why some communities are where they are
From 1500BC to about AD 900, the Maya had settled and developed Belize in such advanced ways that stills baffles archaeologists, historians and anthropologists. How is it that they were able to maintain city states that each supported hundreds of thousands of residents? Unlike today where there are several settlements along Belize’s coastline, the Maya of Belize lived mostly inland where they dug or cleared cenotes to access water for the irrigation of crops and used limestone from the surrounding mountains to erect ballcourts, pyramids and palaces without the use of wheels and beasts of burden. The Maya also ingeniously drained swamps and terraced mountains to cultivate crops. Ultimately, this teaches us that where people live is based on their ability to feed, clothe and protect themselves.
While the Post Classic Maya remained safely disguised by the dense equatorial rainforest in the interior of Belize, the European settlers opted to settle the swampy coastline and surrounding cayes as their home. But how would they be able to survive and make a living? Interestingly, the navigable rivers and coastline had long been Maya highways for the transportation of salt, corn and valuables such as jade and obsidian. Already abandoned, the Maya had utilized ports such as Wild Cane Caye to trade goods from the interior of British Honduras with the rest of the Maya world. Like the Maya, the baymen adapted the profitable trade of turtling and fishing; just the thought of the delicacies of seafood is enough to make any mouth water! You will remember the oral stories of the baymen selling ‘smoked meat’, from which the word ‘buccaneer’ stems, to passing ships. Now an endangered and protected species, the hawksbill turtle that thrived along the coastline and nested on the cayes, was the meat of choice. After piracy was outlawed in the early 18th century, maritime trade deepened between the baymen and their European counterparts in Jamaica and Great Britain. It became relatively very easy for the baymen, or ‘buccaneers’ as they are commonly known, to import such precious commodities as linen, cloths, sugar and rum. Another leg of this trade was later extended to the Spaniards in Yucatan, who traded cattle, and arms, in return for European goods.
Have you ever seen a shipwreck in our Belizean waters? If you have, you would know that our relatively shallow maritime waters often became watery graves for those unfamiliar with traversing through our reefs and channels. Belize’s navigable rivers lead directly into the sea, so settling along the coast at the mouth of the Belize River, became ideal for the baymen to also transport logwood from the settlement’s interior to the coast where waiting ships would transport them to Europe for sale. ‘Palmetto’ or ‘bay thatch’ was harvested for the construction of spacious, simple, durable and comfortable homes. Harvesting logwood and mahogany that grew in abundance at the mouth and along the banks of the Belize River, affluent families would use these materials to construct their well-furnished, shingled, board homes that were elevated from the ground with mahogany pillars.
So what happened as more and more persons came to settle on the land? Each group that came brought new ways of utilizing the country’s resources. The Mestizos who fled the Caste War and settled to the North, brought their knowledge of sugar production to gift us with a profitable sugar industry. When they came seeking asylum from war in Guatemala and Honduras, the British colonial government mandated that the refugee Garinagu settle 36 miles away from Belize City where they formed coastal communities to take up the role of fishermen. The East Indians also settled in southern Belize where steady rainfall and the abundant acreage of fertile lands allowed for the cultivation of sugar, coffee and rice estates owned by their American ex-confederate employers. Meanwhile, the Mennonites opted to settle in the Cayo District where the abundant acreage of fertile soils on relatively flat terrain allowed for the cultivation of profitable cash crops that feeds all Belizeans today.
Belize offers abundant resources that would not only maintain a thriving Maya population, but would also become the foundation on which our country was built. In fact, long before the arrival of the first shipwrecked pirates, the physical resources of Belize were the driving force for the eventual colonization and exploitation of our land.
While the Post Classic Maya remained safely disguised by the dense equatorial rainforest in the interior of Belize, the European settlers opted to settle the swampy coastline and surrounding cayes as their home. But how would they be able to survive and make a living? Interestingly, the navigable rivers and coastline had long been Maya highways for the transportation of salt, corn and valuables such as jade and obsidian. Already abandoned, the Maya had utilized ports such as Wild Cane Caye to trade goods from the interior of British Honduras with the rest of the Maya world. Like the Maya, the baymen adapted the profitable trade of turtling and fishing; just the thought of the delicacies of seafood is enough to make any mouth water! You will remember the oral stories of the baymen selling ‘smoked meat’, from which the word ‘buccaneer’ stems, to passing ships. Now an endangered and protected species, the hawksbill turtle that thrived along the coastline and nested on the cayes, was the meat of choice. After piracy was outlawed in the early 18th century, maritime trade deepened between the baymen and their European counterparts in Jamaica and Great Britain. It became relatively very easy for the baymen, or ‘buccaneers’ as they are commonly known, to import such precious commodities as linen, cloths, sugar and rum. Another leg of this trade was later extended to the Spaniards in Yucatan, who traded cattle, and arms, in return for European goods.
Have you ever seen a shipwreck in our Belizean waters? If you have, you would know that our relatively shallow maritime waters often became watery graves for those unfamiliar with traversing through our reefs and channels. Belize’s navigable rivers lead directly into the sea, so settling along the coast at the mouth of the Belize River, became ideal for the baymen to also transport logwood from the settlement’s interior to the coast where waiting ships would transport them to Europe for sale. ‘Palmetto’ or ‘bay thatch’ was harvested for the construction of spacious, simple, durable and comfortable homes. Harvesting logwood and mahogany that grew in abundance at the mouth and along the banks of the Belize River, affluent families would use these materials to construct their well-furnished, shingled, board homes that were elevated from the ground with mahogany pillars.
So what happened as more and more persons came to settle on the land? Each group that came brought new ways of utilizing the country’s resources. The Mestizos who fled the Caste War and settled to the North, brought their knowledge of sugar production to gift us with a profitable sugar industry. When they came seeking asylum from war in Guatemala and Honduras, the British colonial government mandated that the refugee Garinagu settle 36 miles away from Belize City where they formed coastal communities to take up the role of fishermen. The East Indians also settled in southern Belize where steady rainfall and the abundant acreage of fertile lands allowed for the cultivation of sugar, coffee and rice estates owned by their American ex-confederate employers. Meanwhile, the Mennonites opted to settle in the Cayo District where the abundant acreage of fertile soils on relatively flat terrain allowed for the cultivation of profitable cash crops that feeds all Belizeans today.
Belize offers abundant resources that would not only maintain a thriving Maya population, but would also become the foundation on which our country was built. In fact, long before the arrival of the first shipwrecked pirates, the physical resources of Belize were the driving force for the eventual colonization and exploitation of our land.