson, Melissa A. (October 2003). "The Making of Race and Place in Nineteenth-Century British Honduras". Environmental History 8 (4): 598-617. </ Ref> <ref Google Books: Belize]. Page 38. Written by Alain Dugrand. Published in 1998. </ Ref> north, declaring Spanish colony. Name="Johnson2003"/>

In 1511, he settled in Belize which would be regarded as the first European to live in the region: Andalusia Marine Gonzalo Guerrero. Apparently, he had been captured by the Maya of Belize along with fellow soldier Geronimo de Aguilar (after escaping from another group of Eastern slave current Mayan Mexico, on whose shores had wrecked his ship to leave Jamaica ), being given to cacique Na Chan Can, the Bay of Chetumal (between current Mexico and Belize), and who, in turn, gave it to the chief Chaktemal Mayan warriors (now Corozal Town). Guerrero, after acculturate, to secure the release and marry the boss's daughter (with whom he had three children then), advised notably the Maya of Belize and Yucatan on Spanish military tactics to try to avoid a possible future conquest. <Ref Name = "facts"> Belize Fact. Retrieved March 15, 2013, at 6:20 p.m.. </ Ref>

It was during those years, in 1525, when Hernán Cortés, after leaving the Yucatan (where he arrived in 1519 to conquer the region <ref Name="nichbelize"> ia-general/archaeology-of-santa-rita.html Institute of Archaeology (in Spanish: Institute of Archaeology). Retrieved l March 24, 2013, at 3:10 pm. </ ref>), crossed the corner Current Southwest Belize. <ref Name=cs> Bolland, Nigel. Belize: Historical Setting (in English: Belize: Historical). In A Country Study: Belize (In English: A Country Study: Belize. Edited by Tim Merrill). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (January 1992). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. </ Ref> Thus, the territory was incorporated into the Captaincy General of Guatemala on December 27, 1527 , when it was founded, being integrated in the second half of that century, to the Governor of Yucatan, in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. <ref BELIZE] - Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain </ ref>

However, in this year (1527), a Spanish army under the command of the conqueror Francisco de Montejo came south of Yucatan and Belize in order to show their dominance over the Maya present. <ref> History-Colonialism | Your Guide to Belize Travel | Moon Travel </ ref> Name="nichbelize"/> To defend the territory, Guerrero and his son led a Mayan army, which, as mentioned, had taught military tactics against the Spanish army, easily defeating Name="facts"/> being defeated avoiding Chaktemal and Spanish occupation south of the Rio Hondo - on the northern border of Belize today. This was, apparently, the first battle against an army Belize European invader.

However, the territory officially remained under Spanish rule. Thus, it is in 1544 when the first written record of the presence of Spanish communities in Belize. These early settlers were established in the Mayan city of Lamanai, city where a church was built in 1570 colonial Spanish, being the largest city that absorbed European influences in Belize. <ref Name="cosasdelcaribe"> [ History of Belize http://www.cosasdelcaribe.es/historia-belice/]. Retrieved on November 28, 2012. </ Ref> However, the relationship between Spanish and Maya never was peaceful: in 1545 a Spanish expeditionary force, led by Pacheco, attacked the Mayan communities established in northern Belize and southern Mexican state Quintana Roo, killing at Bacalar most of the warriors and even women and children, so many of the survivors migrated to Belize, which became a refuge for them and the Mayans who continued fighting against Spanish rule.

For its part, the first Spanish missionaries arrived in the territory in Belize in 1550, after evangelize the population Chol (a language group belonging to the ethnic group of the K'ekchi) of Mexico and Guatemala , advancing to the Bay Amatique (present Province Verapaz, in the southern half of the current Belize).

However, there were few Spanish who settled in the area because of the lack of minerals important to them, such as gold and the strong defense of the Maya about the Yucatan Peninsula . Thus, Spanish settlers in Belize residents often fought against the Maya, who also were affected by slavery and diseases carried by the Spanish.

However, after the mid-sixteenth century, there is little evidence of Spanish exploration in Belize, although not outreaches: in 1618 was evangelized Pucté region in the north of the current Belize, and in 1621, they were the regions Tipúes the Mopan and in the central part of the territory.

The only exception of Spanish exploration in Belize after the mid-sixteenth century are in a journey undertaken by a Dominican priest, Father Jose Delgado, in 1677. Delgado traveled to Belize along toward the town of Bacalar, in the aforementioned Mexican state Quintana Roo. However, he could not continue his journey because, before reaching the Mexican municipality was captured and stripped by some English in any area near Rio de Texoc - probably the present Mullins River. <ref> Northern Belize. com </ ref> It should be mentioned that Delgado recorded in his diary the names of the three major rivers that he crossed while traveling north along the Caribbean coast: Soyte Rio, Rio Xibum, and Rio Balis. These names, which correspond to the rivers Sittee, Sibun and Belize River, they were released a translator traveling with him. <ref Name="Twigg"> Twigg, Alan (2006). Understanding Belize: A Historical Guide. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing. pp. 9–10, 38–45. ISBN 1550173251. </ ref>

Moreover, Tipu, in the former province Dzuluinicob Belizean (center of Belize), although conquered by the Spanish in 1544, was too far from the centers of power in colonial New Spain as to control effectively for long. Thousands of indigenous Maya fled south of Yucatan, in the second half of the sixteenth century, and the town of Tipu rebelled against Spanish authority. Tipu was apparently too important to ignore because of its proximity to Itzá of Lake Peten Itza, in what is now Guatemala. Thus, in 1618 and 1619, two Franciscan, tried to convert people to Christianity Tipu and built a church on the site. When the Spanish "pacified" the region in the seventeenth century, they forcibly displaced indigenous settlements to the highlands of Guatemala. The Spanish began their inroads in the Yucatan area, however, met with strong resistance from the Mayan provinces Chetumal (region between northern Belize and southern coasts of Quintana Roo) and Dzuluinicob. The region became a place of refuge from the Spanish invasion, but the Mayans brought escaping diseases that had previously contracted to meet the Spanish. Subsequent epidemics smallpox and yellow fever along with malaria endemic, devastated the indigenous population.

In 1638 began a period of Tipu resistance, and in 1642, the whole province of Dzuluinicob was in a state of rebellion. The Maya abandoned eight cities at this time, and about 300 families were relocated in Tipu, the center of the rebellion. In the 1640s, Tipu's population totaled more than 1,000 people. The piracy along the coast increased during this period. In 1642 and 1648, pirates looted Salamanca de Bacalar, the headquarters of the Spanish government in southern Yucatán. The abandonment of Bacalar ended Spanish rule over the Mayan provinces of Chetumal and Dzuluinicob.

However, between 1638 and 1695, the Maya still residing in Tipu enjoyed autonomy from Spanish rule. But in 1696, Spanish soldiers used Tipu as a base from which to pacify the area and would support missionary activities. In 1697 the Spanish conquered the territory Itzá, and in 1707, the Spanish forcibly resettled the inhabitants of Tipu in an area near the Lake Peten Itza.

Conflicts === Spain and Britain for control of Belize ===

File:Church of the Santa Ana, Merida, Yucatán (03). JPG

narration of an incident of the battle in Bacalar.

The English colonists settled in Belize, particularly in the area known as the Baymen, according to some authors (Carrillo Ancona) and in the sixteenth century, followed in the XVII century by Scottish and pirates, who were renamed to themselves as well as Baymen, also of British origin. Thus, in 1638, looking for a protected area from which they could attack Spanish ships, British groups settled in the coast of Belize. Thus, the British established a trading colony in this territory and began importing, since 1655, African slaves, mostly from Jamaica, Bermuda and other Central American British colonies, thus initiating its dominance over the Spanish part of Central America.

In 1717, to avoid foreign settlements in Belize, a Spanish army from El Petén (Guatemala) and led by Marshal Antonio Silva Figueroa and Lazo, governor of the Yucatan Peninsula, drove the British of Belize River, expulsion which ended with the Battle of Bacalar in 1733. Name="CUÑA <ref Battle of St. George's Caye: Inglés Spanish Settlers Foil Invasion of Belize]. Posted on September 10, 2012. Retrieved December 1, 2012, at 18:22 pm </ ref> This expedition developed a series of Spanish incursions that goal. So there is mention of a Spanish attack failed in 1726, and another attack in 1730 (when the Spanish took fifty British prisoners).

In addition, in 1745, was made a third attack that destroyed the Spanish fields stretching along the New River and the Spanish captured several slaves and, in 1747, the Spanish forced called Baymen, a small force of British residents in Baymen loggers, emigrate to leave Belize and the island of Roatan in Honduras. Despite this, however, still remained British communities in the region, prompting again the Spanish attack the British population of the territory in 1754, attack from Guatemala and managed to be stopped by some Baymen and their slaves in Laboring Creek ("Stream of Workers").

However, the output of the Minister Secretariat Marqués de la Ensenada-first Spanish politician who was interested in the existence of dedicated British lumberjacks cut logwood in Belize, and increasing competition punishing such dyewoods in 1743 - and the appointment of Richard Wall as the new Minister of State, caused a shift in favor of the British in Spanish politics, influenced and pressured by the British Ambassador Benjamin Keene. Thus, attempts were suspended and extermininar dislodge the British in Belize. BRITÁNICA"/> Name="CUÑA <ref Rather, the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the Spanish Crown granted the British settlers the right to occupy the area, put factories and exploit logwood in exchange for an end to piracy. <ref Name=cs> Bolland, Nigel. "Belize: Historical". In A Country Study: Belize (Tim Merrill, editor). Library of Congress. Federal Research Division (January 1992). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. </ Ref> Name="legion"/> This meant the recognition cutters legal logwood, who until then lived illegally and clandestinely in the region. Although the treaty forced England to demolish all the fortifications that had been built in the Honduras Bay.

However, the September 15, 1779, Spain again breaks relations with Britain and putting as a pretext, among others, the "excesses and abuses committed in the Bay of Honduras" by the British, he declares war. Name="CUÑA Thus the Spanish ships surprised the inhabitants of St. George's Cay-British main population center in the region at that time <ref> Iyo, Tzalam , and Humphreys. Belize: A new vision, African and Maya Civilizations. Published in 2007 </ ref> -, burning buildings, after which they took 140 prisoners who were imprisoned in the dungeons of Havana and was not released until 1782. In the same month, the governor of Yucatan evicted the British from all the Central American coast.

Later, on January 20, 1783 signed the preliminaries of peace between the two countries and, after several meetings, BRITÁNICA"/> Name="CUÑA - or 4,804 - located between the rivers Hondo and Belize. The Treaty of Versailles allowed the Baymen Cayo reoccupy St. George, as well as the right to cut and transport the logwood within certain limits, to cut mahogany. Area residents asked the British government then obtaining by the Spanish crown holding a radius to allow them more freedom, since the Treaty of Versailles the British concentrated in a very limited area (the English were scattered much of the coast of Central America). They also requested the appointment of a superintendent and the creation of a police, to defend them from Spanish ships. In return, they would pay the rents of their trade.

In order to recover the Rock of Gibraltar as compensation, Spain accepts the British request and, two years later, on July 14, 1786, Spain and the United Kingdom signed the London Convention, of which the first one was down to the second other Belize 1,883 km (reaching the Sibun River or Manate Laguna, south of the Belize River) and allowed him rights, not sovereignty, of most settlement land, exploitation Name="CUÑA (cut and export) of any type of wood and mahogany that extend from the Rio Hondo Name="conquebeny"> <ref Sibun River Nigel Bolland , The Formation of a Colonial Society: Belize from Conquest to Crown Colony (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977), p. 32-36. </ Ref> and the right to occupy the island of Casina (also called Cayo St. George, St. George Key and Key Casina). The convention, however, did not allow the British to build fortifications, the use of uncultivated land or establish any kind of government, whether military or civilian. It also forced the British to evacuate their settlements in the Mosquito Coast, east of Nicaragua and Honduras addition, on 1 September 1786, Spain and the United Kingdom signed an additional statement for a Spanish commissioner visited the country twice a year to prevent potential abuse by British subjects, Spanish License granted to them. Thus, one would find compliance with the articles of the convention.

Despite what the convention signed in 1787, came to Belize first English superintendent, Colonel Edward Despard Mark to form a government and administration of justice develop - as already mentioned, Article 7 prohibits foreigners resident in Belize (British) the establishment of a military or civilian government. In addition, in March 1789, the Spanish governor allowed each person living in the territory grow crops such as vegetables, vegetables, potatoes and million for consumption ( which contrasted well with the prohibition of certain crops) and, in 1790, Belize was again fortified. All this rejected exercised prior agreements. Name="CUÑA Later, sometime between 1786 and 1796, a Spanish official visited the Yucatan area to report on the activities of Baymen. His report indicated that the Baymen were expanding dangerously - and illegally - their borders to cut logwood also Campeche, near a town of Spanish population. Therefore, Spain issued orders for the immediate and effective expulsion of the settlers who occupied Belize.

The final Spanish defeat: Battle of St. George's Cay

Before 1786, the British government wanted to increase their power and Belize colony for fear of provoking another attack by the Spanish, even though the British colony in the region was already larger than the little Spanish colony could still be seated there. The delay in government oversight allowed the British settlers to establish their own laws and forms of government. But in 1787, after the London Convention, came to Belize the first superintendent English, which formed a government and administration of justice, so that the British government and had more power in the region. During this time a few wealthy settlers gained control of the local legislature, known as the Public Meeting. However, it was after this that Spain decided, after checking the rise of the British territory between 1786-1796 Baymen, expel them from the region.

In March 1796 it was reported that the Spanish war had begun preparations to capture and expel Belize British settlers Baymen once and for all. This caused the Baymen defensive help immediately request the governor of Jamaica, Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres. Thus, in early 1797, the governor sent Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Barrow Belize as commander in chief to the region. They immediately began preparations to defend the area, which was militarized colony since he immediately staged regular guards and drove the struggle of the settlers.

In that year (1797), the Spanish had assembled a fleet of about 30 ships, manned by 500 sailors, Name="cosasdelcaribe"/> assembled by the governor of Yucatan, Arturo O'Neill, to carry out the invasion. However, many of the sailors and soldiers were killed by the disease - yellow fever mainly. In addition, there was a riot and several ships were seized and shipped back to Mexico. This delayed the invasion over a year.

File:St. George's Cay Day Official holiday.jpg

This is a cut from the Gazette, 1898 which stated that the September 10 an official holiday, due to the Spanish defeat by the British Army in Cape Saint George. This was part of the efforts of the Centennial Committee.

Moreover, the Baymen had a reserve force of several hundred men, ready to embark to challenge the Spanish landings anywhere on the island. Also, many of the locals had organized to resist any Spanish landing and wealthy landowners had given their consent for their slaves to enlist to defend their homes. Alexander Lindsay of Jamaica agreed to enlist slaves as long as they were released after the war. The battle took place between Spanish troops of the current Mexico and the Baymen, who fought for their livelihood assisted by black slaves.

It was both an attempt to maintain the sovereignty of the territory by the Spanish, expelling the British from the region, as well as the request for protection from the Maya to the British regarding the Spanish attack against them and slavery, Name="cosasdelcaribe"/>

Nineteenth century === === After ending the war was signed, on March 25, 1802, the Treaty of Amiens, by which the United Kingdom is hitherto Spanish island of Trinidad, while England pledged to return to Spain all Spanish colonies that occupied during the war, except for the location established between Hondo and Sibun rivers. Name="CUÑA Soon after, in the same year, the Spanish exported to a group of about 150 Garifuna from Trujillo (Honduras) the coast of Belize, <ref Name="eripere"> Eripere: Garifuna. Retrieved January 30, 2012, at 15:35 pm </ ref> to exert originally the work of loggers. These new colonists settled in a place near Stann Creek (now Punta Gorda) and engaged in fishing and agriculture.

When you set the boundaries of the territories of the Royal Court and Captaincy General of Guatemala with the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Belize was included in the region of La Verapaz, in the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Verapaz region north of Guatemala. Later, on September 15, 1821, New Spain became independent from Spain, and Belize (including 2,964 km of land, residential and exploited by the British under the Treaty of Versailles and the London Convention, and strengthened by their victory War in Cabo San George, but no official domain by themselves apart from the rest of the territory) happens to depend exclusively on Mexico and Guatemala. Taking advantage of American independence, Britain tries to get those countries to recognize its control over Belize, but the American Federation and Guatemala refused. However, later in 1826, they won the Mexican recognition of British control of part of Belize (to the river Sibum, half the current Belize) signed a treaty with that country in that year. <Ref BELIZE: BALANCE OF THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF Independent]. Posted by Noël Fursman. </ Ref>

Later, in 1862, Britain, subject by the governor of Jamaica, declares the entire territory of present officially Belize British colony, territory which until then was only visiting Guatemala, more than 40 years after independence of Belize and the rest of New Spain in the European metropolis (September 1821). However, it was not until 1893, when Mexico accepted British rule of the entire current Belizean territory through a treaty on limits. It is from the second half of that century, when they start Guatemalan claims and, to a lesser extent by the recovery of Mexican territory, claims have remained until this day.

Society == == During the official domain of Belize for Spain, the British colonists settled in the region established their own political and social organization on the territory of Belize constituting Spanish society. They also brought many slaves from various parts of West and Central Africa to work primarily in logging and obtaining dye. However, there were also many indigenous residents there, which belonged to the Maya. The Maya === === In Belize there were several Mayan villages settled. The most important were the Mopan and Chol. The Mopans were originated from Belize, but most of them were driven to Guatemala after the British assumed control of Belize in the late eighteenth century, after the Battle of Key St . George. However, they returned to Belize in 1886, fleeing from slavery and taxation in El Petén. <ref> Cho, Julian (1998). [Http :/ / oldweb.geog.berkeley.edu / ProjectsResources / MayanAtlas / MayaAtlas / mayahome.htm Maya homeland]. University of California at Berkeley and the Department of Geography of Toledo Maya of southern Belize. Retrieved April 20, 2012. </ Ref>

Britons === === As already discussed, the British arrived in The Beacon in the sixteenth century or in 1638, were reluctant to establish a formal government for British settlement areas in the region for fear of provoking an attack by the Spanish. On his own initiative and without recognition by the British government, the settlers had begun annual elections judge s to set the common law in 1738. In 1765 Admiral Sir William Burnaby, commander in chief of Jamaica, came to the settlement and codified and expanded its regulations in a document known as Burnaby Code. When settlers began returning to the area in 1784, the governor of Jamaica, called Colonel Edward Marcus Despard to exercise of Superintendent, to monitor the settlement of Belize in the Bay of Honduras

More than 2,000 settlers and their slaves arrived in 1787 to the establishment of Belize, which significantly strengthening the British presence in the region and soon found themselves in considerable tension with the oldest settlers in the rights issue on land and the state.

The last Spanish attack in the British colony, the Battle of Cape St. George, in 1796, which ended with British victory and the British maintenance in the area.

In the eighteenth century a oligarchy relatively wealthy settlers controlled the political economy of the British colony. These settlers charged about four-fifths of the land available under the Convention of London, through resolutions, called Location Act, which passed in the Public Meeting, the name given to the first term. These same men also owned half of all slaves in the colony, controlled imports, exports and wholesale and retail, and determined the tax. A group of judges, who chose from among themselves, had executive and judicial functions, despite the ban on enforcement action.

George Arthur, Superintendent of British Honduras.

The landowners resisted any challenge to their growing political power. Colonel Edward Marcus Despard, the first superintendent appointed by the governor of Jamaica in 1784, was suspended in 1789 when wealthy cutters challenged his authority. When the Superintendent George Arthur attacked what he called the "monopoly by the wealthy cutters" in 1816, he only partially succeeded in breaking the monopoly of land ownership. He proclaimed that all land was reclaimed from then British, which could be granted by the representative of the crown, but continued to allow the existing monopoly of land ownership.

However, the July 3, 1816 the British government seized a shipment of wood because this had been cut out of the British area granted to Belize in the London Convention 1786. We must remember that England, despite the Spanish defeat in the Battle of St. George Key, still recognized Spanish sovereignty over Belize, as mentioned battle was executed only to decide on the continuation of the British settlement in the region.

Thus, the British Parliament recognized twice, in 1817 and in 1819, Belize was outside the realm of the British crown. The main clause of the "Law for the most effective punishment for murders committed in places not within His Majesty's dominions," the June 27, 1817 was passed by the British Parliament, stated that For how painful murders have become the Bay of Honduras, this being a settlement for certain purposes, under the protection of His Majesty, but not within the territory and dominions of His Majesty. British protection was due to the settlement of this origin in the territory. That law, however, was amended in 1819, although until 1858 still remained in force.

The military weakness developed in Spain and the independence of the Spanish colonies of America facilitated the expansion of activities, presence and territories British colonies to the south, in the Audiencia of Guatemala. Thus, the area was extended to the Rio Sartoon, penetrating further into the western part of Belize to El Petén.

Slaves === === Because treaties between Spain and Britain banned the production of plantation crops, the British settlers imported slaves to help with the work of cutting down trees and obtaining dye. Slavery in the settlement was associated with logging, logwood and then mahogany. This difference in the economic function resulted in variations in the organization, conditions, and treatment of the slaves. The first African slaves arrived in Belize came in 1724, when according to a Spanish missionary the British had been importing slaves from Jamaica and Bermuda. In the second half of the eighteenth century, the slave population hovered around 3,000, representing about three fourths of the total population. Most slaves, even if they were taken through trade with the Netherlands, born in Africa, probably in Ghana (in the territories [[Fante] ] - Ashanti, <ref> http://m.laprensa.com.ni/opinion/10808 popular musical expression American and African heritage. Posted by Manuel Monestel </ ref> Ewe, Ga) around the Bay of Benin, Nigeria (in ethnic groups Ibo, Efik), Congo Basin and Angola - the main sources of British slaves in the eighteenth century. Also arrived Wolof, Fulani, Hausa and Kongos. At first, many slaves maintained African ethnic identifications and cultural practices in Africa, but little by little, however, the process of assimilation was creating a new ethnic group: the Krioles.

Whites, although they were a minority in the settlement, monopolized power and wealth by controlling the main economic activities of trade and timber cutting. They also controlled the first legislature and judicial and administrative institutions. As a result, the British settlers had a disproportionate influence on the development of Creole culture. Missionaries Anglicans, Baptist and Methodist helped devalue and suppress African cultural heritage.

Settlers needed only one or two slaves to cut logwood, a small tree that grows in clusters near the coast. But as the trade moved to the production of mahogany in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the settlers needed more money, land and slaves to expand the scale of operations. After 1770, 80 percent of all male slaves ten years or more cutting timber. .

The colonial masters used domestic slaves, mostly women and children, to clean their houses, sewing, washing and ironing clothes, prepare and serve food and raise their children. Some slaves cultivated provisions that either sold or used to save their owners a portion of the cost of food imports. Other slaves worked as blacksmiths, sailors, nurses, and bakers.

The experience of slaves, though different from plantations in other colonies in the region, however, was oppressive. The slaves, used to practice suicide, abortion, murder, hida and revolt. Slaves lived in small, scattered and remote could escape with relative ease if they were willing to leave their families. In the eighteenth century, many escaped to Yucatán, and in the 19th century a steady stream of runaways went to Guatemala and along the coast to Honduras. Some runaways established communities in areas such as a river, near Sibun that offered shelter to others. There were numerous slave revolts, the last of which took place in 1820, led by two black slaves, Will and Sharper, involving a considerable number of well armed individuals who "had been very unnecessarily treated harshly by its owner."

A minority of settlers was maintained control slaves dividing the growing population of free Creoles who received limited privileges. Although some Creoles were legally free, they could not participate in a commission in the army and act as jurors or judges, and economic activities were restricted. They could vote in elections only if they had more goods and lived in the area and they were white. The privilege, however, led many free blacks to emphasize their loyalty and British acculturation. When officers of other British Caribbean colonies began to expand the legal rights of free blacks, the Colonial Office threatened to dissolve the public meeting of the Baymen. Free blacks civil obtained the July 5, 1831, a few years before the abolition of slavery.

The Abolition of Slavery, 1833, issued to all British colonies, was to avoid making drastic social changes emancipation in a transition period of five years. The event featured two generous measures for slave owners: a system of "learning" calculated to extend its control over former slaves who were to continue working for their masters without pay and compensation for the former owners of slaves for their loss of property. These measures helped the majority of the population, even though it was legally released after the end of learning in 1838, depended on their former owners for work. These land owners still monopolized. By 1838, a handful of people in the settlement controlled and owned most of the people. After 1838, the masters of the settlement, a small elite, continued to control the country for more than a century by denying access to land, and promoting economic dependence of freed slaves through a combination of wage advances and Company stores.

See also == ==

• History of the border of Belize, Guatemala and Mexico
• Territorial Dispute between Guatemala and Belize
• Border between Belize and Mexico
• Spanish Immigration in Belize
• Immigration English in Nicaragua
• Language Spanish in Belize