STEPPING STONES 04/30/17 By KEYSAR HOTEL & SUITES "Fit for kings"

Volume 3, Issue 18, April 30, 2017

In this issue...

Public Service Announcements

Quote Of The Week: Andy Vivian Palacio

Book Of The Month: “The Musician’s Business and Legal Guide”

Edited and compiled by Mark Halloran, Esq.

It’s YOUR Health: Bible Diet

Historical Fact Of The Week: History Of Belize and Belizean Creole People

Editorial Commentary: Coming!        

 

Public Service Announcements

• The rechartering for The Head Cornerstone Corporation in the State Of Delaware as well as all updated business licenses and associated issues are forth coming pending litigation. Thank you.
• Visit WWW.Ready.gov at your earliest convenience so that you may be informed of basic protective measures before, during, and after disasters/emergencies, learn disaster prepared activities, training, plans, and what shelters are in or near your community, develop an emergency plan for yourself and your family in the event of an actual disaster/emergency, build an disaster/emergency supply kit including a basic emergency medical/trauma bag in case of an event, and GET INVOLVED!
• Get your CPR (Cardio-Pulomonary Resuscitation) and Basic First Aid/First Responder/Basic Life Support including child birth and Emergency Pediatric Care training today. Check with the American Heart Association at WWW.Heart.org for locations. It may just save a life.
•  It’s a lot of fun and excitement, it’s healthy, it’s a great family activity, and it’s very practical. Find a course in self-defense for you and your loved ones and learn to protect yourselves. You just never know.
•  We have the constitutional right to BEAR ARMS and many states have the CCW (Conceal Carry Weapon) License for when you and your loved ones are outside of your home environment. Search the web for free information concerning the Conceal Carry Laws as well as other valuable information. Get the CCW License today (where applicable) for you and your family members of age and LEARN HOW TO SHOOT. You’ll feel better that you did.
•  WATER; it’s very essential for normal body functions and not only carries nutrients to your cells, but flushes out the toxins in are bodies that lead to diseases such as cancers, diabetes, and heart diseases. According to the Mayo Clinic and the Institute of Health, water consumption varies for each person depending on many factors associated with life styles, such as current health, activities, and where you live. Be informed about what your daily intake should be and “drink up”. It will make YOUR world a better place.

Public Announcements

are brought to you by

COMMUNITY INTERNATIONAL                    

 

Within our African American communities, there is a DISEASE; drug gangs as well as other organized criminal organizations. Before and after any conversation and until we remove the disease…

“…we will continue to SUFFER from exceptionally HIGH crime rates (burglaries, extortion, racketeering, money laundering, prostitution/teen prostitution, illegal weapons, auto thefts, etc.), INCREASED violent crimes (murders, assaults, rapes, kidnappings, robberies, gang rapes, child molestations, child endangerment/abuse, etc.), DECREASED land values, decreased BUSINESS INVESTMENTS AND DEVELOPMENT, DECREASED employment opportunities in affected areas, and a “WAR ZONE” environment in which our CHILDREN and elders are FORCED to survive in. A RECLASSIFICATION of these crimes and ALL involved in their OFFENSES to include all persons assisting in any CAPACITY as terrorists will, also, REMOVE many, but NOT all, of the OBSTRUCTIONS for our children as they LEARN, play, and grow during their crucial DEVELOPMENTAL YEARS by significantly REDUCING the VIOLENT CRIMES, eliminating FORCED gang membership, SIGNIFICANTLY reducing teen pregnancy, TEEN drug use, teen dropout rates, SCHOOL ABSENTEISM, illiteracy rates, TEEN SUICIDE RATES, as well as the eradicating of the PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA as well as mental anguish that is PRODUCED by the “war zone” environment. The BY-PRODUCTS of this campaign include, but are not limited to significant REDUCTION in Medical budget expenditures CAUSED by drug related medical and traumatic CONDITIONS (DRUG OVERDOSES, HOMICIDES, SUICIDES, DRUG INFLUENCED/RELATED AUTO ACCIDENTS, DRUG INDUCED PSYCHOLOGICAL PATIENTS, BABIES BORN WITH DRUG ADDICTIONS, THE SPREAD OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES, BABIES BORN WITH SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES, TRAUMA RELATED TO DRUGS/GANGS AND VIOLENT CRIME, ETC.).”

(Excerpt from Quote Of The Week 01/01/12)

And our babies will continue to be oppressed until death and all day before they can live. This is not LOVE. This is HATE. Please, STOP!

Brought to you

By

The “From the dirt…” Community Redevelopment Project

A program of

COMMUNITY INTERNATIONAL

 

Tending The Garden; Plucking Poverty By The Roots

By Akil A. Bomani

The most severe form of poverty is ignorance; lack of knowledge or factual, true, and always objective information (as opposed to misinformation or ill knowledge). Only when we breathe, speak, and teach true knowledge to ourselves, each other, and especially to our youth will we begin the work of eradicating the overwhelming abundance of poverty from our minds, our bodies, and most importantly, our spirits; and thus, the world. This alone will heal all plagues, address every societal need, and end suffering the world over and forever. And what is knowledge without wisdom? Just look around you at our world today. Lack of wisdom is the second most severe form of poverty afflicting “Man”. Without wisdom, knowledge is just a loaded gun or an explosive device in the wrong hands. It is the obvious cure for the disease. And then, what will we do with ourselves?

Pedophiliac: The Grip Of Reality Reveals The One And Only Solution 

By Akil A. Bomani

Pedophiliac, Child molester, Child predator, Child sex slaver/trafficker, … In summarizing this…“issue”, what a complete contradiction of nature and even evolution; an abomination. And what an example to the youth of the world we have set in not only not putting an end to such atrocity everywhere it exists, but have allowed it to now be an accepted part of popular culture in some of our societies, continue in others as “tradition”, or incidents and perpetrators have become so common place that one can see them “coming out of the closet”. The damage they inflict on their victims, their victims’ family, friends, school mates, care providers, emergency response personnel, etc. go far beyond bad dreams. Our current problem is this; the DISEASE is spiritual and mental which leads to the actual physical act and crime and THERE IS NO CURE. And so, there is but ONE solution. No matter where you are, no matter your socio-politico, cultural, and/or economic back ground, only those with no reasoning will disagree. And so, no matter where you are…no matter what country, city, township, or village, ethnic group, cultural orientation, or other group, support the enacting and, most importantly, enforcement of internationally standardized laws that reflect and directly address this most serious matter. Until there is a cure, our children are not safe. Seek to initiate the passing of laws that PERMANENTLY remove offenders from society by penalties of either LIFE OF IMPRISONMENT/MENTAL INSTITUTION with NO CHANCE OF PAROLE or RELEASE until a cure is discovered or DEATH BY SOME LETHAL MECHANISM for all perpetrators of this most heinous assault on our youth. We must, also, in a formal setting, teach our youth from the early developmental stages “sex education”, the very best parenting practices among other essential “life skills”, and the need, how, and why to report offenders to assist with their protection and bringing perpetrators to justice. And we must, in a formal setting, teach current parents, educators, as well as all other care providers how to recognize a problem when they encounter it. Please, join this War on Pedophiliacs as we seek all progressive methods to “end this right now”. Why? Pedophiliacs CAN’T help themselves and the next child could be yours. Or how else will our children ever respect us again?

Brought to you by

THE BOMANI GROUP 

 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I don't believe in labels and limitations… I decided a long time ago that I would define my life."

Andy Vivian Palacio

2 December 1960 – 19 January 2008

A Belizean Punta musician and government official. He was also a leading activist for the Garifuna people and their culture.

Palacio was born and raised in the coastal village of Barranco and worked briefly as a teacher before turning to music. He received the award for "Best New Artist" at the Caribbean Music Awards in 1991, and was posthumously awarded the BBC3 Awards for World Music award in the Americas Category, in 2008.

Contributions to Belizean music and media

In addition to the traditional Garifuna music that he played, Palacio absorbed the diverse sounds disseminated by radio from neighboring Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Jamaica and the United States. Palacio pursued his musical ambitions in a series of high school bands, covering a diversity of popular music from abroad. Attracted by the ideals of the Nicaraguan revolution, he joined the literacy campaign in that nation's African-Amerindian Caribbean coast region, and developed a deeper appreciation for his own threatened cultural and linguistic traditions. Those insights made their way into his own creativity, influencing him to delve more deeply into the roots of Garifuna music.

Palacio returned from Nicaragua to discover the emergence of new Garifuna pride in their culture and identity, a development dramatically expressed in the sudden popularity of punta rock, a fusion of traditional Garifuna music with electric guitar and the influences of R&B, jazz and rock and roll. The Original Turtle Shell Band, led by Belizean Garifuna musician and painter Delvin "Pen" Cayetano, burst into national consciousness in the early 1980s just as Belize gained independence. The Turtle Shell Band's invitation to perform with their mentor Isabel Flores (a legendary Garifuna percussionist and singer, now deceased) at the 1983 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival encouraged Andy Palacio to pursue a musical career.

In 1987, after Pen Cayetano turned down an invitation to work in England with Cultural Partnerships Limited, a community arts organization, Palacio stepped in. He returned to Belize six months later with professional experience, a broadened perspective, and connections that led to his involvement with the short-lived Sunrise recording project, the first effort to record, document, preserve and distribute Belizean roots music. The following year Palacio's career took off, buoyed by widely circulated cassette recordings released by Sunrise, and a string of invitations to represent Belize musically at the Festival Internacional de Cultura del Caribe (Cancun), Carifesta VI (Trinidad and Tobago), Carifesta VII (St. Kitts-Nevis), the Rainforest World Music Festival (Malaysia), the Antillanse Feesten (Belgium), the World Traditional Performing Arts Festival (Japan) and countless performances in the United States, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany and Great Britain.

Two critically acclaimed recordings on the Stonetree label, Belize's only record company, cemented Palacio's fame at home, while reinforcing his stature as the country's foremost overseas cultural ambassador. Recorded in Havana and Belize, Keimoun (1995) showcased Palacio's vocal and composition talents, enlisting first-rate Cuban and Belizean studio artists. The first CD to be produced in Belize, Keimoun put the country on the world music map, and is listed by The Rough Guide as one of 100 essential recordings from Latin America and the Caribbean. Two years later Palacio returned with Til Da Mawnin, an energetic mix of dance tunes backed by Belize's top instrumentalists and singers.

Appointed Belizean Cultural Ambassador and Deputy Administrator of the National Institute of Culture and History in 2004, Palacio devoted himself to the preservation of Garifuna music and culture. In 2007, Palacio's years of work with the Stonetree's Garifuna All-Stars project came to fruition with the release of the acclaimed Wátina album. Wátina featured a multigenerational crew of Garifuna musicians from Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras (including octegenarian singer Paul Nabor) that delved deeply into traditional Garifuna rhythms and songs. The album was a critical success that garnered worldwide attention for the Garifuna people, culture and language. Thanks to Wátina, Palacio was named a UNESCO Artist for Peace and won the prestigious WOMEX Award in 2007.

Palacio later served as a head of the National Institute of Culture and History and was named a cultural ambassador. He released over five original albums beginning with Nabi in 1990. He also traveled widely promoting and performing his music.

Palacio briefly hosted a television program on Channel 5 named after him and featuring works from Belizeans. He also wrote the theme music for Channel 5's newscast.

On 14 March 2007, Palacio released his last studio album, Wátina, which he considered his masterpiece. The album features guest appearances from other prominent Garifuna artists including Paul Nabor and was produced by Ivan Duran at Stonetree Records.

Critical illness and death

On 16 January 2008, Palacio suddenly fell ill with two apparent "stroke-like seizures" at his home in San Ignacio and hospitalized in Belmopan and later Belize City. In Belize City Palacio was referred to go to Chicago for more specialized medical treatment via air ambulance, but his condition steadily deteriorated en route. While stopped to clear United States customs in Mobile, Alabama, Palacio was found unconscious and rushed to a local hospital, where his prognosis was deemed bleak. His family requested he return so he could die in his home country. According to a press release from his record label, Cumbancha, Palacio died in Belize City at 21:00 local time on 19 January of "a massive and extensive stroke to the brain, a heart attack and respiratory failure."

Fellow Belizean musician Oral Fuentes, a friend was reported as saying in response to his death:

"I am indeed very sad to hear the news of Andy passing. I've known Andy for years ... as a fellow Belizean I feel the pain. Belize has indeed lost a hero."

Discography

AlbumsGreatest Hits (1979)

Keimoun (beat on) (1995)

Til Da Mawnin (1997)

Wátina (2007)

Contributing artistThe Rough Guide to the Music of Central America (2002, World Music Network)

Born and raised on the Southside of the music city of Memphis, Tenn., the artist simply called, “George", is Stone Records' smooth jazz male vocalist, songwriter, and producer. This new comer with the rich voice texture and soulful crooning will soon earn his place among male balladeers within the music industry with his soothing and melodic vocal interpretations. A multitalented and very versatile vocalist, songwriter, and producer, but very humble spirit, "George", is destined to become a contributor to the long musical legacy of Memphis with his brand of music.

Though influenced by a wide variety of world class vocalists, songwriters, and producers, George is all original in his presentations of what music is; smooth, soulful, sultry, sexy crooning, and melodically interpretive balladry…

"Volume I George", will be an invitation for the listener into a relaxing mood, regardless of your day, with a jazz so smooth, it’s therapeutic. Just listen…There is not a song without a message as "George" enters the industry with "…music for the soul" as his purpose. This is poetry. The look, the voice, his music, the vibe…feel it.

 Have a taste at

Reverbnation.com/Georgethesmoothandsexycrooner

and pick up the debut single,

“I Want To Know”

from

“Volume I George”

when it drops!

“Taste my funk (smile).”

George

Follow George on Twitter:

George

@George_StoneRec

"Strictly business for serious business minds…".

 

BOOK Of THE MONTH

“The Musician’s Business and Legal Guide”

Edited and compiled by Mark Halloran, Esq.

ISBN-13: 978-0132281270

ISBN-10: 0132281279

 

MARY & MODINE'S MUSIC SHOP (BMI)  

Whether it’s Soul Contemporary Gospel, Smooth Jazz, Love Ballads, Commercial Jingles, Sound Tracks…

“…we’ve got that song you were looking for”

 

IT’S YOUR HEALTH

Bible Diet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term Bible Diet (or the Maker's Diet) is used to refer to a food diet promoted on radio and in books by writer and motivational speaker Jordan S. Rubin. Rubin presents the diet as based on teachings from the Book of Leviticus, Deuteronomy and other books of the Bible; he characterizes certain foods as either forbidden ("unclean") or acceptable ("clean") to God. Rubin also markets supplements associated with the diet through his two companies: Garden of Life, Inc. and Beyond Organic.

Rubin sees the diet as responsible for his recovery from Crohn's disease at the age of 19. As of 2008 no peer-reviewed scientific-journal articles had evaluated this diet. In 2004 the United States Food and Drug Administration ordered Rubin's company, Garden of Life, Inc., to stop making unsubstantiated claims about eight of its products and supplements.

The Bible Diet classifies food according to certain factors, such as:

how the food was raised, cooked or cleaned

how a particular animal lived

whether the food comes from a so-called "creeping" animal or not

the physical form of the source animal, such as whether a certain fish had fins and scales or not

While largely influenced by Jewish dietary law, the Bible Diet derives rules for determining clean and unclean foods derive from certain passages from the Bible in the books of Genesis, Proverbs, Luke, Exodus, Peter, Leviticus, Judges, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, 1 Corinthians, Habakkuk, and Daniel.

Short features (based on Rubin's book The Maker's Diet) that aired on Christian radio in the United States previously promoted Rubin as a "Biblical Health Coach". As of September 2009 these features, titled "Take a Moment for Your Health", describe Rubin as an author giving "lifestyle advice" based on his book.

Some[quantify] fundamentalist Christians follow Mosaic dietary rules.

Permitted foods

The foods incorporated in this diet are organic vegetables, fruits and legumes. The diet also encourages the removal of unclean and unacceptable foods from the individual's diet. This natural, organic approach to eating suggests that one should only eat things created by God in the way they were intended. That means no processed foods or those produced with contact to hormones, pesticides or fertilizers. Rubin takes two of his main dietary laws from Leviticus. Leviticus (11:9-10) states that one should eat

"whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters" but not to eat "all that have not fins and scales in the seas."

Rubin says that this means that fish with scales are intended to be eaten, such as salmon and trout, but smooth fish such as catfish and eels should not be eaten. It also means that crustaceans with hard shells such as lobsters, crabs, and clams are not to be eaten. The other main dietary law taken from The Bible is also taken from Leviticus (11:3 and 11:7-8). Here The Bible says that man should eat

 "whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud". Man should not eat "the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you."

This means that the animals that can be eaten would need to have hooves in which each has two parts, cleft down the middle, and which also chew their cud, such as cows, goats, and sheep. The dietary laws that Rubin derives from these passages are generally the same as the Kosher laws followed by Jewish people. In addition to the dietary laws taken directly from The Bible, Rubin believes in eating a variety of whole foods that have not been processed, or that have not been greatly processed. This generally means choosing foods like brown rice, which has not been processed much, over white rice, which is significantly processed. Rubin also believes that organic foods and meat from animals that were raised eating grass instead of wild grain is more in line with the foods man was intended to eat. Snacks are not mandated in this diet, but it is advised to feel free to snack on the foods listed as acceptable.

The types of foods that can be eaten include:

Grains - barley, corn, millet, oats, rice, rye, wheat

Seeds - sunflower, sesame, flax, pumpkin

Legumes - soybeans, lentils, peas, peanuts, other beans

Succulent foods containing seed - bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, green beans, melons, okra, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, strawberries, and other berries.

Fruits - citrus fruits such as lemons and limes, palm fruits, sweet fruits

Nuts - almonds, Brazil nuts, cashew nuts, pecans, walnuts

Herbs (vegetables): beet greens, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, globe artichoke, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, beets, potatoes, turnips

The types of animals that can be eaten include:

Livestock - cow, deer, lamb, caribou, buffalo, elk, goat, moose

Fish - bass, bluefish, crappie, perch, pike, salmon, sunfish, trout

Birds - chicken, turkey, pheasant, grouse, quail

Insects - locusts, crickets, grasshoppers

Prohibited foods

Phase One of the Bible diet restricts foods high in carbohydrates such as grains, pastas, breads, sugar, potatoes, corn, beans, and legumes. Although the people on the diet consumed foods containing carbohydrates, they were of high quality and less processed.

Phase One restricts meats such as pork, bacon, ostrich, ham, sausages, emu and imitation meat. Fish and sea foods such as fried fish, breaded fish, eel, shark, crab, clams, oyster, mussels, lobster, shrimp, scallops, and crawfish are prohibited. Poultry such as fried chicken and breaded chicken is restricted. Phase One inhibits luncheon meats such as ham, roast beef, and corned beef. Imitation eggs are restricted. Fats and oils such as lard, shortening, sunflower oil, cotton seed oil, margarine, soy oil, corn oil, and any partially hydrogenated oil may not be consumed. Nuts and seeds such as honey-roasted nuts, or seeds dry or roasted in oil are prohibited. Condiments, and seasonings such as all spices that contain added sugar, commercial ketchup with sugar and barbecue sauce with sugar may not be consumed. All fruits except berries, grapefruit, limes, and lemons must be avoided. Beverages such as alcohol, fruit juices, sodas, chlorinated tap water, and pre-ground commercial coffee are not allowed. All grains and starchy foods including pasta cereal, pastries, and baked goods must be avoided. Sweeteners such as sugar, heated honey and all artificial sweeteners are forbidden.

Phases of the Diet

The diet is divided into three phases over a 40-day period and broken into three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. According to Rubin, the dieter should choose a beginning phase based on their overall starting health and their desired improvements. The chief purpose of the diet is to achieve optimal health by means of nutrition and spirituality.

Prayer, Purpose and "Partial-fast" days

The diet begins and ends each day with prayers of thanksgiving, healing, and petition. The individual should perform exercises of "Life Purpose" for two to five minutes before the day gets too stressful. The exercise should be used as a time of alignment and reflection with realignment cycles taking place every ninety minutes. Rubin recommends that one day per week in each phase, a partial fast day is taken to allow the body to cleanse and rebuild. On these partial fast days, breakfast and lunch should not be consumed, although, if supplements are being taken, they should still be consumed. Fluid consumption is crucial during these days, especially raw vegetable juices and pure water. To achieve the utmost spiritual benefits from the partial fast days, it is suggested to pray each time hunger is experienced.

Daily regimens

The daily regimens help the dieter keep track of their diet while concurrently providing guidelines to achieve optimum results. It consists of morning and evening prayers, regular consumption of breakfast, lunch and dinner, morning and evening exercise, good hygiene practices and the consumption of cleansing drinks. The hygiene factor involves eliminating germs and aromatherapy practices in the morning and evening. The cleansing drink is a mixture of two tablespoons of a whole-food fiber blend and 1-2 tablespoons of a green superfood blend in 8 to 12 ounces of purified water or diluted vegetable juice, shaken vigorously and consumed immediately. The regimen also insists that the dieter be in bed before 10:30 p.m. every night.

Phase One

The diet begins with Phase One, which encompasses the first two weeks of the diet (days 1-14). Phase One is designed to stabilize insulin and blood sugar while reducing inflammation and infection, enhancing digestion and helping to balance the hormones in the body. This phase restricts disaccharide-rich carbohydrate foods such as grains, pastas, breads, sugar, potatoes, corn, beans, and legumes. The object of this, according to Rubin, is to achieve a detoxifying effect while simultaneously improving the overall health and helping to manage the individual's weight in a healthy manner. This phase should greatly reduce the risk of incurring disease by effectively helping the body reduce insulin sensitivity and balancing the omega-3/omega-6 ratio. Since Phase One is designed to correct harmful imbalances, it must temporally limit healthy, high sugar foods such as fruits, whole grains, and honey while allowing for the liberal consumption of protein foods, vegetables, and healthy oils. Phase One is considered the most difficult phase of the diet due to the commitment factors. Water intake should be increased and rest should be taken when necessary.

Phase Two

Phase Two consists of weeks three to four (days 15-28). According to Rubin, digestion should have improved along with energy level. Weight loss will continue during this phase, but at a slower pace than Phase One.

Phase Three

The final phase of the diet begins in the fifth week and continues for the duration that the individual maintains the diet (days 29-40 and beyond). It is considered to be the maintenance phase of the diet and is specifically designed to allow and encourage healthful eating of foods from each of the permitted groups. In this phase, healthy grains and foods higher in sugars and starches, such as potatoes, are reintroduced. Weight should stabilize in this phase and only key areas of the health scheme, such as overall body health, continue to improve. If one deviates from the diet, it is advised to go back to Phase One or Two for a week or two to get back into the flow of the diet.

Claimed benefits

Rubin claims that his recommendations will enable dieters to concentrate better, and will enhance their moods. He also says that his diet can reduce arthritis pain and inflammation, and can reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. He also says that it can reverse the "accelerated aging" caused by the way people eat and live today.

Scientific acceptance and criticism

Jordan Rubin has been criticized because his education in nutrition is a degree in Naturopathy from the Peoples University of the Americas, which is not accredited by the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education nor licensed by the North American Board of Naturopathic Examiners, and a Ph.D. in Nutrition from the Academy of Natural Therapies, which is not accredited by the American Dietetic Association or other mainstream nutrition organizations.

As of 2008, there are no peer-reviewed scientific journal articles that evaluate the claims made by Rubin. In line with the general knowledge that exercise is beneficial for health, The Gale Encyclopedia of Diets praised the Bible Diet for this aspect. It found, however, that the emphasis on organic foods is not directly supported by scientific evidence.

Another area of concern have been the supplements that are required or recommended for the Bible Diet's program. These supplements are made by Rubin's company Garden of Life, Inc. In a letter dated May 11, 2004 the United States Food and Drug Administration ordered the company to stop making unsubstantiated claims about eight of its products and supplements. The claims were made in brochures, on labels, and in Rubin's book Patient Heal Thyself.

See also

iconChristianity portal

Christian dietary laws

Christian vegetarianism

Daniel Fast

Kashrut

 

HISTORICAL FACT OF THE WEEK

HISTORY OF BELIEZE

“Of The People Of The Many Descendants Of Afrika”

Belize i/b??li?z/, formerly British Honduras, is a country located on the north eastern coast of Central America. It is the only country in the area where English is the official language, although Kriol and Spanish are more commonly spoken. Belize is bordered to the north by Mexico, to the south and west by Guatemala and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. Its mainland is about 290 kilometers (180 mi) long and 110 kilometers (68 mi) wide.

With 22,960 square kilometers (8,860 sq mi) of land and a population of only 312,698 inhabitants (2010 census), Belize possesses the lowest population density in Central America. The country's population growth rate of 3.15% (2012 est.) is the second highest in the region and one of the highest in the western hemisphere. Belize's abundance of terrestrial and marine species, and its diversity of ecosystems give it a key place within the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. It is the only nation in the region with a British colonial heritage, but as a part of the Western Caribbean Zone, it also shares a common heritage with the Caribbean portions of other Central American countries. In general, Belize is considered to be a Central American nation with strong ties to both the Caribbean and Latin America. Belize is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA).

The history of Belize dates back thousands of years. The Maya civilization spread into the area of Belize between 1500 BC and AD 200 and flourished until about AD 1200. Several major archeological sites—notably Cahal Pech, Caracol, Lamanai, Lubaantun, Altun Ha, and Xunantunich—reflect the advanced civilization and much denser population of that period. The first recorded European settlement was established by shipwrecked English seamen in 1638. Over the next 150 years, more English settlements were established. This period also was marked by piracy, indiscriminate logging, and sporadic attacks by natives and neighboring Spanish settlements.

Great Britain first sent an official representative to the area in the late 18th century, but Belize was not formally termed the "Colony of British Honduras" until 1840. It became a crown colony in 1862. Subsequently, several constitutional changes were enacted to expand representative government. Full internal self-government under a ministerial system was granted in January 1964. The official name of the territory was changed from British Honduras to Belize in June 1973, and full independence was granted on September 21, 1981.

Belizean Creoles, also known as Kriols, are Creole descendants of African slaves brought to Belize and English and Scottish log cutters, who were known as the Baymen. Over the years there has also been intermarriage with Miskito from Nicaragua, Jamaicans, other West Indians, Mestizos, and East Indians, who were brought to Belize as indentured laborers. These varied peoples have all mixed to create this ethnic group. The Belize Kriol language was historically only spoken by them, but this ethnicity has become synonymous with the Belizean national identity, and as a result Kriol is now spoken by about 75% of Belizeans. Creoles are found predominantly in urban areas, such as Belize City, in most coastal towns and villages, and in the Belize River Valley.

The Belize Kriol language, developed initially among the Africans and Europeans, was historically spoken only by them. The Creoles constituted the majority of the population until the 1980s and became synonymous with the Belizean national identity. As a result, the use of the Kriol language has become more widespread and is now spoken by about 75% of Belizeans, including the many new immigrants since the late 20th century. In the 21st century, Creoles are found predominantly in urban areas, such as Belize City, in most coastal towns and villages, and in the Belize River Valley.

Until the early 1980s, Belizean Creoles constituted close to 60% of the population of Belize, but today they are about 25% of the population. This was due to an influx of Central Americans coming in from neighboring countries, as well as emigration of approximately 85,000 Creoles, primarily to the United States. Today, identifying as a Creole may confuse some; a person who identifies himself or herself as a Creole may have fair skin and blonde hair or dark skin and kinky hair. The term, 'Creole', denotes a culture more than physical appearance. In Belize, Creole is the standard term for any person of at least partial African descent, who is not Garinagu, or any person that speaks Kriol as a first or sole language. This includes immigrants from Africa and the West Indies who have settled in Belize and intermarried with locals. Indeed, the concept of Creole and that of ‘mixture’ have almost become synonymous to the extent that any individual with Afro-European ancestry combined with any other ethnicity—whether Mestizo, Garifuna or Maya—is now likely to be considered 'Creole'.

When the National Kriol Council began standardizing the orthography for Kriol they decided that they would only promote the spelling Kriol for the language, but they would continue to use the spelling Creole when referring

The origin of the name Belize is unclear, but the earliest record of the name is found in the journal of the Dominican priest Fray José Delgado, dating to 1677. Delgado recorded the names of three major rivers that he crossed while traveling north along the Caribbean coast: Rio Soyte, Rio Xibum, and Rio Balis. These names, which correspond to the Sittee River, Sibun River, and Belize River, were provided to Delgado by his translator. It is likely that Delgado's "Balis" was actually the Mayan word belix (or beliz), meaning "muddy-watered".

Others have suggested that the name is derived from a Spanish pronunciation of the name of the Scottish buccaneer Peter Wallace, which was applied to an early settlement at the mouth of the Belize River, although there is no proof that Wallace actually settled in the area and some have characterized this claim as a myth. Several other possible etymologies have been suggested by writers and historians, including French and African origins.

The Maya civilization emerged at least three millennia ago in the lowland area of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands to the south, in what is now southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, and Belize. Many aspects of this culture persist in the area despite nearly 500 years of European domination. Prior to about 2500 B.C., some hunting and foraging bands settled in small farming villages; they later domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers. A profusion of languages and subcultures developed within the Mayan core culture. Between about 2500 B.C. and A.D. 250, the basic institutions of Mayan civilization emerged. The peak of this civilization occurred during the classic period, which began about A.D. 250. The recorded history of the center and south is dominated by Caracol, where the inscriptions on their monuments was, as elsewhere, in the Lowland Maya aristocratic tongue Classic Ch'olti'an. North of the Maya Mountains, the inscriptional language at Lamanai was Yucatecan as of 625 CE. The last date recorded in Ch'olti'an within Belizean borders is 859 CE in Caracol, stele 10. Yucatec civilization, in Lamanai, lasted longer.

Farmers engaged in various types of agriculture, including labor-intensive irrigated and ridged-field systems and shifting slash-and-burn agriculture. Their products fed the civilization's craft specialists, merchants, warriors, and priest-astronomers, who coordinated agricultural and other seasonal activities with a cycle of rituals in ceremonial centers. These priests, who observed the movements of the sun, moon, planets, and stars, developed a complex mathematical and calendrical system to coordinate various cycles of time and to record specific events on carved stelae. The Maya were skilled at making pottery, carving jade, knapping flint, and making elaborate costumes of feathers. The architecture of Mayan civilization included temples and palatial residences organized in groups around plazas. These structures were built of cut stone, covered with stucco, and elaborately decorated and painted. Stylized carvings and paintings, along with sculptured stelae and geometric patterns on buildings, constitute a highly developed style of art.

Belize boasts important sites of the earliest Mayan settlements, majestic ruins of the classic period, and examples of late post-classic ceremonial construction. About five kilometers west of Orange Walk, is Cuello, a site from perhaps as early as 2500 B.C. Jars, bowls, and other dishes found there are among the oldest pottery unearthed in present-day Mexico and Central America. Cerros, a site on Chetumal Bay, was a flourishing trade and ceremonial center between about 300 B.C. and A.D. 100. One of the finest carved jade objects of Mayan civilization, the head of what is usually taken to be the sun god Kinich Ahau, was found in a tomb at the classic period site of Altún Ha, thirty kilometers northwest of present-day Belize City. Other Mayan centers located in Belize include Xunantunich and Baking Pot in Cayo District, Lubaantún and Nimli Punit in Toledo District, and Lamanai on Hill Bank Lagoon in Orange Walk District.

In the late classic period, probably at least 400,000 people inhabited the Belize area. People settled almost every part of the country worth cultivating, as well as the cay and coastal swamp regions. But in the 10th century, Mayan society suffered a severe breakdown. Construction of public buildings ceased, the administrative centers lost power, and the population declined as social and economic systems lost their coherence. Some people continued to occupy, or perhaps reoccupied, sites such as Altún Ha, Xunantunich, and Lamanai. Still, these sites ceased being splendid ceremonial and civic centers. The decline of Mayan civilization is still not fully explained. Rather than identifying the collapse as the result of a single factor, many archaeologists now believe that the decline of the Maya was a result of many complex factors and that the decline occurred at different times in different regions.

Some lowland Maya still occupied the area when Europeans arrived in the 16th century. Archaeological and ethnohistorical research confirms that several groups of Mayan peoples lived in the area now known as Belize in the 16th century. The political geography of that period does not coincide with present-day boundaries, so several Mayan provinces lay across the frontiers of modern Belize, Mexico, and Guatemala. By then the primary inhabitants were the Mopan branch of the Yucatec Maya. Spanish conquistadors explored the land and declared it a Spanish colony but chose not to settle because of the lack of resources such as gold and the strong defense of the Yucatán by the Maya. Spain soon sent expeditions to Guatemala and Honduras, and the conquest of Yucatán began in 1527. Though the Maya offered stiff resistance to Spanish "pacification", diseases contracted from the Spanish devastated the indigenous population and weakened its ability to resist conquest. In the 17th century, Spanish missionaries established churches in Mayan settlements with the intention of converting and controlling these people. Piracy along the coast increased during this period. In 1642, and again in 1648, pirates sacked Salamanca de Bacalar, the seat of Spanish government in southern Yucatán. The abandonment of Bacalar ended Spanish control over the Mayan provinces of Chetumal and Dzuluinicob.

Between 1638 and 1695, the Maya living in the area of Tipu enjoyed autonomy from Spanish rule. But in 1696, Spanish soldiers used Tipu as a base from which they pacified the area and supported missionary activities. In 1697 the Spanish conquered the Itzá, and in 1707, the Spanish forcibly resettled the inhabitants of Tipu to the area near Lago Petén Itzá. The political center of the Mayan province of Dzuluinicob ceased to exist at the time that British colonists were becoming increasingly interested in settling the area.

Later English and Scottish settlers and pirates known as the Baymen entered the area in the 16th and 17th century respectively and established a logwood trade colony in what would become the Belize District. Baymen first settled on the coast of Belize in 1638, seeking a sheltered region from which they could attack Spanish ships (see English settlement in Belize). The settlers turned to cutting logwood during the 18th century. The wood yielded a fixing agent for clothing dyes that was vital to the European woolen industry. The Spanish granted the British settlers the right to occupy the area and cut logwood in exchange for an end to piracy.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain tried to maintain a monopoly on trade and colonization in its New World colonies, but northern European powers were increasingly attracted to the region by the potential for trade and settlement. These powers resorted to smuggling, piracy, and war in their efforts to challenge and then destroy Spain's monopoly. In the 17th century, the Dutch, English, and French encroached on Spain's New World possessions.

Early in the 17th century, in southeastern Mexico and on the Yucatán Peninsula, English buccaneers began cutting logwood (Haematoxylum campechianum), which was used in the production of a textile dye. According to legend, one of these buccaneers, Peter Wallace, called "Ballis" by the Spanish, settled near and gave his name to the Belize River as early as 1638. English buccaneers began using the coastline as a base from which to attack Spanish ships. Buccaneers stopped plundering Spanish logwood ships and started cutting their own wood in the 1650s and 1660s. Logwood extraction then became the main reason for the English settlement for more than a century. A 1667 treaty, in which the European powers agreed to suppress piracy, encouraged the shift from buccaneering to cutting logwood and led to more permanent settlement.

Conflict continued between Britain and Spain over the right of the British to cut logwood and to settle in the region. In 1717 Spain expelled British logwood cutters from the Bay of Campeche west of the Yucatán. During the 18th century, the Spanish attacked the British settlers repeatedly. The Spanish never settled in the region, however, and the British always returned to expand their trade and settlement. The 1763 Treaty of Paris conceded to Britain the right to cut logwood but asserted Spanish sovereignty over the territory. When war broke out again in 1779, the British settlement was abandoned until the Treaty of Versailles in 1783 allowed the British to again cut logwood in the area. By that time, however, the logwood trade had declined and Honduras Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) had become the chief export.

The British were reluctant to set up any formal government for the settlement for fear of provoking the Spanish. On their own initiative, settlers had begun electing magistrates to establish common law as early as 1738. In 1765 these regulations were codified and expanded into Burnaby's Code. When the settlers began returning to the area in 1784, Colonel Edward Marcus Despard was named superintendent to oversee the Settlement of Belize in the Bay of Honduras. The 1786 Convention of London allowed the British settlers to cut and export timber but not to build fortifications, establish any form of government, or develop plantation agriculture. Spain retained sovereignty over the area.

The last Spanish attack on the British settlement, the Battle of St. George's Caye, occurred two years after the outbreak of war in 1796. The British drove off the Spanish, thwarting Spain's last attempt to control the territory or dislodge other settlers. The Battle of St. George's Caye was a short military engagement that lasted from 3–30 September 1798, undertaken off the coast of what is now Belize. The name, however, is typically reserved for the final battle that occurred on 10 September. The British first appointed a superintendent over the Belize area in 1786. Prior to that time, the British government did not initially recognize the settlement in Belize as a colony for fear of provoking a Spanish attack. The delay in government oversight allowed the settlers to establish their own laws and forms of government. Despite treaties banning local government and plantation agriculture, both activities flourished. In the late 18th century, an oligarchy of relatively wealthy settlers controlled the political economy of the British settlement; the local legislature, known as the Public Meeting, as well as of most of the settlement's land and timber. These settlers claimed about four-fifths of the available land; owned about half of all slaves; controlled imports, exports, and the wholesale and retail trades; and determined taxation. A group of magistrates, whom they elected from among themselves, had executive as well as judicial functions. The landowners resisted any challenge to their growing political power.

The battle took place between an invading force from what would become Mexico, attempting to wrest Belize for Spain, and a small force of resident woodcutters called Baymen, who fought for their livelihood assisted by African slaves.

The Spanish repeatedly tried to gain control over Belize by force, but were unsuccessful. Spain's last effort occurred on 10 September 1798, when the British repelled the Spanish fleet in a short engagement with no known casualties on either side known as the Battle of St. George's Caye. The anniversary of the battle is now a national holiday in Belize.

According to local research, the Belizean Creoles descended from polyglot buccaneers and European settlers who developed the logwood trade in the 17th century, along with African slaves they imported to help cut and ship the logwood. The National Kriol Council of Belize says that African slaves had been established on the Central American coast from the 16th century and earlier and were working for the Spanish further down the coast. By 1724, the British too were acquiring slaves from Jamaica and elsewhere to cut logwood and later mahogany. So, the earliest reference to African slaves in the British settlement of Belize appeared in a 1724 Spanish missionary's account, which stated that the British recently had been importing them from Jamaica and Bermuda. In the second half of the eighteenth century the slave population hovered around 3,000, making up about three quarters of the total population. Most slaves, even if they were brought through West Indian markets, were born in Africa, probably from Ghana (Ga, Ewe, Ashanti - Fante), around the Bight of Benin and Bight of Biafra, Nigeria (Yoruba, Igbo, Efik), the Congo, and Angola—the principal sources of British slaves in the late 18th century-. Also arrived Wolof, Fulas, Hausas and Kongos. The Igbo (known as Eboe or Ibo) seem to have been particularly numerous; one section of Belize Town was known as Eboe Town in the first half of the 19th century. At first, many slaves maintained African ethnic identifications and cultural practices. Gradually, however, the process of assimilation was creating a new, synthetic Creole culture.

Slavery in the settlement was associated with the extraction of timber, because treaties forbade the production of plantation crops. Settlers needed only one or two slaves to cut logwood, but as the trade shifted to mahogany in the last quarter of the 18th century, the settlers needed more money, land, and slaves for larger-scale operations. Other slaves worked as domestic helpers, sailors, blacksmiths, nurses, and bakers. The slaves' experience, though different from that on plantations in other colonies in the region, was nevertheless oppressive. They were frequently the objects of "extreme inhumanity," as a report published in 1820 stated. In the 18th century, many slaves escaped to Yucatán, and in the early 19th century a steady flow of runaways went to Guatemala and down the coast to Honduras.

One way the settler minority maintained its control was by dividing the slaves from the growing population of free Kriol people who were given limited privileges. Though some Kriols were legally free, their economic activities and voting rights were restricted. Privileges, however, led many free kriols to stress their loyalty and acculturation to British ways.

By most accounts, they led a better life than most in the West Indies, but were still mistreated and many of them escaped to neighboring Spanish colonies, or formed small maroon settlements in the forest. These slaves reputedly assisted in the defense of the fledgling settlement for much of the late 18th century, particularly in the 1798 Battle of St. George's Caye, though this is still a very controversial and political issue in Belize.

The Creoles settled mainly in Belize Town (now Belize City) and along the banks of the Belize River in the original logwood settlements including Burrell Boom, Bermudian Landing, Crooked Tree, Gracie Rock, Rancho Dolores, Flowers Bank, and Belmopan. There were also substantial numbers in and around the plantations south of Belize City and Placencia. Many Creoles were involved in the trade in live sea turtles, and other fisheries. As the 19th century progressed, they spread out to all the districts, particularly Dangriga and Monkey River, as the colony grew. Their sense of pride led to occasional clashes with authority, such as the 1894 currency devaluation riots, that foreshadowed greater conflicts to come.

The act to abolish slavery throughout the British colonies, passed in 1833, was intended to avoid drastic social changes by effecting emancipation over a five-year transition period, by implementing a system of "apprenticeship" calculated to extend masters' control over the former slaves, and by compensating former slave owners for their loss of property. After 1838, the masters of the settlement continued to control the country for over a century by denying access to land and by limiting freedmen's economic freedom.

At the same time that the settlement was grappling with the ramifications of the end of slavery, a new ethnic group—the Garifuna—appeared. In the early 19th century, the Garifuna, descendants of Carib peoples of the Lesser Antilles and of Africans who had escaped from slavery, arrived in the settlement. The Garifuna had resisted British and French colonialism in the Lesser Antilles until they were defeated by the British in 1796. After putting down a violent Garifuna rebellion on Saint Vincent, the British moved between 1,700 and 5,000 of the Garifuna across the Caribbean to the Bay Islands (present-day Islas de la Bahía) off the north coast of Honduras. From there they migrated to the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and the southern part of present-day Belize. By 1802 about 150 Garifuna had settled in the Stann Creek (present-day Dangriga) area and were engaged in fishing and farming.

Other Garifuna later came to the British settlement of Belize after finding themselves on the wrong side in a civil war in Honduras in 1832. Many Garifuna men soon found wage work alongside slaves as mahogany cutters. In 1841 Dangriga, the Garifuna's largest settlement, was a flourishing village. The American traveler John Stephens described the Garifuna village of Punta Gorda as having 500 inhabitants and producing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

The British treated Garifuna as squatters. In 1857 the British told the Garifuna that they must obtain leases from the crown or risk losing their lands, dwellings, and other buildings. The 1872 Crown Lands Ordinance established reservations for the Garifuna as well as the Maya. The British prevented both groups from owning land and treated them as a source of valuable labor.

In the early 19th century, the British sought greater control over the settlers, threatening to suspend the Public Meeting unless it observed the government's instructions to eliminate slavery in whole. Slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1838, but this did little to change working conditions for laborers in the Belize settlement. Slaves of the colony were valued for their potentially superior abilities in the work of mahogany extraction. As a result, former slave owners in British Honduras earned ￡53.69 on average per slave, the highest amount paid in any British territory.

Soon after, a series of institutions were put in place to ensure the continued presence of a viable labor force. Some of these greatly restricted the ability of individuals to obtain land, in a debt-peonage system to organize the newly "free." The position of being "extra special" mahogany and logwood cutters undergirded the early ascriptions of the capacities (and consequently the limitations) of people of African descent in the colony. Because a small elite controlled the settlement's land and commerce, former slaves had no choice but to continue to work in timber cutting.

In 1836, after the emancipation of Central America from Spanish rule, the British claimed the right to administer the region. In 1862, Great Britain formally declared it a British Crown Colony, subordinate to Jamaica, and named it British Honduras. As a colony, Belize began to attract British investors. Among the British firms that dominated the colony in the late 19th century was the Belize Estate and Produce Company, which eventually acquired half of all the privately held land in the colony. Belize Estate's influence accounts in part for the colony's reliance on the mahogany trade throughout the rest of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

In the 1850s, the power struggle between the superintendent and the planters coincided with events in international diplomacy to produce major constitutional changes. In the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, Britain and the United States agreed to promote the construction of a canal across Central America and to refrain from colonizing any part of Central America. The British government interpreted the colonization clause as applying only to any future occupation. But the United States government claimed that Britain was obliged to evacuate the area, particularly after 1853, when President Franklin Pierce's expansionist administration stressed the Monroe Doctrine. Britain yielded on the Bay Islands and the Mosquito Coast in eastern Nicaragua. But in 1854, Britain produced a formal constitution establishing a legislative for its possession of the settlement in present-day Belize.

The Legislative Assembly of 1854 was to have eighteen elected members, each of whom was to have at least ￡400 sterling worth of property. The assembly was also to have three official members appointed by the superintendent. The fact that voters had to have property yielding an income of ￡7 a year or a salary of a ￡100 a year reinforced the restrictive nature of this legislature. The superintendent could defer or dissolve the assembly at any time, originate legislation, and give or withhold consent to bills. This situation suggested that the legislature was more a chamber of debate than a place where decisions were made. The Colonial Office in London became, therefore, the real political-administrative power in the settlement. This shift in power was reinforced when in 1862, the Settlement of Belize in the Bay of Honduras was declared a British colony called British Honduras, and the crown's representative was elevated to a lieutenant governor, subordinate to the governor of Jamaica.

Under the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 between the U.S. and Britain, neither country was to undertake any control, colonization or occupation of any part of Central America, but it was unclear if it applied to Belize. In 1853, a new American government attempted to have Britain leave Belize. In 1856, the Dallas-Clarendon Treaty between the two governments recognized Belize territory as British. The Sarstoon River was recognized as the southern border with Guatemala. The Anglo-Guatemalan Treaty of 1859 was signed, setting the present-day western boundary and temporarily settling the question of Guatemala's claim on the territory. Only the northern border with Mexico was undefined.

As the British consolidated their settlement and pushed deeper into the interior in search of mahogany in the late 18th century, they encountered resistance from the Maya. In the second half of the 19th century, however, a combination of events outside and inside the colony redefined the position of the Maya. During the Caste War in Yucatán, a devastating struggle that halved the population of the area between 1847 and 1855, thousands of refugees fled to the British settlement. Though the Maya were not allowed to own land, most of the refugees were small farmers who were growing considerable quantities of crops by the mid-19th century. One group of Maya, led by Marcos Canul, attacked a mahogany camp on the Bravo River in 1866. A detachment of British troops sent to San Pedro was defeated by the Maya later that year. Early in 1867, British troops marched into areas in which the Maya had settled and destroyed villages in an attempt to drive them out. The Maya returned, however, and in April 1870, Canul and his men occupied Corozal. An unsuccessful 1872 attack by the Maya on Orange Walk was the last serious attack on the British colony.

In the 1880s and 1890s, Mopán and Kekchí Maya fled from forced labor in Guatemala and settled in several villages in southern British Honduras. Under the policy of indirect rule, a system of elected alcaldes (mayors) linked these Maya to the colonial administration. However, the remoteness of their settlements resulted in the Mopán and Kekchí Maya becoming less assimilated into the colony than the Maya of the north, where a Mestizo culture emerged. By the end of the 19th century, the ethnic pattern that remained largely intact throughout the 20th century was in place: Protestants largely of African descent, who spoke either English or Creole and lived in Belize Town; the Roman Catholic Maya and Mestizos who spoke Spanish and lived chiefly in the north and west; and the Roman Catholic Garifuna who spoke English, Spanish, or Garifuna and settled on the southern coast.

Largely as a result of the costly military expeditions against the Maya, the expenses of administering the new colony of British Honduras increased, at a time when the economy was severely depressed. Great landowners and merchants dominated the Legislative Assembly, which controlled the colony's revenues and expenditures. Some of the landowners were also involved in commerce but their interest differed from the other merchants of Belize Town. The former group resisted the taxation of land and favored an increase in import duties; the latter preferred the opposite. Moreover, the merchants in the town felt relatively secure from Mayan attacks and were unwilling to contribute toward the protection of mahogany camps, whereas the landowners felt that they should not be required to pay taxes on lands given inadequate protection. These conflicting interests produced a stalemate in the Legislative Assembly, which failed to authorize the raising of sufficient revenue. Unable to agree among themselves, the members of the Legislative Assembly surrendered their political privileges and asked for establishment of direct British rule in return for the greater security of crown colony status. The new constitution was inaugurated in April 1871 and the new legislature became the Legislative Council.

Under the new constitution of 1871, the lieutenant governor and the Legislative Council, consisting of five ex officio or "official" and four appointed or "unofficial" members, governed British Honduras. This constitutional change confirmed and completed a change in the locus and form of power in the colony's political economy that had been evolving during the preceding half century. The change moved power from the old settler oligarchy to the boardrooms of British companies and to the Colonial Office in London.

The forestry industry's control of land and its influence in colonial decision-making slowed the development of agriculture and the diversification of the economy. Though British Honduras had vast areas of sparsely populated, unused land, landownership was controlled by a small European monopoly, thwarting the evolution of a Creole landowning class from the former slaves.

Landownership became even more consolidated during the economic depression of the mid-19th century. Major results of this depression included the decline of the old settler class, the increasing consolidation of capital, and the intensification of British landownership. The British Honduras Company (later the Belize Estate and Produce Company) emerged as the predominant landowner, with about half of all the privately held land in the colony. The new company was the chief force in British Honduras's political economy for over a century.

This concentration and centralization of capital meant that the direction of the colony's economy was henceforth determined largely in London. It also signaled the eclipse of the old settler elite. By about 1890, most commerce in British Honduras was in the hands of a clique of Scottish and German merchants, most of them newcomers. The European minority exercised great influence in the colony's politics, partly because it was guaranteed representation on the wholly appointed Legislative Council. In 1892, the governor appointed several Creole members, but Europeans remained the majority.

Despite the prevailing stagnation of the colony's economy and society during most of the century prior to the 1930s, seeds of change were being sown. The mahogany trade remained depressed, and efforts to develop plantation agriculture failed. A brief revival in the forestry industry took place early in the 20th century as new demands for forest products came from the United States. Exports of chicle, a gum taken from the sapodilla tree and used to make chewing gum, propped up the economy from the 1880s. A short-lived boom in the mahogany trade occurred around 1900 in response to growing demand for the wood in the United States, but the ruthless exploitation of the forests without any conservation or reforestation depleted resources.

Creoles, who were well-connected with businesses in the United States, challenged the traditional political-economic connection with Britain as trade with the United States intensified. In 1927, Creole merchants and professionals replaced the representatives of British landowners (except for the manager of the Belize Estate and Produce Company) on the Legislative Council. The participation of this Creole elite in the political process was evidence of emerging social changes that were largely concealed by economic stagnation.

The Great Depression of the 1930s caused a near-collapse of the colonial economy as British demand for timber plummeted. The effects of widespread and rapid increase in unemployment were worsened by a devastating hurricane that struck the colony on September 10, 1931, killing more than 1,000 people. Perceptions of the government's tardy relief effort as inadequate were aggravated by its refusal to legalize labor unions or introduce a minimum wage. The British government seized the opportunity to impose tighter control on the colony and endowed the governor with the power to enact laws in emergency situations. The Belize Estate and Produce Company survived the depression years because of its special connections in British Honduras and London.

Meanwhile, workers in mahogany camps were treated almost like slaves. The law governing labor contracts, the Masters and Servants Act of 1883, made it a criminal offense for a laborer to breach a contract. In 1931 the governor, Sir John Burdon, rejected proposals to legalize trade unions and to introduce a minimum wage and sickness insurance. The poor responded in 1934 with a series of demonstrations, strikes, petitions, and riots that marked the beginning of modern politics and the independence movement. Riots, strikes, and rebellions had occurred before, but the events of the 1930s were modern labor disturbances in the sense that they gave rise to organizations with articulate industrial and political goals. Antonio Soberanis Gómez and his colleagues of the Laborers and Unemployed Association (LUA) attacked the governor and his officials, the rich merchants, and the Belize Estate and Produce Company, couching their demands in broad moral and political terms that began to define and develop a new nationalistic and democratic political culture.

Demonstrations and riots in 1934 marked the beginning of an independence movement. In response, the government repealed criminal penalties for workers who violated the terms of their labor contracts regarding unions and granted workers the right to join unions.

The labor agitation's most immediate success was the creation of relief work by a governor who saw it as a way to avoid civil disturbances. The movement's greatest achievements, however, were the labor reforms passed between 1941 and 1943. Trade unions were legalized in 1941, and a 1943 law removed breach-of-labor-contract from the criminal code. The General Workers' Union (GWU), registered in 1943, quickly expanded into a nationwide organization and provided crucial support for the nationalist movement that took off with the formation of the People's United Party (PUP) in 1950. The 1930s were therefore the crucible of modern Belizean politics. It was a decade during which the old phenomena of exploitative labor conditions and authoritarian colonial and industrial relations began to give way to new labor and political processes and institutions. The same period saw an expansion in voter eligibility. In 1945 only 822 voters were registered in a population of over 63,000, but by 1954 British Honduras achieved suffrage for all literate adults.

Economic conditions improved during World War II (1939–1945) when many Belizean men entered the armed forces or otherwise contributed labor to the war effort. Following the war, the colony's economy again stagnated because of the pressures caused by its damaging effect.

In December 1949, the governor devalued the British Honduras dollar in defiance of the Legislative Council, an act that precipitated Belize's independence movement. The governor's action angered the nationalists because it reflected the limits of the legislature and revealed the extent of the colonial administration's power. The devaluation enraged labor because it protected the interests of the big transnationals while subjecting the working class to higher prices for goods. Devaluation thus united labor, nationalists, and the Creole middle classes in opposition to the colonial administration. On the night that the governor declared the devaluation, the People's Committee was formed and the nascent independence movement suddenly matured.

Britain's decision to devalue the British Honduras dollar in 1949 worsened economic conditions and led to the creation of the People's Committee Between 1950 and 1954, which demanded independence. The People's Committee's successor, the People's United Party (PUP), formed upon the dissolution of the People's Committee on September 29, 1950, consolidated its organization, established its popular base, and articulated its primary demands. PUP sought constitutional reforms that would expand voting rights to all adults. By January 1950, the GWU and the People's Committee were holding joint public meetings and discussing issues such as devaluation, labor legislation, the proposed West Indies Federation, and constitutional reform. As political leaders took control of the union in the 1950s to use its strength, however, the union movement declined.

The PUP concentrated on agitating for constitutional reforms, including universal adult suffrage without a literacy test, an all- elected Legislative Council, an Executive Council chosen by the leader of the majority party in the legislature, the introduction of a ministerial system, and the abolition of the governor's reserve powers. In short, PUP pushed for representative and responsible government. The colonial administration, alarmed by the growing support for the PUP, retaliated by attacking two of the party's chief public platforms, the Belize City Council and the PUP. In 1952, George Price comfortably topped the polls in Belize City Council elections. Within just two years, despite persecution and division, the PUP had become a powerful political force, and George Price had clearly become the party's leader. The colonial administration and the National Party, which consisted of loyalist members of the Legislative Council, portrayed the PUP as pro-Guatemalan and even communist. The leaders of the PUP, however, perceived British Honduras as belonging to neither Britain nor Guatemala. The governor and the National Party failed in their attempts to discredit the PUP on the issue of its contacts with Guatemala, which was then ruled by the democratic, reformist government of President Jacobo Arbenz. When voters went to the polls on April 28, 1954, in the first election under universal literate adult suffrage, the main issue was clearly colonialism—a vote for the PUP was a vote in favor of self-government. Almost 70 percent of the electorate voted. The PUP gained 66.3 percent of the vote and won eight of the nine elected seats in the new Legislative Assembly. Further constitutional reform was unequivocally on the agenda.

Constitutional reforms were initiated in 1954 and resulted in a new constitution ten years later. Britain granted British Honduras self-government in 1964, and the head of the PUP—independence leader George Price—became the colony's prime minister.

British Honduras faced two obstacles to independence: British reluctance until the early 1960s to allow citizens to govern themselves, and Guatemala's complete intransigence over its long-standing claim to the entire territory (Guatemala had repeatedly threatened to use force to take over British Honduras). By 1961, Britain was willing to let the colony become independent. Negotiations between Britain and Guatemala began again in 1961, but the elected representatives of British Honduras had no voice in these talks. George Price refused an invitation to make British Honduras an "associated state" of Guatemala, reiterating his goal of leading the colony to independence. In 1963 Guatemala broke off talks and ended diplomatic relations with Britain. Talks between Guatemala and British Honduras started and stopped abruptly during the late 1960s and early 1970s. From 1964 Britain controlled only British Honduran defense, foreign affairs, internal security, and the terms and conditions of the public service, and in 1973, British Honduras was officially renamed Belize in anticipation of independence. Progress toward independence, however, was hampered by a Guatemalan claim to sovereignty over the territory of Belize.

By 1975, the Belizean and British governments, frustrated at dealing with the military-dominated regimes in Guatemala, agreed on a new strategy that would take the case for self-determination to various international forums. The Belize government felt that by gaining international support, it could strengthen its position, weaken Guatemala's claims, and make it harder for Britain to make any concessions. Belize argued that Guatemala frustrated the country's legitimate aspirations to independence and that Guatemala was pushing an irrelevant claim and disguising its own colonial ambitions by trying to present the dispute as an effort to recover territory lost to a colonial power. Between 1975 and 1981, Belizean leaders stated their case for self-determination at a meeting of the heads of Commonwealth of Nations governments, the conference of ministers of the Nonaligned Movement, and at meetings of the United Nations (UN). Latin American governments initially supported Guatemala. Between 1975 and 1979, however, Belize won the support of Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Nicaragua. Finally, in November 1980, with Guatemala completely isolated, the UN passed a resolution that demanded the independence of Belize.

A last attempt was made to reach an agreement with Guatemala prior to the independence of Belize. The Belizean representatives to the talks made no concessions, and a proposal, called the Heads of Agreement, was initialed on March 11, 1981. However, when ultraright political forces in Guatemala labeled the proponents as sellouts, the Guatemalan government refused to ratify the agreement and withdrew from the negotiations. Meanwhile, the opposition in Belize engaged in violent demonstrations against the Heads of Agreement. A state of emergency was declared. However, the opposition could offer no real alternatives. With the prospect of independence celebrations in the offing, the opposition's morale fell. Independence came to Belize on September 21, 1981 after the Belize Act 1981, without reaching an agreement with Guatemala. Guatemala refused to recognize the new nation. About 1,500 British troops remained to protect Belize from the Guatemalan threat.

With Price at the helm, the PUP won all elections until 1984. In that election, first national election after independence, the PUP was defeated by the United Democratic Party (UDP), and UDP leader Manuel Esquivel replaced Price as prime minister. Price returned to power after elections in 1989. Guatemala’s president formally recognized Belize’s independence in 1992. The following year the United Kingdom announced that it would end its military involvement in Belize. British soldiers were withdrawn in 1994, but the United Kingdom left behind a military training unit to assist with the newly formed Belize Defence Force.

The UDP regained power in the 1993 national election, and Esquivel became prime minister for a second time. Soon afterward Esquivel announced the suspension of a pact reached with Guatemala during Price’s tenure, claiming Price had made too many concessions in order to gain Guatemalan recognition. The pact would have resolved a 130 year old border dispute between the two countries. Border tensions continued into the early 21st century, although the two countries cooperated in other areas.

The PUP won a landslide victory in the 1998 national elections, and PUP leader Said Musa was sworn in as prime minister. In the 2003 elections the PUP maintained its majority, and Musa continued as prime minister. He pledged to improve conditions in the underdeveloped and largely inaccessible southern part of Belize.

In 2005, Belize was the site of unrest caused by discontent with the People's United Party government, including tax increases in the national budget. On February 8, 2008, Dean Barrow of the UDP was sworn in as Belize's first prime minister of African ancestry.

Throughout Belize's history, Guatemala has claimed ownership of all or part of the territory. This claim is occasionally reflected in maps showing Belize as Guatemala's twenty-third province. As of February 2012, the border dispute with Guatemala remains unresolved and quite contentious; at various times the issue has required mediation by the United Kingdom, Caribbean Community heads of Government, the Organization of American States, and the United States. In December 2008, Belize and Guatemala signed an agreement to submit the territorial differences to the International Court of Justice, after referenda in both countries (which have not taken place as of April 2012).

Guatemala's claim to Belizean territory rests, in part, on the terms Clause VII of the Anglo-Guatemalan Treaty of 1859 which (supposedly) obligated the British to build a road between Belize City and Guatemala. At various times the issue has required mediation by the United Kingdom, Caribbean Community heads of Government, the Organization of American States, Mexico, and the United States. Notably, both Guatemala and Belize are participating in confidence-building measures approved by the OAS, including the Guatemala-Belize Language Exchange Project.

In the 20th century, the Creoles took the lead in organizing the development of the settlement. The riots in 1919 and 1934, combined with the terrible conditions resulting from the disastrous hurricane in 1931 are the factors which led to Belize's first trade unions and eventually to its first political party, the People's United Party (PUP). Creoles continue to lead the nation in politics. But conditions in Belize City worsened after another major hurricane in 1961 and shortly thereafter large scale migration began (and continues) to the United States and England, where successful individuals sent back money to assist those they left behind.

Attempts to unite Creoles for development, such as the United Black Association for Development, met mixed results.

(Continued)

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