A Brief Political History of Belize - Politics Before the Arrival of Europeans

A Brief Political History of Belize

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The Maya Empire mysteriously came to an end centuries before the arrival of Europeans, but a basic understanding of the indigenous population is important to understanding the history of modern politics in Belize. Fortunately, over 600 Maya sites remain in the country and offer a surprisingly detailed conception of what political life was like during the height of the Maya Empire. As many as a million Mayas lived in the area now encompassed by modern Belize during the peak of the Maya civilization. The rich soil and lush jungles of today’s Cayo District — along with the value of river passages that could be used for trade and migration — transformed it into an important component of the larger Maya Empire, but Maya expansion would come to cover practically every corner of the country.

The political and social structures of the Maya Empire developed independently from those in contemporaneous Europe, but they developed some surprising similarities. Royals were presumed to rule by divine right, but the practical reality was one in which a ruler’s absolute reign extended only as far as the city-state they ruled over and the outlying farmlands. The close integration of religion in everyday life ensured that the priest caste offered checks and balances, while the warrior caste similarly provided a city-state with power and a sense of security without the need to maintain standing armies. Highly centralized and ritualized systems of slash and burn farming created a sustainable system of agriculture for the sometimes massive populations of these city-states. Caracol was one of the most prominent Maya cities in Belize, and it’s believed to house a citizenry of roughly 100,000. Though their society and engineering were highly sophisticated and structured, it’s theorized that a climate change event caused greater competition for resources and had a major role to play in the eventual decline of the Mayas. This struggle for resources would continue to be a recurring theme throughout Belizean political history.

The Early British Occupation of Belize

While their nation-spanning empire may have been long gone, there were still plenty of Maya communities in and around Belize when the Spanish began to arrive. Foreign disease decimated indigenous communities as Spanish conquistadors swept throughout Central and South America, but they left Belize alone to a large extent. One reason for this was that the patchwork of Maya communities in and around Belize was more diverse and unified than other Maya populations, but the Spanish would ultimately decide that the value of the resources in Belize wasn’t worth the cost of conquering it. That’s not to say that the Spanish didn’t claim the territory as their own. A notable exception comes in the form of the Maya Tipa tribe, who were conquered and eventually sent into exile by Spanish forces. But unoccupied land in Spanish territory created plenty of opportunities for other European powers who saw themselves frozen out in the region by Spain and Portugal.

Those political circumstances — along with Belize’s geographically convenient location just along the Bay of Honduras — transformed the mouth of the Belize River into a perfect hideout for English buccaneers looking to raid Spanish ships, but the English Baymen who set up business here quickly learned that they could make a more lucrative living harvesting and trading lumber. They may have been opposed to the colonial Spanish, but the political leanings of these new colonists were hardly forward-thinking. They would quickly establish a system of slavery and draw on their established contacts in Jamaica to acquire enslaved peoples. The government they formed was ostensibly democratic, but white Scots and Englishmen retained sole voting rights despite representing a tiny minority of the overall population.

The actual form of this central government would vacillate according to differing treaties and public sentiments — but even as they made passing concessions offering more rights to the Kriol population, the international legitimacy of their government was tenuous. The Spanish initially considered the Baymen to be squatters, but they recognized that encouraging logging in the region would discourage piracy. But war and territorial squabbles ensured that the two centuries that followed would be punctuated by Spanish incursions. It would require recognition as an English colony for the politics of the region to be codified in any manner that had international legitimacy.

The Legitimization of British Honduras

Belize would officially become the colony of British Honduras in 1863, but Spain abandoned claims to it in 1826 in return for Britain’s official recognition of Spanish Mexico. Perhaps more important to Belize’s politics than the colony’s official legitimization was the decision a quarter-century before to abolish slavery in British colonies. Belize in particular implemented a new apprenticeship system that kept formerly enslaved people still under the thumb of their oppressors for seven more years — and sharecropping and tenant farming would continue to enforce these existing racial and socio-economic discrepancies for generations to come. To some extent, the British tactics of using limited suffrage and other privileges to maintain their hegemony within the colony. While they didn’t exercise the same level of privilege or wealth as white landowners, a Creole upper class had formed — and it was in their best interest to continue to support the agendas of the Crown.

And the officiation of the colony brought with it the additional consideration of drawing in income for Great Britain. As the lumber and mahogany industries hit a downturn and the abolition of slavery entirely shifted labor logistics, the British turned to other forms of labor to exploit. Commercial interests turned to chicle farming and sugar plantations, which the British tried outfitting with Chinese and East Indian indentured servants. While they weren’t subject to the same degree of inhuman conditions as enslaved people, labor under indentured servitude was vicious and cruel in addition to enforcing the existing systems of politicized oppression. Many of these new plantation owners were former member of theAmerican Confederacy who were hoping to continue their lifestyles in a new home. The dwindling mahogany industry also saw British Belizeans encroaching deeper into the territory of indigenous Mayas and aggressively seizing property when possible.

The officiation of British Honduras as a colony saw the center of power shift to British corporations and political entities, but it saw power only become consolidated within the economy. The early days of colonial rule were times of economic depression, but British landownership only increased as budgetary needs tightened. While a few Creole citizens managed to own land and exert some level of political entitlement, they were the exception rather than the rule. Eventually, the corporatization of Belize would result in the British Honduras Company owning half of all land within the colony. As the colony lurched into the twentieth century, both the economy and government were held firmly in the hands of Scottish, English, and German landowners.

The Rise of an Independence Movement

The history of modern Belizean politics is a history born out of a civil rights movement — but it would take a Great Depression to create the momentum for such a movement to exist. Attempts near the end of the 19th century to bring more Creole members into positions of leadership was too little and too late for a country with such deeply entrenched systems of inequity, and the Great Depression merely served as the nadir for an extended period of economic depression in the country. Ultimately, the plantation system had proven ineffective within the colony — and a brief boom in the mahogany industry at the beginning of the twentieth century proved unsustainable thanks to sloppy and overeager woodcutting practices. But this mahogany boom — along with a rise in demand for chicle as a critical component in chewing gum — would provide the Creole landowners with both the capital and the networking connections they needed to prosper outside of the rules set aside by the ruling elite.

By 1927, with the Great Depression just on the horizon, Creole members of the community managed to assume nearly total control over the colony’s Legislative Council. Changes were happening slowly, even if economic conditions concealed them. But the Great Depression itself would arrive hand in hand with a devastating hurricane. Leveraging these dual emergencies to their advantage, the British government only tightened their control and gave the governor a wider purview to enact laws. At the same time, stagnant wages throughout the country combined with the inhumane conditions in mahogany camps to fuel a public desire for new civil rights policies. 1931 saw British governor John Burdon reject modest proposals for trade unionization, insurance, and a minimum wage. He would reject these policies outright, but the rage this decision engendered would be enough to elicit change.

The Birth of a People’s Political Party

The next decade was characterized both by a successful string of attempts to extract concessions from the governor but also a growing understanding of the need to have a functional political party that served the people. The Creole people represented 60% of the population, but their representation in government was expressed only by a wealthy few. Creole, Maya, and Garifuna civil rights advocates served as the heart of a movement that managed to legalize cooperatives and trade unions in 1942. As average citizens began to experience these small but meaningful expansions in rights and influence, the power of marginalized groups like the Maya and the Garifuna would continue to grow. While these civil rights movements were making progress, power was still largely centralized in the hands of white men. It would take the arrogance of a governor to shift the dynamic entirely.

1949 saw the current British governor devalue the British Honduras dollar, a decision that put him in stark opposition to the more diverse and locally dependent Legislative Council that served as a balance to the Crown’s representative. The backlash was nearly immediate, but that’s only natural. It was a decision that allowed multinational corporations to better exploit labor while forcing locals to pay higher prices for essential goods. As an act that enraged both the middle and working classes, it drew together a disparate group of interests that otherwise would have little need to work together. It was enough to solidify the formation of a political party. The People’s United Party was formed in 1950 with a central platform focused on universal suffrage, fair elections for all major governmental institutions, and the diminishment of power exerted by the governor. Despite standing in nearly direct opposition to the country’s ruling interests, PUP gained traction quickly. Within two years, they were a major political power within the country, and George Price had established himself as the definitive leader of the movement.

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The Path to Independence

PUP’s day-to-day operations may have been largely focused on practical matters of improving civil rights and overall well-being, but their long-term goal was clearly centered on the notion of independence. PUP recognized that colonialism had been at the root of the problems since the beginning and continued to depreciate the growth of the country to the benefit of an elite few. While the power they could actually exert under British dominance may have been limited, PUP rapidly assumed control of politics at a grassroots level. They claimed control of first the Belize City Council then earned nearly two-thirds of the vote in the 1954 vote for the Legislative Assembly. Roughly 70% of Belize’s total adult population voted, and PUP saw it as a clear referendum on the validity of British Honduras as a colony rather than its own independent state.

The path to independence would be complicated. The British government had little interest in giving up their rights to the land and resources therein, while the liberated former Spanish colony of Guatemala laid claim to significant portions of Belizean land. The decades that followed the PUP’s rise to power were characterized by a tug of war between British and Honduran interests that both claimed to have the region’s best interests at heart, but Belize would surprisingly find an ally in its path to independence in the form of the United Kingdom. Looking to quell the growth of military juntas in Central America, Great Britain in the 1970s saw the potential of Belize as a bulwark against Guatemalan expansion. Through arguments made to both the United Nations and the Commonwealth of Nations, advocating for Belizean independence improved the credibility of their argument on an international stage. Ultimately, Guatemalan leaders would reject claims of recognition, but Belize would otherwise be recognized internationally as an independent state in 1981.

Politics Post-Independence

Belize reached independence as an underdeveloped state dealing with border disputes from a neighbor with colonial interests. The years since have seen a slow but steady progression in both the conditions of the citizenry and their relationship with neighboring Guatemala. The political ecosystem now consists of multiple parties, and Belize has established itself as a popular tourism destination, an agricultural hub within Central America, and a nation focused on protecting its ecological resources. While territorial conflicts have persisted with Guatemala, they remain a thriving nation that’s only growing in both infrastructure and influence.


Get a copy of The Ultimate Belize Bucket List! Written by Larry Waight, a local with more than twenty years of experience in the travel industry, the book is packed with tips, information, and recommendations about all of the best things to see and do in Belize.
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