Country Profile: Belize

Oct 06, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – Belize, country located on the northeast coast of Central America. Belize, which was known as British Honduras until 1973, was the last British colony on the American mainland. Its prolonged path to independence was marked by a unique international campaign (even while it was still a British colony) against the irredentist claims of its neighbour Guatemala. Belize achieved independence on September 21, 1981, but it has retained its historical link with the United Kingdom through membership in the Commonwealth.

Belize is often thought of as a Caribbean country in Central America because it has a history similar to that of English-speaking Caribbean nations. Indeed, Belize’s institutions and official language reflect its history as a British colony. However, its culture is more typical of that of other Central American countries. Belize’s small population is ethnically diverse and includes a large proportion of immigrants.

Since the 1970s, migration has shifted Belize’s ethnic composition from a predominantly Creole (mixed African and British descent) population to one in which mestizos (in Belize, people of mixed Mayan and Spanish ancestry) make up half of the total inhabitants. Belize has one of the most stable and democratic political systems in Central America. After its original capital, Belize City, was ravaged by a hurricane in 1961, a new capital, Belmopan, was built inland, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Belize City, which remains the country’s commercial and cultural centre as well as its most populous city.

The name Belize is traditionally believed to have been derived from the Spanish pronunciation of the last name of Peter Wallace, a Scottish buccaneer who may have begun a settlement at the mouth of the Belize River about 1638. It is also possible that the name evolved from the Mayan word belix (“muddy water”) or belikin (“land facing the sea”).

Climate of Belize

Belize has a subtropical climate, with a well-marked dry season from late February to May and a wet season from June to November that is interrupted from August to September by another dry season. The mean temperature in Belize City is about 74 °F (23 °C) in December and 84 °F (29 °C) in July. The mean annual rainfall increases sharply from about 50 inches (1,270 mm) at Corozal on the northern frontier to 175 inches (4,445 mm) at Punta Gorda in the south, while at Belize City rainfall amounts to about 75 inches (1,900 mm).

Plant and animal life

About three-fifths of Belize is forested. There are at least 50 different forest tree species, including mahogany, Santa Maria (Calophyllum brasiliense), cedar, and ironwood. In the north, limestone soils support deciduous forests, and sapodilla and mahogany predominate. In the south, the forest is taller and is evergreen. Santa Maria, rather than mahogany, flourishes on the plateau, and oak and pine grow on some of the plateau ridges. The rivers are largely bordered by swamp forests. On the southern coastal plain and inland from Belize City, open savanna (grassland) is marked by scattered oaks, pines, and palmetto palms. The coast is fringed with mangrove trees. The highlands are mostly forested and are largely uninhabited.

Ethnic groups

Many Belizeans are of mixed ancestry, most of them descendants of immigrants. Those of mixed Mayan and Spanish heritage (mestizos) constitute the largest ethnic group (about one-half of the population) and predominate in the more sparsely inhabited interior, along with the Maya (Yucatec Maya in the north and Mopán and Kekchí Maya in the south), who account for nearly one-tenth of the population. English-speaking people of largely African and British ancestry, who are called Creole, account for more than one-fourth of the population and predominate in the central coastal regions.

A significant number of Garifuna (Garinagu), who are descendants of the Carib Indians and Africans deported from Saint Vincent by the British to the Gulf of Honduras in 1798, live in communities on the south coast. People of European and South Asian ancestry are also present, as are smaller numbers of immigrants from China, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Mennonite farmers began to migrate to Belize in the 1950s from Canada and Mexico to escape religious persecution, and Mennonite communities have been allowed to settle in rural areas throughout the country.

Languages of Belize

English is the official language of Belize, but most of the population also speaks a creole patois, and many Belizeans are multilingual. Yucatec, Mopán, and Kekchí are spoken by the Maya in Belize. Mestizos speak Spanish, and the Garifuna speak an Arawak-based language and generally also speak either English or Spanish. The Mennonites in Belize speak Plautdietsch, an archaic Low Saxon (Germanic) language influenced by the Dutch.

Economy of Belize

Belize has a developing free-market economy. Commercial logging and the export of timber were for years the basis of the Belizean economy, but by 1960 the combined value of sugar and citrus exports had exceeded that of timber. Owing to destruction of forests and price fluctuations of traditional export products, Belize had opened up its economy to nontraditional agricultural products and manufacturing activities by the end of the 20th century. Since the 1990s the Belizean government has attempted to expand the economy, but heavy borrowing led to debt restructuring in the mid-2000s. As is the case with many modern economies, services have become Belize’s dominant economic activity. Tourism is a major source of foreign income, partly as a result of an increase in cruise ship arrivals.

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• Belize, Belize’s, Central America, Commonwealth, Guatemala, Indeed, November

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