Precolonial period of Belize

Precolonial
	1638–1862
	Template:Collage
Including	Pre-settlement (to 1660s); Post-settlement (to 1862);
Preceded by	Spanish
Followed by	Colonial
Monarch(s)	Charles I (first); Victoria (last);
Leader(s)	Peter Wallace (first traditional); add_head_magistrate (first known); Frederick Seymour (last);

The Precolonial period of Belizean history began with add_event_here, and ended with add_event_here. The period was marked by add_events_trends_here.^[1]

Geography

At the dawn of the Precolonial period, Belize was formally part of or claimed by the district of Bacalar (and therefore province of Yucatan), with southern Belize further claimed by the district of Verapaz (and therefore province of Guatemala).xx Practically, however, the Tipu rebellion had left Dzuluinciob as an autonomoous Maya polity in the north, whereas the southern Mopan and Manche Chol territories had never been definitively conquered.xx In addition, Baymen now starting seasonally camping in the waters, cayes, and atolls, employing them first as a pirate haven, and then as a transient logging camp, thereby wresting maritime space from Spanish control.xx

As the seventeenth century progressed, the Baymen became entrenched, founding Honduras, whilst Bacalar was fully pushed out, leaving only the English and Maya in Belize.xx The turn of the eighteenth century brought the fall of all Maya polities, but not the return of de facto Spanish rule, leaving only Honduras (now a Jamaican dependency) in its wake.xx

History

reich 28-39 = 1700+ restall 9-30 = 1648+ grah 247-256 = 1638+ jones 19-21, 62-64, 213-end = 1638-1707 - dummy ed

Settlement

The English settlement of Belize, and therefore founding of Honduras, is an especially confused and confusing event.^[2] Historically, it has been credited to Wallace's 1638 landing at Haulover.^[3] Now, however, that story is deemed apocryphal, with settlement rather deemed a drawn out process of a pirate haven turned seasonal logging camp turned permanent settlement.xx English buccaneers are thought to have habitually sought refuge inside the reef beginning in the 1630s, xx. Initially, though, they are thought to have restricted themselves to piracy, with logwood cutting on the Old River an occasional afterthought.xx Seasonal logging camps are thought to have slowly morphed into permanent ones during the 1660s, resulting finally in an established settlement of Baymen.xx

Hostilities

English hostilities xx. Maya hostilities xx. Spanish hostilities against the Maya xx.

Hostile action against the Baymen is thought to have been first taken in xx. Permanent settlement then "provoke[d] Spanish raids almost annually" in the eighteenth century, with five particularly notable incidents resulting in the complete evacuation of Honduras.^[4]

Entrenchment

Honduras as a pirate have is thought to have been (peripheral ?) xx Honduras as a logging camp and settlement, too, was likely peripheral to its more bustling Campeachy (especially) and Catoche (to a lesser extent) counterparts, until their capture in 1716 and xx.^[5] The sudden influx of displaced loggers resulted in an even deeper penetration of Old River by xx and logwood cutting on xx and xx Rivers by xx, leading to the importation of Jamaican slaves by xx (and their majority by xx), and logwood exhaustion by xx (and prompt switch to mahogany cutting).^[6]

From the mid-18th century, British authorities are deemed to have "relied more on treaties that conceded Spanish sovereignty while permitting logging rights, which the loggers immediately violated".

xx

In 1826, Mexico signed a treaty which "effectively denied Mexican sovereignty over Belize".^[7]

Piracy

Slavery

Logging

Demographics

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1638	30	—
1790	2,493	+2.95%
1861	25,635	+3.34%
add_cite, add_note

add two per century? xx

Economy

Society

Government

Legacy

A number of myths and legends about this period survive in popular culture. Restall counts among these the Wallace landing, Honduran slavery's being relatively tolerable, the territory's being devoid of Maya residents upon English arrival, and the Battle of St George's being pivotal.^[8] xx

Territorial disputes have also survived to the modern era (most notably with Guatemala, but also with Honduras).^[9]

Seventeenth and eighteenth century records of or on Belize are especially scarce.^[10] This paucity has resulted in a myriad open questions and myths, for instance, regarding Honduras's founding, the etymology of Belize, and so on.^[11] A further difficulty for the study of this period is ideological bias, due to long-standing territorial disputes, seen particularly in some Belizean, British, Guatemalan, and Spanish histories.^[12]

The earliest substantial work of or on this period was Henderson's 1809 Account.^[13] Further landmarks xx.

Timeline

Template:Sticky Template:Align table

Prominent Precolonial period events in Belize and periphery.
Template:Hint^{[lower-roman 1]}	Template:Hint^{[lower-roman 2]}	Place^{[lower-roman 3]}	Event
1638	1638	Bacl	Tipu rebellion	N/A
1638	1669	Hond	Baymen camp and settle	N/A
1640	1640	ManC	Moran mission	N/A
24 Apr 1641	Aug 1641	Dzul	Fuensalida mission	N/A
19 May 1641	25 May 1641	Far	Spanish capture Providence	N/A
Jul 1643	Dec 1643	BayH	Jackson raids Truxillo	^[14]
1644	1644	Near	Bodegas fortified	N/A
1648	1648	Bacl	Maya overrun Bacalar	^[15]
Jul 1650	Jul 1650	Far	Spanish capture Rattan	N/A
1652	1652	Bacl	Thomas raids Bacalar	^[16]
1652	28 Feb 1663	Hond	Baymen start logging	N/A
23 Oct 1654	May 1656	Dzul	Perez campaigns	N/A
19 May 1655	27 May 1655	Far	English capture Jamaica	N/A
27 May 1655	1687	Far	Oldman commission	N/A
18 Jul 1670	18 Jul 1670	Far	Godolphin treaty	N/A
1676	1676	Far	Esquivel logging report	^[17]
1677	1677	MnMp	Delgado journey	N/A
Jul 1680	Aug 1680	Hond	Castro surprises fleet	N/A
16 Nov 1694	28 Feb 1695	Hond	Soberanis campaign	N/A
1695	1696	Dzul	Avedano mission	^[18]
Apr 1695	26 Dec 1695	Dzul	Hariza visit, Tipu–Itza embassy	N/A
13 Mar 1697	13 Mar 1697	Near	Fall of Peten Itza	N/A
1707	1707	Dzul	Tipu sacked and reduced	N/A
1708	1708	Near	Peten garrisoned	N/A
7 Dec 1716	10 Dec 1716	Far	Capture of Terminos	^[19]
1 Apr 1718	9 Apr 1718	Hond	Blackbeard surprises fleet	N/A
1721	1721	Far	Capture of Catoche	N/A
1722	1722	Hond	Magistrates, residences, slaves noted	N/A
Mar 1723	Mar 1723	Hond	Low–Lowther massacre	N/A
1727	1727	Bacl	Bacalar resettled and fortified	N/A
10 Apr 1729	9 Jun 1729	Hond	Figueroa campaign	^[20]
1734	1734	Bacl	De Guelle map	^[21]
26 Jan 1734	26 Jan 1734	Hond	Merida embassy	N/A
16 Mar 1740	16 Mar 1740	Far	Treaty of Sandy Bay	N/A
1741	1741	Hond	Pitt–Hodgson report	N/A
1727	1727	Bacl	Bacalar resettled and fortified	N/A
28 Jan 1752	28 Jan 1752	Near	Omoa settled and fortified	N/A
10 Feb 1763	10 Feb 1763	Far	Treaty of Paris	N/A
7 Nov 1763	7 Nov 1763	Hond	Mahogany logged	N/A
9 Apr 1765	9 Apr 1765	Hond	Burnaby's Code	N/A
1776	1776	Hond	Anglican parish established	N/A
2 Sep 1779	Nov 1779	Hond	Capture of St George	^[22]
3 Sep 1783	3 Sep 1783	Far	Treaty of Versailles	N/A
1 Jun 1786	27 Jun 1786	Hond	Despard arrives	^[23]
Jul 1786	Jul 1787	Far	Mosquito Shore evacuated	N/A
11 Apr 1797	1 May 1797	Near	Garifuna forcibly resettled	N/A
15 Sep 1821	15 Sep 1821	Near	Spanish independence	N/A
5 Jan 1822	5 Jan 1822	Hond	Indian slavery abolished	N/A
15 Dec 1832	15 Dec 1832	Hond	Magistrate elections disallowed	N/A
28 Aug 1833	28 Aug 1833	Far	Abolition Act	N/A
14 May 1842	14 May 1842	Far	Rattan dependency disallowed	N/A
10 Apr 1848	10 Apr 1848	Near	Capture of Bacalar	N/A
12 Feb 1862	12 Feb 1862	Far	Settlement designated colony	N/A

Gazetteer

Template:Sticky

Select toponyms from literature on this period.
Name^{[lower-roman 4]}	Place	^[24]
Amatique Template:Sma	modern Bay of Amatique	N/A
Bacalar Template:Sma	area of modern Bacalar; settlement there	^[25]
Bay Template:Sma	gulf bound by Catoche to Gracias a Dios	^[26]
Barcadares Template:Sma	area of modern Grace Bank; Baymen's settlement there	N/A
Belize Template:Sma	area of modern Belize City; Baymen's settlement there	N/A
Campeachy Template:Sma	modern Bay of Campeche; English logging settlement there	^[27]
Catoche Template:Sma	modern Cape Catoche; English logging settlement there	^[28]
Honduras Template:Sma	area of modern Belize; Baymen's pirate haven there; their settlement there	N/A
Mosquito S Template:Sma	eastern area of modern Honduras and Nicaragua; Mosquito settlements there; Anglo-Dutch pirate haven there; Providence trading post there; English settlements there	N/A
New R	modern New River	N/A
Old R Template:Sma	modern Belize River	^[29]
Omoa Template:Sma	area of modern Omoa; settlement there	N/A
Rattan Template:Sma	modern Roatan; English pirate haven there; English settlement there	N/A
Sherboon R	modern Sibun River	N/A
St George Template:Sma	modern St George's Caye; Baymen's settlement there	N/A
Turneffe Template:Sma	modern Turneffe Atoll	^[30]
Yucatan Template:Sma	headland bound by Terminos to Amatique; province of New Spain there; its successor state; English settlements there	^[31]

Glossary