The Making of Modern Belize: Politics, Society and British Colonialism in Central America

by C. H. Grant

Overview

Belize (formerly British Honduras) is a residue of the British Empire and the last colony in the Americas. Like most colonies in this age of decolonisation Belize was willing to break the colonial ties and in fact achieved internal self-government in 1964. It is, however, deterred from taking its full independence by Guatemala's century-old claim to its territory, a claim famous in international law. Belize is more than a British enclave in Central America, it is a meeting place, the borderland of two quite different cultural worlds. These are the White - Creole - Carib and the Spanish - Mestizo - Indian complexes which together produce among Belize's 120,000 inhabitants a racial, linguistic and cultural heterogeneity that is unusual either in the Commonwealth Caribbean or in Central America. There Belize's distinctiveness ends. Structurally, it is as economically dependent as its neighbours. Endowed with luxuriant forest resources, it was from the start a classical example of colonial exploitation, of taking away and not giving back in terms of permanent improvement and capital development. It was only when the forest resources were depleted after the Second World War that its other natural resource, agriculture, received attention.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521101417
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/11/2008
Series:	Cambridge Commonwealth Series
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Part I. The colonial order, 1638-1949; 1. Colonialism in historical perspective, 1638–1931; 2. Latent crisis of the colonial order: economic aspects, 1931–1949; 3. Latent crisis of the colonial order: political aspects, 1931–1949; Part II, The decolonisation process, 1950–1960 An overview; 4. The nationalist upsurge: the People's Committee in 1950; 5. Political conflict: scope and dimensions; 6. The conflict: the climax and resolution; Part III. Towards independence, 1961–1974; 7. An overview; 8. Constitutional advance and imbroglio; 9. Political parties and the political process; 10. Multiple external orientations: sentiment and reality; Conclusion: decolonisation and national integration.