Honduras

Western Honduras was at the southeastern edge of the great Maya civilization during the 1st millennium AD, and the ruins at Copán attest to the advanced stage of the country's population. The Maya, however, were already in decline by the time Christopher Columbus reached their shores on his fourth voyage in 1502. Several non-Maya tribes also inhabited the Caribbean coastal region. The native population was decimated by the Spanish conquest and by the European diseases it introduced, but the number of Spanish settlers was small and included few women. Race mixture followed rapidly therefore, and mestizos became Honduras's dominant ethnic group. The Colonial Period The conquest of Honduras began in 1524 and was characterized by bitter struggles among rivals representing Spanish power centers in Mexico, Panama, and Hispaniola. Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico, went to Honduras in 1525 to establish a firm claim, but the discovery of gold in the country made it a center of intrigue and conflict for several years. Cortés's lieutenant in Guatemala, Pedro de Alvarado, finally overcame all challengers in 1539. Comayagua, established in 1540, served as the capital during most of the colonial period, although an early mining boom around Gracias gave the town such importance that in 1544 it became the capital for the Audiencia de las Confines, which encompassed all of Central America from Tabasco, Mexico, through Panama. The gold and silver deposits were more limited than originally believed, however, and Honduras lost its early importance; the Audiencia capital was restored to Guatemala in 1549. Flurries of mining activity around Tegucigalpa encouraged that town also to challenge Comayagua, especially in the late colonial period, creating a rivalry that would grow in intensity after independence. For the most part, however, colonial Honduras was a sparsely populated province of the kingdom of Guatemala (in the viceroyalty of New Spain), with most of its population dedicated to subsistence agriculture or ranching. By the end of the colonial period Honduras was an important supplier of foodstuffs and livestock to the indigo-exporting regions of El Salvador and Guatemala. Development After Independence Following independence from Spain in 1821 and from Mexico in 1823, Honduras joined the United Provinces of Central America. A Honduran, Francisco Morazán, led liberal forces to victory in a bloody civil war between 1827 and 1829 and was president of the federation for its last ten years. Two years before his downfall in 1840, Honduras declared its independence; however, stronger neighbors, especially Guatemala, exercised great influence in Honduran politics throughout the 19th century. From 1840 to the 1870s the republic was frequently ruled by conservative dictatorships, notably those of Francisco Ferrera, Juan Lindo, and Santos Guardiola. Elections meant little, and revolutions were frequent. Liberal dictators, beginning with Marcos A. Soto in 1876, dominated the state in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and they began to emphasize modernization and exports. The transfer of the capital from conservative Comayagua to liberal Tegucigalpa reflected both the triumph of the liberals and the renewed emphasis on mining, which the government stimulated by attracting foreign investment. U.S. mining companies played a major role in late 19th-century Honduran economic growth, although Honduras remained the least developed state in Central America. In the 20th century U.S. fruit companies-United, Standard, and Cuyamel-rapidly made bananas the principal export of the country, as they competed ruthlessly for favorable concessions from the liberal governments. United Fruit purchased Cuyamel in 1929, but the fiercely competitive founder of Cuyamel, Samuel Zemurray, soon emerged as the head of the giant United. The fruit companies gave Honduras a major export commodity, developed its Caribbean ports, and contributed, indirectly, to the growth of San Pedro Sula as the major population center on the entire Central American Caribbean plain, even though they contributed little to the general development of the country. Most of Honduras remained backward, illiterate, and underpopulated. Honduras in Modern Central America The relatively benign dictatorship (1932-1948) of Tiburcio Carías ended a long period of political disorder. After 1948 the military and landholding elite came to dominate the country, resisting modernization of political, social, or economic structures. Then a liberal, Ramón Villeda Morales, was elected by a constituent assembly in 1957; he led the country into the Central American Common Market (CACM) and initiated programs for agrarian reform and education. His policies, combined with apprehension over the rise of Communism in Cuba, brought about a coup led by Colonel Osvaldo López Arellano in 1963. López held the reins of government for 11 of the next 12 years. The fragile Honduran economy was further weakened during his regime by a brief but costly war with El Salvador in 1969 over heavy immigration from that densely populated nation. The war was known as the "Soccer War" because it began shortly after teams from the two countries met in World Cup play. The final blow for López was the exposure in 1974 of a $250,000 bribe paid to government officials by United Brands (successor to United Fruit). The army helped Colonel Juan Alberto Melgar Castro take power in 1975, but he was ousted in 1978 in another coup, led by General Policarpo Paz García. The central problem for Honduras in the late 1970s and the 1980s was political instability in neighboring countries. In 1980 General Paz signed a peace treaty with El Salvador, and there was progress toward constitutional government. In elections held in November 1981, the Liberal Party candidate, Roberto Suazo Córdova, won the presidency, but the military retained considerable influence. Honduras became a base for thousands of guerrillas fighting the Nicaraguan government, and the United States began holding regular military exercises in an effort to put additional pressure on Nicaragua's Sandinista government. In 1985 José Azcona Hoyo, a civilian, was elected president; he was succeeded by Rafael Leonardo Callejas, the winner of the 1989 presidential election. His administration was beset by strikes as it struggled with a desperate economic situation. Carlos Roberto Reina Idiaquez, a longtime human rights and political activist, won November 1993 elections over Callejas. Reina promised to institute economic reforms and exert civilian control over the army. In 1995, Honduras joined the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), a free trade organization.