The Baymen were the earliest European settlers along the Bay of Honduras in what eventually became the colony of British Honduras (modern-day Belize ).
152-621: The first Baymen settled in the Belize City area in the 1630s . They were buccaneers and pirates trying to outrun the Spanish rulers in Mexico and Central America . They found that they could make a living cutting and selling logwood to the home country. Many of the first Baymen settled on what is now the Northside of Belize City . They controlled all affairs of municipal and national government through
304-586: A Mexican name, and they were presumably Nahuatl-speaking inhabitants of Tabasco. Since the remains at Santa Rita near the mouth of the New River display marked Mexican [non-Maya] characteristics, I suggest that the river's Maya name goes back to pre-Spanish times. — Asturias 1925 , p. 8 As to the State of the Bay of Honduras, I shall give it you as briefly as possible. The ancient City of Bacalar, situate in that Part of
456-496: A circumspect account of a landing near Haulover sometime during the 1630s and 1660s, effected by logwood-seeking, haven-seeking, or shipwrecked buccaneers. The romantic but commonly held view of the history of Belize begins with a haven of free-spirited and adventuresome pirates occasionally sneaking out of hiding amid the cay[e]s and reef system to perform piratical acts of independence against Britain's economic oppression and Spain's cultural conceit. They eventually become attached to
608-465: A contest of ideologies between the two nations. It was not only Britain's position on the world stage that was at risk: Napoleon threatened to invade Britain itself, just as his armies had overrun many countries of continental Europe . The Napoleonic Wars were therefore ones in which Britain invested large amounts of capital and resources to win. French ports were blockaded by the Royal Navy , which won
760-612: A decisive victory over a French Imperial Navy - Spanish Navy fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Overseas colonies were attacked and occupied, including those of the Netherlands, which was annexed by Napoleon in 1810. France was finally defeated by a coalition of European armies in 1815. Britain was again the beneficiary of peace treaties: France ceded the Ionian Islands , Malta (which it had occupied in 1798), Mauritius , St Lucia ,
912-690: A dependency of the New South Wales colony. From 16 June 1840 New South Wales laws applied in New Zealand. This transitional arrangement ended with the Charter for Erecting the Colony of New Zealand on 16 November 1840. The Charter stated that New Zealand would be established as a separate Crown colony on 3 May 1841 with Hobson as its governor. During the 19th century, Britain and the Russian Empire vied to fill
1064-606: A fairly viable export crop, [...] and few means of disposing of it. [...] Legal trade to the official ports in the Bay of Honduras had fallen away to a trickle, [...]. Between the early 1630s and the 1680s Central America searched desperately, often beyond the law, for ways of disposing of export crops while obtaining money or goods in exchange. Consequently, post-1630 smuggling in the Bay is thought to have been 'sporadic but fairly frequent,' especially in indigo and logwood , 'large quantities' of which [illicitly] found their way to non-Spanish markets. The earliest logwood cutting near
1216-606: A form that attempted to be more inclusive by showcasing the empire as a family of newly birthed nations with common roots. The last decades of the 19th century saw concerted political campaigns for Irish home rule . Ireland had been united with Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with the Act of Union 1800 after the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , and had suffered a severe famine between 1845 and 1852. Home rule
1368-568: A minor settlement, and other treaty ports including Shanghai . During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the British Crown began to assume an increasingly large role in the affairs of the company. A series of Acts of Parliament were passed, including the Regulating Act of 1773 , Pitt's India Act of 1784 and the Charter Act of 1813 which regulated the company's affairs and established
1520-517: A number of years, so that the Spanish could no longer defend the Bay of Honduras from the south either. The necessary conditions for the permanent occupation of the Belizean cayes by the British were therefore in place by the end of 1642. [...]. If the necessary conditions for a permanent British presence had been met by the end of 1642, this did not automatically mean that the British actually took advantage of
1672-541: A perceived violation of the guaranteed Rights of Englishmen . The American Revolution began with a rejection of Parliamentary authority and moves towards self-government. In response, Britain sent troops to reimpose direct rule, leading to the outbreak of war in 1775. The following year, in 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence proclaiming the colonies' sovereignty from
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#17328511947201824-472: A rapid escalation in the number of slaves transported. British ships carried a third of all slaves shipped across the Atlantic—approximately 3.5 million Africans —until the abolition of the trade by Parliament in 1807 (see § Abolition of slavery ). To facilitate the shipment of slaves, forts were established on the coast of West Africa, such as James Island , Accra and Bunce Island . In
1976-524: A security threat to Great Britain or mark the beginning of the break-up of the empire. A second Home Rule bill was defeated for similar reasons. A third bill was passed by Parliament in 1914, but not implemented because of the outbreak of the First World War leading to the 1916 Easter Rising . By the turn of the 20th century, fears had begun to grow in Britain that it would no longer be able to defend
2128-812: A series of Anglo-Mysore wars in Southern India with the Sultanate of Mysore under Hyder Ali and then Tipu Sultan . Defeats in the First Anglo-Mysore war and stalemate in the Second were followed by victories in the Third and the Fourth . Following Tipu Sultan's death in the fourth war in the Siege of Seringapatam (1799) , the kingdom became a protectorate of the company. The East India Company fought three Anglo-Maratha Wars with
2280-655: A way station for its ships travelling to and from its colonies in the East Indies . Britain formally acquired the colony, and its large Afrikaner (or Boer ) population in 1806, having occupied it in 1795 to prevent its falling into French hands during the Flanders Campaign . British immigration to the Cape Colony began to rise after 1820, and pushed thousands of Boers , resentful of British rule, northwards to found their own—mostly short-lived— independent republics , during
2432-413: Is certain that between 1662 and 1670 this activity became regular. — Asturias 1925 , pp. 8–9, 11 — Egli 1872 , p. 50, sec. B item Balize Our knowledge of the locations and of the towns on New River and the upper Belize River is drawn from the account [by Cogolludo] of Fuensalida's journeys in 1618 and 1641. He [Fuensalida] calls New River "Río de Dzuluinicob" (literally, "river of
2584-551: Is seen by some historians as the event defining the transition between the first and second empires, in which Britain shifted its attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa. Adam Smith 's Wealth of Nations , published in 1776, had argued that colonies were redundant, and that free trade should replace the old mercantilist policies that had characterised the first period of colonial expansion, dating back to
2736-583: Is the most commonly given account in scholarly literature, though historians often qualify it, given the lack of primary sources. A variety of competing accounts have been proffered since the 18th century, none of which have gained widespread scholarly favour. Despite this, most scholarly accounts seem to favour a second- or third-quarter-of-the-17th century date, with responsibility attributed to pirate's-haven-seeking, logwood-seeking, or shipwrecked buccaneers. As early as 1638 British settlers appear to have developed logwood activities in present day Belize; and it
2888-496: Is traditionally held to have been among the first English settlements in the Bay of Honduras , along with Roatan. It is commonly thought to have been settled by Peter Wallace and his crew of 80 buccaneers, aboard the Swallow , in 1638. No records of this landing have been discovered, however, and it is commonly thought that none are extant, or that the story is apocryphal. When, then, did
3040-497: Is traditionally thought to have been effected upon Peter Wallace's 1638 landing at the mouth of Haulover Creek . As this account lacks clear primary sources, however, scholarly discourse has tended to qualify, amend, or completely eschew said theory, giving rise to a myriad competing narratives of the English settling of Belize. Though none of the aforementioned have garnered widespread consensus, historical literature has tended to favour
3192-405: Is uncertain when and where exactly English pirates or buccaneers first began surreptitiously cutting logwood, as opposed to merely seizing Spanish-cut logwood. Proposals range geographically from Campeachy to Belize, and temporally from 1599 to 1670. The earliest English settlement near the Bay is thought to have been Old Providence . Anglo-Dutch buccaneers are known to have watered or camped in
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#17328511947203344-698: The Acts of Union 1707 . The 18th century saw the newly united Great Britain rise to be the world's dominant colonial power, with France becoming its main rival on the imperial stage. Great Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire continued the War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted until 1714 and was concluded by the Treaty of Utrecht . Philip V of Spain renounced his and his descendants' claim to
3496-656: The American War of Independence towards the end of the 18th century, has been referred to by some historians as the "First British Empire". England's early efforts at colonisation in the Americas met with mixed success. An attempt to establish a colony in Guiana in 1604 lasted only two years and failed in its main objective to find gold deposits. Colonies on the Caribbean islands of St Lucia (1605) and Grenada (1609) rapidly folded. The first permanent English settlement in
3648-827: The Americas and Asia . A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and France left Britain the dominant colonial power in North America . Britain became a major power in the Indian subcontinent after the East India Company 's conquest of Mughal Bengal at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The American War of Independence resulted in Britain losing some of its oldest and most populous colonies in North America by 1783. While retaining control of British North America (now Canada ) and territories in and near
3800-631: The British economy . Added to this was the cost of suppressing regular slave rebellions . With support from the British abolitionist movement, Parliament enacted the Slave Trade Act in 1807, which abolished the slave trade in the empire. In 1808, Sierra Leone Colony was designated an official British colony for freed slaves. Parliamentary reform in 1832 saw the influence of the West India Committee decline. The Slavery Abolition Act , passed
3952-823: The Caribbean in the British West Indies , British colonial expansion turned towards Asia, Africa , and the Pacific . After the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century and expanded its imperial holdings. It pursued trade concessions in China and Japan, and territory in Southeast Asia . The " Great Game " and " Scramble for Africa " also ensued. The period of relative peace (1815–1914) during which
4104-764: The First Anglo-Afghan War was a disaster for Britain. When Russia invaded the Ottoman Balkans in 1853, fears of Russian dominance in the Mediterranean and the Middle East led Britain and France to enter the war in support of the Ottoman Empire and invade the Crimean Peninsula to destroy Russian naval capabilities. The ensuing Crimean War (1854–1856), which involved new techniques of modern warfare ,
4256-658: The Government of India Act 1858 , establishing the British Raj , where an appointed governor-general administered India and Queen Victoria was crowned the Empress of India . India became the empire's most valuable possession, "the Jewel in the Crown", and was the most important source of Britain's strength. A series of serious crop failures in the late 19th century led to widespread famines on
4408-832: The Great Trek of the late 1830s and early 1840s. In the process the Voortrekkers clashed repeatedly with the British, who had their own agenda with regard to colonial expansion in South Africa and to the various native African polities, including those of the Sotho people and the Zulu Kingdom . Eventually, the Boers established two republics that had a longer lifespan: the South African Republic or Transvaal Republic (1852–1877; 1881–1902) and
4560-635: The Khedivate of Egypt into the 20th century, it was officially a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire and not part of the British Empire. The French were still majority shareholders and attempted to weaken the British position, but a compromise was reached with the 1888 Convention of Constantinople , which made the Canal officially neutral territory. With competitive French, Belgian and Portuguese activity in
4712-576: The Mahdist Army in 1896 and rebuffed an attempted French invasion at Fashoda in 1898. Sudan was nominally made an Anglo-Egyptian condominium , but a British colony in reality. British gains in Southern and East Africa prompted Cecil Rhodes , pioneer of British expansion in Southern Africa , to urge a " Cape to Cairo " railway linking the strategically important Suez Canal to the mineral-rich south of
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4864-618: The Maratha Confederacy . The First Anglo-Maratha War ended in 1782 with a restoration of the pre-war status quo . The Second and Third Anglo-Maratha wars resulted in British victories. After the surrender of Peshwa Bajirao II on 1818, the East India Company acquired control of a large majority of the Indian subcontinent. Britain was challenged again by France under Napoleon, in a struggle that, unlike previous wars, represented
5016-650: The Middle East . Increasing degrees of autonomy were granted to its white settler colonies , some of which were formally reclassified as Dominions by the 1920s. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britain's economic lead. Military, economic and colonial tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War , during which Britain relied heavily on its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on its military, financial, and manpower resources. Although
5168-690: The Orange Free State (1854–1902). In 1902 Britain occupied both republics, concluding a treaty with the two Boer Republics following the Second Boer War (1899–1902). In 1869 the Suez Canal opened under Napoleon III , linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean . Initially the Canal was opposed by the British; but once opened, its strategic value was quickly recognised and became
5320-411: The Royal African Company was granted a monopoly on the supply of slaves to the British colonies in the Caribbean. The company would transport more slaves across the Atlantic than any other, and significantly grew England's share of the trade, from 33 per cent in 1673 to 74 per cent in 1683. The removal of this monopoly between 1688 and 1712 allowed independent British slave traders to thrive, leading to
5472-500: The Saint John and Saint Croix river valleys, then part of Nova Scotia , felt too far removed from the provincial government in Halifax , so London split off New Brunswick as a separate colony in 1784. The Constitutional Act of 1791 created the provinces of Upper Canada (mainly English speaking ) and Lower Canada (mainly French-speaking ) to defuse tensions between the French and British communities, and implemented governmental systems similar to those employed in Britain, with
5624-443: The Seychelles , and Tobago ; Spain ceded Trinidad ; the Netherlands ceded Guiana , Ceylon and the Cape Colony , while the Danish ceded Heligoland . Britain returned Guadeloupe , Martinique , French Guiana , and Réunion to France; Menorca to Spain; Danish West Indies to Denmark and Java and Suriname to the Netherlands. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution , goods produced by slavery became less important to
5776-441: The Treaty of Paris of 1763 had important consequences for the future of the British Empire. In North America, France's future as a colonial power effectively ended with the recognition of British claims to Rupert's Land, and the ceding of New France to Britain (leaving a sizeable French-speaking population under British control) and Louisiana to Spain. Spain ceded Florida to Britain. Along with its victory over France in India,
5928-417: The Victorian gold rush , making its capital Melbourne for a time the richest city in the world. The British also expanded their mercantile interests in the North Pacific. Spain and Britain had become rivals in the area, culminating in the Nootka Crisis in 1789. Both sides mobilised for war, but when France refused to support Spain it was forced to back down, leading to the Nootka Convention . The outcome
6080-454: The War of 1812 , and invaded Canadian territory. In response, Britain invaded the US, but the pre-war boundaries were reaffirmed by the 1814 Treaty of Ghent , ensuring Canada's future would be separate from that of the United States. Since 1718, transportation to the American colonies had been a penalty for various offences in Britain, with approximately one thousand convicts transported per year. Forced to find an alternative location after
6232-399: The dominions , colonies , protectorates , mandates , and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was the largest empire in history and, for a century, was
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6384-545: The metropole and the entirety of the empire while at the same time maintaining the policy of "splendid isolation". Germany was rapidly rising as a military and industrial power and was now seen as the most likely opponent in any future war. Recognising that it was overstretched in the Pacific and threatened at home by the Imperial German Navy , Britain formed an alliance with Japan in 1902 and with its old enemies France and Russia in 1904 and 1907, respectively. Britain's fears of war with Germany were realised in 1914 with
6536-413: The privateers John Hawkins and Francis Drake to engage in slave-raiding attacks against Spanish and Portuguese ships off the coast of West Africa with the aim of establishing an Atlantic slave trade . This effort was rebuffed and later, as the Anglo-Spanish Wars intensified, Elizabeth I gave her blessing to further privateering raids against Spanish ports in the Americas and shipping that
6688-440: The protectionism of Spain and Portugal. The growth of trade between the newly independent United States and Britain after 1783 seemed to confirm Smith's view that political control was not necessary for economic success. The war to the south influenced British policy in Canada, where between 40,000 and 100,000 defeated Loyalists had migrated from the new United States following independence. The 14,000 Loyalists who went to
6840-399: The spice trade of the East Indies archipelago to the Netherlands and the textiles industry of India to England, but textiles soon overtook spices in terms of profitability. Peace between England and the Netherlands in 1688 meant the two countries entered the Nine Years' War as allies, but the conflict—waged in Europe and overseas between France, Spain and the Anglo-Dutch alliance—left
6992-475: The "Sugar Revolution" transformed the Caribbean economy in the mid-17th century. Large sugarcane plantations were first established in the 1640s on Barbados, with assistance from Dutch merchants and Sephardic Jews fleeing Portuguese Brazil . At first, sugar was grown primarily using white indentured labour , but rising costs soon led English traders to embrace the use of imported African slaves. The enormous wealth generated by slave-produced sugar made Barbados
7144-480: The "jugular vein of the Empire". In 1875, the Conservative government of Benjamin Disraeli bought the indebted Egyptian ruler Isma'il Pasha 's 44 per cent shareholding in the Suez Canal for £4 million (equivalent to £480 million in 2023). Although this did not grant outright control of the strategic waterway, it did give Britain leverage. Joint Anglo-French financial control over Egypt ended in outright British occupation in 1882. Although Britain controlled
7296-428: The 1730s. This trade, illegal since it was outlawed by China in 1729, helped reverse the trade imbalances resulting from the British imports of tea, which saw large outflows of silver from Britain to China. In 1839, the confiscation by the Chinese authorities at Canton of 20,000 chests of opium led Britain to attack China in the First Opium War , and resulted in the seizure by Britain of Hong Kong Island , at that time
7448-531: The Americas the following year but did not return; it is unknown what happened to his ships. No further attempts to establish English colonies in the Americas were made until well into the reign of Queen Elizabeth I , during the last decades of the 16th century. In the meantime, Henry VIII 's 1533 Statute in Restraint of Appeals had declared "that this realm of England is an Empire". The Protestant Reformation turned England and Catholic Spain into implacable enemies. In 1562, Elizabeth I encouraged
7600-414: The Americas was founded in 1607 in Jamestown by Captain John Smith , and managed by the Virginia Company ; the Crown took direct control of the venture in 1624, thereby founding the Colony of Virginia . Bermuda was settled and claimed by England as a result of the 1609 shipwreck of the Virginia Company's flagship , while attempts to settle Newfoundland were largely unsuccessful. In 1620, Plymouth
7752-526: The Bay of Honduras . French corsairs were (belatedly) followed into the Bay by Elizabethan Sea Dogs three decades later. The earliest of these is thought to have been either Sir Francis Drake in the Minion , or John Oxenham in the Beare , who during 23 February 1573 – 22 March 1573 cruised the Bay and watered at Guanaxa . English buccaneering activities in the Bay intensified in the ensuing decades. Notably, during October 1577 – April 1578, an English pirate or privateer, called Francisco de Acles by
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#17328511947207904-502: The Bay of Honduras and is protected by the barrier-reef. Silk-grass grew there in great abundance in the creeks and lagoons where some Moskito Indians lived. [...] Thus the history of British colonization in the Bay began in 1629 with the privateers of the Earl of Warwick. It began with silk-grass and tobacco. This area is over 300 years in unbroken British occupation. They clearly gave the position as between 10 and 20 degrees north latitude, and 290 and 310 degrees of longitude, which of course
8056-483: The Bay of Honduras is commonly dated to 1562, and attributed to the Spanish conquistador Marcos de Ayala Trujeque of Valladolid, Yucatan . By the 1570s, Yucatanese encomenderos were shipping to Spain some 200 tonnes of logwood per annum, principally via Campeachy . During this same decade, English pirates, privateers, or buccaneers are thought to have first recognised the commercial value of logwood, and consequently, to have increasingly sought it as prize. It
8208-398: The Bay, it affording them safe haven and quick access to Spanish ports. Prior to 1630, Spanish smuggling with Anglo-Dutch pirate-merchants at ports in the Bay of Honduras is thought to have 'amounted to little more than evasion of duties and taxes,' with typical cases described as 'not spectacular.' However – The situation altered significantly after 1630 as it became obvious that
8360-482: The Baymen. While the Baymen valued the Garinagu's agricultural skills, they wanted them to submit to European control and help capture refugee slaves. The Baymen began a campaign of misinformation, saying the Garinagu had practices of "devil worshipping" and "baby eating." This poisoned relationships between the Creoles and " Kerobs ", as they were derogatorily called. English settling of Belize The Anglo-Saxon , English , or Baymen 's settlement of Belize
8512-456: The Belizean cayes. From 1655, furthermore, Jamaica was a much more attractive base for such activities. Thus, any settlers before 1670 are likely to have been much less glamorous than the privateers. After 1670, when the former privateers were becoming pirates, Belize may have been more tempting [...]. However, settlers in Belize were about to turn to a much more prosaic activity (the extraction of logwood) [...]. Indeed, we know for sure that logwood
8664-479: The British Caribbean, the percentage of the population of African descent rose from 25 per cent in 1650 to around 80 per cent in 1780, and in the Thirteen Colonies from 10 per cent to 40 per cent over the same period (the majority in the southern colonies). The transatlantic slave trade played a pervasive role in British economic life, and became a major economic mainstay for western port cities. Ships registered in Bristol , Liverpool and London were responsible for
8816-443: The British Empire as the new United States of America . The entry of French and Spanish forces into the war tipped the military balance in the Americans' favour and after a decisive defeat at Yorktown in 1781, Britain began negotiating peace terms. American independence was acknowledged at the Peace of Paris in 1783. The loss of such a large portion of British America , at the time Britain's most populous overseas possession,
8968-416: The British Empire became the global hegemon was later described as Pax Britannica (Latin for "British Peace"). Alongside the formal control that Britain exerted over its colonies, its dominance of much of world trade, and of its oceans, meant that it effectively controlled the economies of, and readily enforced its interests in, many regions , such as Asia and Latin America . It also came to dominate
9120-424: The British and French. The British and Spanish also made arrangements under this treaty, including establishing British rights to cut logwood in the area of Belize. The Spanish, who controlled the neighboring colonies, chased out the Baymen four times between 1717 and 1780. Treaties in 1783 and 1786 gave them more security. But it was only after the Battle of St. George's Caye in 1798 did the Baymen gain full control of
9272-445: The British begin to settle in the part of Yucatan we call Belize today? This is an even more stubborn question than that of Spanish settlement of the territory, and we will probably never be able to answer it precisely. We may have to rely on Sir Harry Luke's proposition that "[a]s a British Colony British Honduras, like Topsy , 'never was born' but just 'grow'd'." This is in contrast to the more regularly established British colonies in
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#17328511947209424-443: The British colony of Jamaica, and shipped for sale to their colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas. When the supply of logwood began to diminish, and prices fell in Europe because other dyestuffs became available, the Baymen began to cut tropical cedar and mahogany . They had to go deeper into the forests for this wood, where they began to have hostile encounters with Maya villages. The Baymen reported attacks in 1788 and 1802. But
9576-425: The British defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, left the British East India Company in control of Bengal and as a major military and political power in India. France was left control of its enclaves but with military restrictions and an obligation to support British client states , ending French hopes of controlling India. In the following decades the British East India Company gradually increased
9728-514: The British to gain a permanent foothold. However, Salamanca de Bacalar was sacked by Diego ‘el Mulato’ in 1642. [...]. The fortress at Bacalar was not totally destroyed and the Spanish did their best to rebuild it. However, it was then sacked in 1648 and again in 1652 [...]. From then onwards until 1729, the fortress at Salamanca de Bacalar was abandoned by the Spanish. Meanwhile, Captain William Jackson [...] had sacked Trujillo with exceptional ferocity in 1642 and rendered its fortifications unuseable for
9880-452: The English a stronger colonial power than the Dutch, who were forced to devote a larger proportion of their military budget to the costly land war in Europe. The death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and his bequeathal of Spain and its colonial empire to Philip V of Spain , a grandson of the King of France , raised the prospect of the unification of France, Spain and their respective colonies, an unacceptable state of affairs for England and
10032-462: The French throne, and Spain lost its empire in Europe. The British Empire was territorially enlarged: from France, Britain gained Newfoundland and Acadia , and from Spain, Gibraltar and Menorca . Gibraltar became a critical naval base and allowed Britain to control the Atlantic entry and exit point to the Mediterranean . Spain ceded the rights to the lucrative asiento (permission to sell African slaves in Spanish America ) to Britain. With
10184-399: The Māori population. The UK government finally decided to act, dispatching Captain William Hobson with instructions to take formal possession after obtaining native consent. There was no central Māori authority able to represent all New Zealand so, on 6 February 1840, Hobson and many Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi in the Bay of Islands; most other chiefs signing in stages over
10336-414: The Netherlands as a colonial power, in the short term the Netherlands' more advanced financial system and the three Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century left it with a stronger position in Asia. Hostilities ceased after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when the Dutch William of Orange ascended the English throne, bringing peace between the Dutch Republic and England. A deal between the two nations left
10488-468: The Pacific between 1769 and 1777, James Cook visited New Zealand . He was followed by an assortment of Europeans and Americans which including whalers, sealers, escaped convicts from New South Wales, missionaries and adventurers. Initially, contact with the indigenous Māori people was limited to the trading of goods, although interaction increased during the early decades of the 19th century with many trading and missionary stations being set up, especially in
10640-435: The Pacific for the extension of the North American fur trade . Alexander Mackenzie of the North West Company led the first, starting out in 1792, and a year later he became the first European to reach the Pacific overland north of the Rio Grande , reaching the ocean near present-day Bella Coola . This preceded the Lewis and Clark Expedition by twelve years. Shortly thereafter, Mackenzie's companion, John Finlay , founded
10792-448: The Province of Yucatan, which lies on the Bay of Honduras, was twice sack'd, and at last totally ruined by the English many Years ago; on which the Logwood-Cutters of that Nation, who settled on the River of Valis, possessed themselves of the New River and that of Hondo; which last is distant from the Ruins of Bacalar about five Leagues. Here they built a great many Houses and Hutts, and employ'd Multitudes of Negroes in cutting Logwood, which
10944-532: The Public Meeting. The Baymen established the system of slavery in Belize, in order to have servants to cut logwood. Some slaves were allowed their own plantations, while others had to depend on their owner's rations. The Baymen reluctantly allowed slaves to participate in the Battle of St. George's Caye against the Spanish and their slaves. In some cases they faced former slaves who had run away or been taken in by
11096-651: The Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War, and the two continued to co-operate in arenas outside India: the eviction of the French from Egypt (1799), the capture of Java from the Netherlands (1811), the acquisition of Penang Island (1786), Singapore (1819) and Malacca (1824), and the defeat of Burma (1826). From its base in India, the company had been engaged in an increasingly profitable opium export trade to Qing China since
11248-557: The Seven Years' War therefore left Britain as the world's most powerful maritime power . During the 1760s and early 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's attempts to govern and tax American colonists without their consent. This was summarised at the time by the colonists' slogan " No taxation without representation ",
11400-469: The Spaniards. Great Britain ended slavery in the colony in 1838. Initially the planters refused to sell land to freedmen. But Belizean slaveowners received the highest compensation, of more than 50 pounds, for selling plots of emancipated territories. The British and Spanish engaged in frequent dispute over the territory even after the 1763 Treaty of Paris . This had ended the Seven Years' War conflict between
11552-690: The Spanish, and in 1666 succeeded in colonising the Bahamas . In 1670, Charles II incorporated by royal charter the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), granting it a monopoly on the fur trade in the area known as Rupert's Land , which would later form a large proportion of the Dominion of Canada . Forts and trading posts established by the HBC were frequently the subject of attacks by the French, who had established their own fur trading colony in adjacent New France . Two years later,
11704-421: The Spanish, with 60 men aboard two ships, sacked Puerto Caballos and Bacalar , possibly marking the earliest entrance of such sea dogs into Bacalar's [ie present-day Belize's] waters. It is commonly thought that, upon the 1570s discovery of the intricate, secluded reefs, cayes, and coastline which characterised the waters of Bacalar, English buccaneers promptly opted to base their operations in this portion of
11856-600: The Spanish. On 8 June 1638, the Company granted William Claiborne letters patent to settle Roatan . And shortly after 17 May 1641, Old Providence refugees are thought to have established themselves at Cape Gracias a Dios or Roatan. The 1638 Tipu rebellion against Bacalar, possibly (indirectly) aided by piratical raids of coastal and riverine Maya hamlets in that district, is thought to have significantly eroded Spanish dominion and presence in Bacalar's waters. Belize
12008-690: The annexation of the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1664, following the capture of New Amsterdam , which was renamed New York . Although less financially successful than colonies in the Caribbean, these territories had large areas of good agricultural land and attracted far greater numbers of English emigrants, who preferred their temperate climates. The British West Indies initially provided England's most important and lucrative colonies. Settlements were successfully established in St. Kitts (1624), Barbados (1627) and Nevis (1628), but struggled until
12160-555: The apprenticeship system was abolished in 1838. The British government compensated slave-owners. Between 1815 and 1914, a period referred to as Britain's "imperial century" by some historians, around 10 million sq mi (26 million km ) of territory and roughly 400 million people were added to the British Empire. Victory over Napoleon left Britain without any serious international rival, other than Russia in Central Asia . Unchallenged at sea, Britain adopted
12312-523: The armies of the Dominions , as well as many thousands of volunteers from the Crown colonies. The contributions of Australian and New Zealand troops during the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign against the Ottoman Empire had a great impact on the national consciousness at home and marked a watershed in the transition of Australia and New Zealand from colonies to nations in their own right. The countries continue to commemorate this occasion on Anzac Day . Canadians viewed
12464-568: The bulk of British slave trading. For the transported, harsh and unhygienic conditions on the slaving ships and poor diets meant that the average mortality rate during the Middle Passage was one in seven. At the end of the 16th century, England and the Dutch Empire began to challenge the Portuguese Empire 's monopoly of trade with Asia, forming private joint-stock companies to finance
12616-516: The business of establishing its own overseas colonies. The British Empire began to take shape during the early 17th century, with the English settlement of North America and the smaller islands of the Caribbean, and the establishment of joint-stock companies , most notably the East India Company , to administer colonies and overseas trade. This period, until the loss of the Thirteen Colonies after
12768-581: The coasts of Africa and Brazil to China , and France had begun to settle the Saint Lawrence River area, later to become New France . Although England tended to trail behind Portugal, Spain, and France in establishing overseas colonies, it carried out its first modern colonisation, referred to as the Munster Plantations , in 16th century Ireland by settling it with English and Welsh Protestant settlers. England had already colonised part of
12920-465: The colony was abandoned two years later. The Darien scheme was a financial disaster for Scotland: a quarter of Scottish capital was lost in the enterprise. The episode had major political consequences, helping to persuade the government of the Kingdom of Scotland of the merits of turning the personal union with England into a political and economic one under the Kingdom of Great Britain established by
13072-457: The continent. During the 1880s and 1890s, Rhodes, with his privately owned British South Africa Company , occupied and annexed territories named after him, Rhodesia . The path to independence for the white colonies of the British Empire began with the 1839 Durham Report , which proposed unification and self-government for Upper and Lower Canada, as a solution to political unrest which had erupted in armed rebellions in 1837. This began with
13224-555: The country following the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. Several people who helped establish the Munster plantations later played a part in the early colonisation of North America, particularly a group known as the West Country Men . In 1578, Elizabeth I granted a patent to Humphrey Gilbert for discovery and overseas exploration. That year, Gilbert sailed for the Caribbean with
13376-520: The court of Madrid a reluctant consent to tolerate this settlement of foreigners in the heart of its territories. — González Díaz & Lázaro de la Escosura 2010 , p. 167 — Calderón Quijano 1944 , pp. 47–49 — Ancona 1878 , pp. 370–371, 374 — Nuñez Ortega 1877 , pp. 7–8 — Ancona 1878 , pp. 374–376 — Brockhaus 1864 , p. 616 — Carillo y Ancona 1871 , pp. 55, 210 British Empire The British Empire comprised
13528-477: The decline of the empire. India , Britain's most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence in 1947 as part of a larger decolonisation movement, in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The Suez Crisis of 1956 confirmed Britain's decline as a global power, and the handover of Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997 symbolised for many the end of the British Empire, though fourteen overseas territories that are remnants of
13680-435: The dreadful and savage warfare then carried on by the Spaniards [...] . We can be fairly certain that there was no permanent British presence in Belize before 1642 and the reasons for this are straightforward. The Bay of Honduras, including the Belize cayes, was guarded by two Spanish forts. The first was at Salamanca de Bacalar [...]. [...]. While the fortress [at Bacalar] was in full operation, it would have been impossible for
13832-633: The empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after the First World War, Britain was no longer the world's preeminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War , Britain's colonies in East Asia and Southeast Asia were occupied by the Empire of Japan . Despite the final victory of Britain and its allies , the damage to British prestige and the British economy helped accelerate
13984-531: The empire remain under British sovereignty . After independence, many former British colonies, along with most of the dominions, joined the Commonwealth of Nations , a free association of independent states. Fifteen of these, including the United Kingdom, retain the same person as monarch , currently King Charles III . The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England , following
14136-570: The exception of international relations . Australia and New Zealand achieved similar levels of self-government after 1900, with the Australian colonies federating in 1901 . The term "dominion status" was officially introduced at the 1907 Imperial Conference . As the dominions gained greater autonomy, they would come to be recognized as distinct realms of the empire with unique customs and symbols of their own. Imperial identity, through imagery such as patriotic artworks and banners, began developing into
14288-641: The first batch of colonists to Santa Catalina or Old Providence in May 1631, most of them Puritans, with their governor, Captain Philip Bell, who had been governor of the Somers or Bermuda Islands in 1626-1627. When the colonists arrived this island was inhabited by some Dutch sea rovers amongst whom were the two brothers Captain William Albert Blauvelt and Abraham Blauvelt. [...] The selection of this island which lay in
14440-466: The first half of the seventeenth century. [...] The Belize settlement received regular introductions of new European populations from the early 1680s on, such as the mutinous crew of Captain Coxon, who were sent there to evacuate the logwood cutters [...]. [A]fter the conquest of Jamaica by the English, it soon appeared what a formidable rival was now seated in the neighbourhood of the Spanish territories. One of
14592-413: The first objects that tempted the English, was the great profit arising from the logwood trade, and the facility of wresting some portion of it from the Spaniards. Some adventurers from Jamaica made the first attempt at Cape Catoche, the south-east promontory of Yucatan, and by cutting logwood there, carried on a gainful traffic. When most of the trees near the coast in that place were felled, they removed to
14744-658: The first permanent European settlement in British Columbia , Fort St. John . The North West Company sought further exploration and backed expeditions by David Thompson , starting in 1797, and later by Simon Fraser . These pushed into the wilderness territories of the Rocky Mountains and Interior Plateau to the Strait of Georgia on the Pacific Coast, expanding British North America westward. The East India Company fought
14896-404: The flota system was decaying and the Spanish economy declining. Between 1630 and 1680 there seems to have been a slow increase in the volume of smuggling [in colonial Central America], and gradually smuggling became more important than simple fraud [eg tax evasion] [...]. So Central American merchants and indigo plantation owners in the middle years of the seventeenth century found themselves with
15048-562: The following months. William Hobson declared British sovereignty over all New Zealand on 21 May 1840, over the North Island by cession and over the South Islnd by discovery (the island was sparsely populated and deemed terra nullius ). Hobson became Lieutenant-Governor, subject to Governor Sir George Gipps in Sydney, with British possession of New Zealand initially administered from Australia as
15200-510: The following year, abolished slavery in the British Empire on 1 August 1834, finally bringing the empire into line with the law in the UK (with the exception of the territories administered by the East India Company and Ceylon, where slavery was ended in 1844). Under the Act, slaves were granted full emancipation after a period of four to six years of "apprenticeship". Facing further opposition from abolitionists,
15352-614: The foreign men"), which, he says, meant "river of the Spaniards," and indeed Dzul is what the Maya called the Spaniards. J. E. S. Thompson ([personal] communication) suggests [that said toponym might rather or further indicate] the presence of early British logwood cutters, which seems very possible. On the Usumacinta River, however, the Dzul were certain enemies of the Maya Chontal. Their leader had
15504-461: The foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23 percent of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered 35.5 million km (13.7 million sq mi), 24 per cent of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its constitutional , legal , linguistic , and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it
15656-679: The government on the suitability of Botany Bay for the establishment of a penal settlement , and in 1787 the first shipment of convicts set sail, arriving in 1788. Unusually, Australia was claimed through proclamation. Indigenous Australians were considered too uncivilised to require treaties, and colonisation brought disease and violence that together with the deliberate dispossession of land and culture were devastating to these peoples. Britain continued to transport convicts to New South Wales until 1840, to Tasmania until 1853 and to Western Australia until 1868. The Australian colonies became profitable exporters of wool and gold, mainly because of
15808-490: The increasingly healthy profits of colonial trade remained in English hands, Parliament decreed in 1651 that only English ships would be able to ply their trade in English colonies. This led to hostilities with the United Dutch Provinces —a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars —which would eventually strengthen England's position in the Americas at the expense of the Dutch. In 1655, England annexed the island of Jamaica from
15960-542: The intention of asserting imperial authority and not allowing the sort of popular control of government that was perceived to have led to the American Revolution. Tensions between Britain and the United States escalated again during the Napoleonic Wars , as Britain tried to cut off American trade with France and boarded American ships to impress men into the Royal Navy . The United States Congress declared war,
16112-477: The intention of engaging in piracy and establishing a colony in North America, but the expedition was aborted before it had crossed the Atlantic. In 1583, he embarked on a second attempt. On this occasion, he formally claimed the harbour of the island of Newfoundland, although no settlers were left behind. Gilbert did not survive the return journey to England and was succeeded by his half-brother, Walter Raleigh , who
16264-545: The island of Tortuga was also too small and too exposed to attack, and so they began in the same year to establish themselves in increased numbers on the Cockscomb Coast, a region from which they could not be expelled but by a strong Spanish naval force on account of the coral reefs, while to attack from the land would have been still costlier. Small plantations were already established here by Captain Daniel Elfrith who made
16416-465: The island of Trist, in the Bay of Campeachy; and in latter times, their principal station has been in the Bay of Honduras. The Spaniards, alarmed at this encroachment, endeavoured by negociaiton, remonstrances, and open force, to prevent the English from obtaining any footing on that part of the American continent. But after struggling against it for more than a century, the disasters of last war extorted from
16568-598: The island, and Cape Gracias a Dios , since at least 1616. English presence intensified shortly upon the 4 December 1630 chartering of the Old Providence Company . In 1631, Anthony Hilton's settlement in Tortuga was made a dependency of the Company. In 1633, Sussex Cammock established a trading post in Cape Gracias a Dios for Old Providence. By 29 January 1636, the Company was granted letters of reprisal against
16720-560: The larger trade, by 1720, in terms of sales, the British company had overtaken the Dutch. During the middle decades of the 18th century, there were several outbreaks of military conflict on the Indian subcontinent , as the English East India Company and its French counterpart , struggled alongside local rulers to fill the vacuum that had been left by the decline of the Mughal Empire . The Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which
16872-505: The loss of the Thirteen Colonies in 1783, the British government looked for an alternative, eventually turning to Australia . On his first of three voyages commissioned by the government, James Cook reached New Zealand in October 1769. He was the first European to circumnavigate and map the country. From the late 18th century, the country was regularly visited by explorers and other sailors, missionaries , traders and adventurers but no attempt
17024-619: The lower Congo River region undermining orderly colonisation of tropical Africa, the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 was held to regulate the competition between the European powers in what was called the " Scramble for Africa " by defining "effective occupation" as the criterion for international recognition of territorial claims. The scramble continued into the 1890s, and caused Britain to reconsider its decision in 1885 to withdraw from Sudan . A joint force of British and Egyptian troops defeated
17176-613: The main thrust of the Baymen clash with the Maya came in Corozal and Orange Walk districts as part of the Caste War . Belizean Maya challenged lumber encampments established by the Baymen, with limited success. Maya resistance continued until the 1870s, though by the late 19th century, the end of the Caste War brought such conflicts to a close. The Garinagu people had an ambivalent relationship with
17328-537: The most successful colony in the Americas, and one of the most densely populated places in the world. This boom led to the spread of sugar cultivation across the Caribbean, financed the development of non-plantation colonies in North America, and accelerated the growth of the Atlantic slave trade , particularly the triangular trade of slaves, sugar and provisions between Africa, the West Indies and Europe. To ensure that
17480-520: The mouth of the River Belize [in 1638]. — Ungewitter & Hopf 1872 , p. 693 The British Settlement of Honduras, of which Belize is the capital, cannot be traced to be of any greater antiquity than from the administration of Oliver Cromwell, in Great Britain, at which period it was, from its remote and secret situation, used by the English, rather as a place of refuge and concealment, from
17632-499: The new situation. [...]. [...]. [In 1667 and 1670] England agreed to end privateering and to suppress piracy. [...]. For the settlement of Belize by the British, we should therefore distinguish between the period before 1670 and the period after. In the first period, which starts from 1642, there may have been some scope for privateers to make Belize their home but it would not have been easy. The opportunities for laying in stores, refitting ships and spending profits were strictly limited on
17784-481: The north. The first of several Church of England missionaries arrived in 1814 and as well as their missionary role, they soon become the only form of European authority in a land that was not subject to British jurisdiction: the closest authority being the New South Wales governor in Sydney. The sale of weapons to Māori resulted from 1818 on in the intertribal warfare of the Musket Wars , with devastating consequences for
17936-708: The other powers of Europe. In 1701, England, Portugal and the Netherlands sided with the Holy Roman Empire against Spain and France in the War of the Spanish Succession , which lasted for thirteen years. In 1695, the Parliament of Scotland granted a charter to the Company of Scotland , which established a settlement in 1698 on the Isthmus of Panama . Besieged by neighbouring Spanish colonists of New Granada , and affected by malaria ,
18088-767: The outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739, Spanish privateers attacked British merchant shipping along the Triangle Trade routes. In 1746, the Spanish and British began peace talks, with the King of Spain agreeing to stop all attacks on British shipping; however, in the 1750 Treaty of Madrid Britain lost its slave-trading rights in Latin America . In the East Indies, British and Dutch merchants continued to compete in spices and textiles. With textiles becoming
18240-470: The outbreak of the First World War. Britain quickly invaded and occupied most of Germany's overseas colonies in Africa. In the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand occupied German New Guinea and German Samoa respectively. Plans for a post-war division of the Ottoman Empire, which had joined the war on Germany's side, were secretly drawn up by Britain and France under the 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement . This agreement
18392-662: The passing of the Act of Union in 1840, which created the Province of Canada . Responsible government was first granted to Nova Scotia in 1848, and was soon extended to the other British North American colonies. With the passage of the British North America Act, 1867 by the British Parliament , the Province of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were formed into Canada, a confederation enjoying full self-government with
18544-480: The place so they find legitimate livelihoods, prosper, form a government, and are eventually rewarded with the status of a colony of the British Empire . In November–December 1544, a patax of 22 French corsairs , mates of a captain called Pedro Braques by the Spanish, were apprehended off the coast of colonial Honduras. Their arrival marked the beginning of over three centuries of piracy in
18696-448: The power vacuums that had been left by the declining Ottoman Empire , Qajar dynasty and Qing dynasty . This rivalry in Central Asia came to be known as the "Great Game". As far as Britain was concerned, defeats inflicted by Russia on Persia and Turkey demonstrated its imperial ambitions and capabilities and stoked fears in Britain of an overland invasion of India. In 1839, Britain moved to pre-empt this by invading Afghanistan , but
18848-545: The preliminary survey and recommendation [sometime during 1613-1624]. They cultivated the fresh soil which was then right on the beach and grew an abundance of potatoes and pumpkins. [...] in May and July 1633 Captain Sussex Camock was appointed director of a trade at Capt Gratia de Dios, with Edward Willaims and Nath. [...] For the trading stand the coast was selected which lies at the foot of the Cockscomb Mountainsn in
19000-714: The region in 1878 and on all outstanding matters in 1907 with the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente . The destruction of the Imperial Russian Navy by the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 limited its threat to the British. The Dutch East India Company had founded the Dutch Cape Colony on the southern tip of Africa in 1652 as
19152-412: The region, which were acquired either by royal patents or by conquest and settlement. All Caribbean countries, with one exception, can document the date of first permanent settlement by Europeans with some accuracy. [...] The one exception is Belize, whose British origins have been shrouded in a mixture of fact, myth, legend, naivety and dishonesty. The traditional story of the English settlement of Belize
19304-450: The role of global policeman, a state of affairs later known as the Pax Britannica , and a foreign policy of " splendid isolation ". Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies, Britain's dominant position in world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many countries, such as China, Argentina and Siam , which has been described by some historians as an " Informal Empire ". British imperial strength
19456-440: The settlement. It was admitted to colonial status in 1863 in the United Kingdom. The Maya peoples of Belize had suffered from extended conflict over the centuries with the Spanish. Some had retreated to or already occupied the depths of the dense forests of central and western Belize. Buccaneers had frequently raided most of the coastal settlements, stealing crops, and taking men and women as slaves. Some Mayan slaves were sold in
19608-406: The sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century records on insular and mainland Caribbean history in the rare-books' sections of several of the great libraries of Europe. Works in Dutch, English, French, German, Latin, and Spanish were perused. My views expressed in these pages have been tempered in that light, but I have used only such as have a bearing on my subject. [...] On December 4, 1630 there
19760-423: The size of the territories under its control, either ruling directly or via local rulers under the threat of force from the Presidency Armies , the vast majority of which was composed of Indian sepoys , led by British officers. The British and French struggles in India became but one theatre of the global Seven Years' War (1756–1763) involving France, Britain, and the other major European powers. The signing of
19912-450: The sovereignty of the Crown over the territories that it had acquired. The company's eventual end was precipitated by the Indian Rebellion in 1857, a conflict that had begun with the mutiny of sepoys, Indian troops under British officers and discipline. The rebellion took six months to suppress, with heavy loss of life on both sides. The following year the British government dissolved the company and assumed direct control over India through
20064-419: The subcontinent in which it is estimated that over 15 million people died. The East India Company had failed to implement any coordinated policy to deal with the famines during its period of rule. Later, under direct British rule, commissions were set up after each famine to investigate the causes and implement new policies, which took until the early 1900s to have an effect. On each of his three voyages to
20216-418: The successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, commissioned John Cabot to lead an expedition to discover a northwest passage to Asia via the North Atlantic. Cabot sailed in 1497, five years after the first voyage of Christopher Columbus , and made landfall on the coast of Newfoundland . He believed he had reached Asia, and there was no attempt to found a colony. Cabot led another voyage to
20368-504: The track of the Plate Fleet was made by the Earl of Warwick's captains because of its position between the two main objectives, the Plate Fleet sailing from Panama to Havana, and the Cockscomb Coast as a base for bartering with the interior fo Guatemala. [...] Soon the colonists found out that the soil of Old Providence was worthless for their agriculture, and they began to look elsewhere. In 1631 they were active in Tortuga and resolved that henceforth that island should be called Association. But
20520-440: The voyages—the English, later British, East India Company and the Dutch East India Company , chartered in 1600 and 1602 respectively. The primary aim of these companies was to tap into the lucrative spice trade , an effort focused mainly on two regions: the East Indies archipelago , and an important hub in the trade network, India. There, they competed for trade supremacy with Portugal and with each other. Although England eclipsed
20672-405: Was a humiliation for Spain, which practically renounced all sovereignty on the North Pacific coast. This opened the way to British expansion in the area, and a number of expeditions took place; firstly a naval expedition led by George Vancouver which explored the inlets around the Pacific North West, particularly around Vancouver Island . On land, expeditions sought to discover a river route to
20824-435: Was a speculator in privateering, and a group of the wealthy Company of Merchant Adventurers in London were also backing him. Privateering was a part of their commercial interests, and in this they used the Puritans, who were in religious opposition to Charles I and his friendship for Spain, to assist them to colonize fortified sites from where they could raid the Spanish shipping and the Spanish Main. [...] The "Seaflower" brought
20976-506: Was at Cabo Catoche at the north-eastern point of the Yucatán peninsula. [...]. Only when the logwood at Cabo de Catoche was exhausted did they turn their attention to the coast of Belize. When they started to arrive, probably in the 1670s, they would likely have found a small number of British settlers already scattered among the cayes. [T]he archaeological investigations that are the focus of the present work provide no corroborating evidence for theories of semi-permanent English settlement during
21128-433: Was being cut and exported by 1680. Although we have shown there were many British subjects who might have had an interest in settling in Belize after 1642, we have very little solid evidence. [...]. After 1670 the attraction of the Belizean coastline for pirates would have been greater. [...]. Most of the privateers [...] opted for a more secure existence after 1670 and many found it in logwood extraction. Their first settlement
21280-427: Was contested at different times by the Spaniards, down to 1798, since which it has remained quietly in our possession. (Henderson's Account of Honduras; Parl. Papers, &c.) — Ancona 1878 , pp. 374–375 1638.----This year a few British subjects first inhabited Honduras, having been wrecked on the Coast. Wallice [was a] Lieutenant among the Bucaniers who formerly infested these seas......he first discovered
21432-472: Was described as " the empire on which the sun never sets ", as the sun was always shining on at least one of its territories. During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France , and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in
21584-432: Was formed in London a company authorized by Charles I, "whereby Robert Earl of Warwick was made Governor in Chief and Lord High Admirall of all those islands and other plantations, inhabited, planted, or belonging to any of his Majesties the King of Englands subjects, within the bounds and upon the coast of America [...]" [In the Calendar of State Papers, 1574-1660, colonial series, published in 1860]. [...] The Earl of Warwick
21736-481: Was founded as a haven by Puritan religious separatists, later known as the Pilgrims . Fleeing from religious persecution would become the motive for many English would-be colonists to risk the arduous trans-Atlantic voyage : Maryland was established by English Roman Catholics (1634), Rhode Island (1636) as a colony tolerant of all religions and Connecticut (1639) for Congregationalists . England's North American holdings were further expanded by
21888-472: Was granted his own patent by Elizabeth in 1584. Later that year, Raleigh founded the Roanoke Colony on the coast of present-day North Carolina , but lack of supplies caused the colony to fail. In 1603, James VI of Scotland ascended (as James I) to the English throne and in 1604 negotiated the Treaty of London , ending hostilities with Spain. Now at peace with its main rival, English attention shifted from preying on other nations' colonial infrastructures to
22040-404: Was made to settle the country or establish possession. The coast of Australia had been discovered for Europeans by the Dutch in 1606 , but there was no attempt to colonise it. In 1770, after leaving New Zealand, James Cook charted the eastern coast, claimed the continent for Britain, and named it New South Wales . In 1778, Joseph Banks , Cook's botanist on the voyage, presented evidence to
22192-422: Was not computed from Greenwich but from Ferro, and puts Old Providence, Cape Gracias a Dios, and the Cockscomb Coast within its area, with the 20th parallel passing at Tortuga. — F 1849 , p. 3 HONDURAS (BRITISH), [...] This coast was discovered by Columbus, in 1502; the date of its first settlement by Europeans is uncertain. It was transferred from Spain to England by treaty, in 1670, but its occupation
22344-429: Was not divulged to the Sharif of Mecca , who the British had been encouraging to launch an Arab revolt against their Ottoman rulers, giving the impression that Britain was supporting the creation of an independent Arab state. The British declaration of war on Germany and its allies committed the colonies and Dominions, which provided invaluable military, financial and material support. Over 2.5 million men served in
22496-440: Was returning across the Atlantic, laden with treasure from the New World . At the same time, influential writers such as Richard Hakluyt and John Dee (who was the first to use the term "British Empire") were beginning to press for the establishment of England's own empire. By this time, Spain had become the dominant power in the Americas and was exploring the Pacific Ocean, Portugal had established trading posts and forts from
22648-427: Was supported by the British prime minister , William Gladstone , who hoped that Ireland might follow in Canada's footsteps as a Dominion within the empire, but his 1886 Home Rule bill was defeated in Parliament. Although the bill, if passed, would have granted Ireland less autonomy within the UK than the Canadian provinces had within their own federation, many MPs feared that a partially independent Ireland might pose
22800-481: Was the only global war fought between Britain and another imperial power during the Pax Britannica and was a resounding defeat for Russia. The situation remained unresolved in Central Asia for two more decades, with Britain annexing Baluchistan in 1876 and Russia annexing Kirghizia , Kazakhstan , and Turkmenistan . For a while, it appeared that another war would be inevitable, but the two countries reached an agreement on their respective spheres of influence in
22952-427: Was transported to Jamaica and Europe by Numbers of Vessels trading from thence to the Bay. THE PURITAN COLONISTS. In all the published historical records on the colony, the British colonization begins at Belize [City]. This is not true. It is due to insufficient research and the tendency to facile explanation. There are no Spanish geographic names between Monkey River and Belize [City]. Because of this I decided to search
23104-401: Was underpinned by the steamship and the telegraph , new technologies invented in the second half of the 19th century, allowing it to control and defend the empire. By 1902, the British Empire was linked together by a network of telegraph cables, called the All Red Line . The East India Company drove the expansion of the British Empire in Asia. The company's army had first joined forces with
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