HISTORY AND CULTURE OF BELIZE

1. HISTORY AND CULTURE OF BELIZE www.belizenet.com/history/

2. First record of humans to the Americas are people moving over the Bering Strait 50,000 years ago

3. When the Europeans came to the Americas in the 15th century, there were about thirty million people living in this hemisphere.

4. Some of the early settlers in the Caribbean and Central America were the Arawaks and Caribs. They were skilled hunters and fishermen who caught birds, fish, turtles and other animals.

5. The Arawaks were also farmers. Like other groups in the Americas, they learned how to farm about 9,000 years ago.

6. The Maya lived in the area that is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Honduras, El Salvador, and Belize. The peak of the Maya civilization was between 250 A.D. and 900 A.D. But it took thousands of years to develop.

7. This period of development between 250 A.D. to 1,000 A.D. became known as the Classic Period of the Maya. Among the communities that became powerful civic centres at this time in Belize were Altun Ha, Lubaantun, El Pilar, Xunantunich and Caracol.

8. Religion, mathematics and astronomy played an important role in the culture of the Maya. With these combined skills, the Maya were able to make calendars that were far more complicated than those we have today, and just as accurate.

9. The Maya had a system of writing. They recorded important events on big slabs of stone called stela.These writings are still visible 2,000 years later and are helping us to discover more about their culture.

10. In what is today Central America and Mexico, the Maya developed complex civilizations. This took place thousands of years before the Europeans came and called this continent a "new world

11. By the middle of the 10th century, Maya society began to decline rapidly. Although the causes are not certain, archaeologists believe this may have happened because the land was no longer able to produce enough food for the people.

12. Today the indigenous Maya live in areas of Guatemala, Mexico and Belize. They speak 31 Maya languages that evolved from the Classic times.

13. It was the Spanish ships the "Pinta," the "Nina and the "Santa Maria" that first landed in the Caribbean. Spain wanted absolute control over the "New World". They wanted only Spanish people, Spanish trade, Spanish religion and Spanish government to control the lands and bring riches of gold home.Spain defended its monopoly by destroying the island peoples such as the Arawaks and the Caribs.

14. The Maya defeated the Spanish and old Chetumal in Belize became a place of refuge for Maya fleeing the Spanish rule.

15. The Spanish never had lasting control over the Maya in Belize. They never settled in the area but they did cause social disruption. During the Classic Period of the Maya, the population of what is now Belize was at least 400,000.

16. After the decline, the population was greatly reduced. Of those who remained, as much as 86 per cent died after coming into contact with the Spanish. Some were killed in war, but most of them died from new European diseases brought by the conquerors.

17. In 1798, British side won what became known as the Battle of St. George's Caye. The Spanish retreated and never again tried to control Belize.

18. The Maya strongly resisted British attempts to take over their territory. By 1868, the British wanted to attract white settlers to the land. Refugees from the United States Civil War were encouraged to settle in Belize and farm. The Maya, who had farmed the interior of Belize for hundreds of years, were forced off their land.

19. In Belize, slaves were used for logging. Therefore, slavery and Belizean society developed differently from other parts of the Caribbean where slaves and their families worked and lived in plantations. Slaves in Belize worked in scattered gangs in the forests, separated from their families in Belize City.

20. African slaves were also brought in,but after the abolition of the slave trade the numbers declined, in part because of the high death rates and low birth rates.The slaves died from disease, malnutrition, ill- treatment, over-work and accidents; sometimes they killed themselves.

21. The colonizers also succeeded in separating all the people of African ancestry from the Maya and Garifuna peoples, and the Maya and Garifuna from each other. In 1817 the magistrates of Belize were afraid that escaped slaves would join with the Maya and overpower the British. Four revolts did occur.

22. Belize, like other British colonies, lasted as a slave society until 1838, when slaves were emancipated throughout the British empire.

23. The Caribbean Arawaks and the Caribs came in contact with the West Africans after two Spanish ships carrying slaves are wrecked at Becquia near St. Vincent. The intermarrying with these African slaves thus gave birth to the Garinagu people and Garifuna, the language.

24. Belizean Creoles are the descendants of slaves brought from Africa and the West Indies. Generally to be Creole means to have some African ancestry, but is now used primarily to identify non-Indian, non-mestizo ways of life, with a set of social values derived from the Anglo-Saxon countries.

25. In 1832, many Garifuna left Honduras after a civil war there. On 19 November 1832 they landed in Belize, led by Alejo Beni. To commemorate their arrival, Belize now celebrates this day as Garifuna Settlement Day, a national holiday.

26. The Garifuna strongly resisted European control. They kept the tradition of the earlier Caribs who fought against the Spanish invaders.

27. In 1848 the Maya of Yucatan in Mexico, revolted against the control over their land and the unjust social conditions. This revolt is known as the Caste War of Yucatan. Many thousands of Maya and Mestizos, people of mixed Spanish and Maya descent, fled to Belize.

28. Many thousands of Maya and Mestizos, people of mixed Spanish and Maya descent, fled to Belize.

29. Belize was a society divided by race and class. Racism developed in Belize when the first Africans were brought here as slaves. The colonialists used the principle of divide and rule to keep the different peoples of Belize apart.

30. They were taught to respect and identify with white leaders, the merchants and landowners who controlled the economy.Those who accepted these ideas were rewarded. They could get better jobs, invitations to the Government House, or mentions on the King's Honours List.

31. During the 1930's and 1940's workers' movements in the Caribbean began to challenge the colonial system. In 1981 -Belize (British Honduras) gains independence
from Britain.

33. CURRENT ETHNICITIES • Creoles - 40% • Mestizos - 44% • Maya - 11% • Garifuna - 7% • East India, Arabs, Chinese, and Mennenoites

34. ETHNIC GROUP : YEAR OF ARRIVAL MAYA 2500 B.C. CREOLE 1800’S GARIFUNA 1802 MESTIZO 1848 East Indian - Syrian & Lebanese 1858 East Asian: Chinese, Taiwanese & Korean 1865 Mennonite 1958

35. Religions of Belize Roman Catholic 62%, Protestant 30% (Anglican 12%, Methodist 6%, Mennonite 4%, Seventh-Day Adventist 3%, Pentecostal 2%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1%, other 2%), none 2%, other 6% (1980)

36. The Government of Belize is operated on the principles of parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system. The country is a sovereign, democratic state. • The Cabinet consists of a Prime Minister and other Ministers who arc appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime Minister, the person commanding the support of the majority party in the Housc of Representatives. • The Belize Defence Force (BDF) was formed on I January, 1978 and since then has expanded rapidly. A small British garrison remains in Belize under agreement with the U.K. Government to help in the event of an external attack.

37. Guatemala has maintained an unfounded territorial claim over Belize. This has never been accepted by the Government and people of Belize nor by the former colonial power, Great Britain. • The economy of Belize was traditionally based on forestry, mainly the export of logwood, mahogany and chicle. The country's economy is now based on agricultural development. But in recent years there has been a resurgence in forestry. The main exports arc sugar, citrus, bananas, fish products (mainly lobster), timber and garments • Agriculture currently provides some 65% of the country's total foreign exchange earnings, and employs approximately 30% of the total labour force.

38. The agricultural sector is dominated by the sugar industry, which is concentrated in the Corozal and Orange Walk Districts. • Belize has a viable fishing industry. Millions of dollars of fish products are exported.There are laws to protect the rock or spiney lobster to avoid overfishing. There is a closed season between March and July. • The main industries are sugar, citrus, fisheries and bananas. Sugar accounts for more than 50% of the country's foreign exchange earnings. • The Belize literacy rate is over 90 per cent, one of the highest in this area. Education is compulsory for children aged between 6 and 14. Most schools are run by the churches, some by Government.