Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(see box, p.50), always busy with tra
c and occasionally opened up to allow larger
vessels up and down. The surrounding
Belize District
(see p.58), which extends north,
west and south of the city, is tailor-made for day-trips and includes some of the
country's top sights, including the
Altun Ha
Maya site, the splendid
Belize Zoo
and the
Community Baboon Sanctuar
y.
1
Brief history
In the late sixteenth century, British
buccaneers
, attracted by Spanish treasure fleets,
began to take advantage of the cayes of Belize as bases for plundering raids. Ever the
opportunists, they began to cut valuable logwood (a source of textile dye) in the coastal
swamps, and built a settlement at the mouth of the Belize River, constructed by
consolidating the mangrove swamp with wood chips, rum bottles and coral. In the
1700s,
Belize Town
gradually became a well-established centre for
Baymen
(as the
settlers called themselves), their families and their slaves, though the capital of the Bay
settlement remained off the coast on St George's Caye. After floating the logwood
downriver to be processed, the men would return to Belize Town to drink and brawl,
with Christmas celebrations lasting for weeks. The Baymen's houses stood on the
seafront while slaves lived in cabins on the south side of Haulover Creek.
The rise of Belize Town
Spain was still the dominant regional power, and in 1779 a Spanish raid captured many
British settlers and scared off the rest. Most returned in 1783 however, when Spain
agreed to recognize their rights, and Belize Town soon grew into the main centre of the
logwood and mahogany trade on the Bay of Honduras. Spanish raids continued until
the Battle of St George's Caye in 1798, when the settlers achieved victory with British
naval help. In the nineteenth century, colonial-style buildings began to dominate the
shoreline - the “Scottish clique” cleaned up the town's image and took control of its
administration - while in 1812 Anglican missionaries built the Anglican cathedral of
St John to serve a diocese that stretched from Belize to Panama.
Fires in 1804, 1806 and 1856 destroyed large swathes of Belize Town, while
epidemics of cholera, yellow fever and smallpox also wreaked havoc. Despite this, the
town continued to grow, with immigrants from the West Indies and refugees from the
Caste Wars in Yucatán. In 1862 Belize became
British Honduras
, with Belize City (as it
was now known) its administrative centre; in 1871 it was upgraded to a Crown colony,
with its own resident governor appointed by Britain.
The independence movement
The twentieth century was dominated by Belizean uncertainty over its relationship with
the “mother country”. In 1914 thousands volunteered to assist the war effort in the Middle
East, but they were confronted by a wall of prejudice and racism and consigned to labour
battalions. In 1919 the returned soldiers rioted in Belize City, an event that marked the
onset of black consciousness and the
independence movement
. Compounding an already
tense situation, on September 10, 1931, the city was celebrating the anniversary of the
Battle of St George's Caye when it was hit by a massive
hurricane
that flooded the entire
city and killed a thousand people - ten percent of the population. Many parts of the city
were left in a state of squalid poverty, and together with the effects of the Depression, this
added momentum to the campaign for independence, with numerous rallies in defiance of
Britain. In 1961 Hurricane Hattie delivered her fury: 262 people died, and plans were
made to relocate the capital inland. The instigators assumed that Belize City would
become obsolete as Belmopan grew, but in fact few people chose to leave for the sterile
atmosphere of the new, nominal capital, and Belize City remains by far the most populous
place in the country. Since independence in 1981, foreign investment and tourism -
including a boom in cruise ships - have contributed to development, and Belize City
continues to operate as the country's chief commercial and business centre.
