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A Quick Version of Honduran History

A Quick Version of Honduran History. Pre- Colombian History. Mayan Culture- At its peak , around 200 to 800 CE, the Mayan culture stretched from the Yucatan Peninsula in modern Mexico rough what are now Belize, Guatemala and Western Honduras

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A Quick Version of Honduran History

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  1. A Quick Version of Honduran History

  2. Pre- Colombian History • Mayan Culture- At its peak, around 200 to 800 CE, the Mayan culture stretched from the Yucatan Peninsula in modern Mexico rough what are now Belize, Guatemala and Western Honduras • For unknown reasons, the Mayan culture of Honduras history suffered sudden and tremendous decline at the end of the first millennium CE • The rest of Honduras was populated by other ethnic groups as seen in the map above

  3. Spanish Conquest • The north coast of present-day Honduras, near the modern city of Trujillo, was the site of the first mainland New World landfall by Christopher Columbus in August 1502 • He named the land Honduras (Spanish for "depths"), after the deep waters off the coast • During the years of Spanish conquest, native Hondurans were indentured as slaves to work the rich gold and silver mines discovered in the 1530s

  4. Fighting Back • Most of the native groups were too divided to mount successful resistance to Spanish occupation • The famous Honduran hero (and namesake of the national currency), Lempira, was able to unite 30,000 warriors from 200 different tribes • Lempira and his fighters were able to resist for six months, but they were up against a better armed and organized Spanish army • The Spanish captain invited Lempira to a peace meeting on a cliff, and when Lempira refused to a part of the accord, a concealed marksmen shot and killed him • The resistance then fell apart Lempira

  5. Independence • After centuries of Spanish rule, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cost Rica and El Salvador declared independence on September 15, 1821 • Honduras briefly joined the Mexican Empire before leaving to form the short-lived Federal Republic of Central America, finally getting full independence in 1838

  6. Banana Republic • The history of Honduras since independence has been marked by bitter struggles between liberals and conservatives, numerous military coups, rebellions, fixed elections, foreign invasions, and meddling by U.S. governments and companies • The introduction of banana farming in the late 19th century had profound ramifications for Honduranculture • United States government periodically dispatched warships to quell revolutionary activity and to protect United States business interests • Banana companies, most prominently the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) and the Standard Fruit Company (now Dole), became extremely powerful within Honduras • Throughout the 20th century political, environmental, and labor scandals associated with the banana companies marred the history of Honduras

  7. Banana Republic • The Banana industry helped support strong military rulers who supported their interests, like General Carias in the 1930s and 1940s and Colonel Lopez Arellano in the 1960s and 1970s • The Banana companies spawned a powerful labor movement in Honduras to improve conditions for fruit workers Linoleum block print from 1955

  8. 1980s • The 1980s brought in a new era in which the US used Honduras as its main staging area for activities in Central America • 1981 - Roberto Suazo Cordova of the centrist Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) was elected president, leading the first civilian government in more than a century • Throughout the decade, the Reagan administration helped prop up the democratic government as neighboring Central American countries were embroiled in civil wars • Honduras became a staging area for US actions against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the FMLN in El Salvador, and as a result became entangled in the biggest U.S. political scandal of the 1980s, as the Reagan administration trained and funded Nicaraguan and Salvadoran Contras in Honduras using money made from illegal arm sales to Iran (known as the Iran- Contra affair)

  9. Post 1980s • By the early 1990s, with the end to the Contra war and a peace accord in El Salvador, United States policy toward Honduras had changed in numerous respects • Annual foreign aid levels and military assistance had begun to fall considerably • There is much criticism over the US involvement in Honduras during the ‘80s, especially surrounding the support of the Honduran military, which was allegedly involved in numerous human rights violations • After very little economic growth in a decade of such US presence in Honduras, many felt the US embassy in Tegucigalpa had been more involved in Nicaragua and El Salvador than in Honduras itself

  10. Hurricane Mitch • In 1998, as the strongest hurricane to hit Central America in two centuries, Hurricane Mitch destroyed 50 years of progress in Honduras, in the words of the then president, Carlos Flores Facusse • The entire country was affected and approximately 6,500 people lost their lives, and many more were missing • Up to 1.5 million people were displaced and homeless • Medicine, food and water shortages were widespread and an estimated 70 to 80 % of transportation infrastructure was destroyed. • Several entire villages were washed away

  11. Coup in 2009 • Manuel Zelaya was elected President in January, 2006 • Generally, Mr. Zelaya had the support of labor unions and the poor, and as he made some unprecedented changes, lost the support of his own party, the PLH (Liberal Party of Honduras) • These changes included importing subsidized oil from Venezuela, raising the minimum wage, and a law that made it legal for individuals to petition the government Manuel Zelaya

  12. Coup in 2009 • These changes were met with much resistance and the other branches of government banded together to thwart Zelaya in pushing forward any other changes • In March, Zelaya proposed a plan to hold a referendum • This referendum would ask the population whether they wanted a fourth option on the ballots in the coming November presidential elections- whether they favored creating an assembly to write a new constitution

  13. Coup in 2009 • The courts blocked the referendum, and when Zelaya tried to go along with it anyway, he was forced into exile • On June 28, between 200 and 300 troops came to Zelaya's home, drove him to the airport and put him on a flight to Costa Rica • Later the same day, the speaker of Congress, Roberto Micheletti, constitutionally second-in-line to the presidency, was sworn in as interim leader • There were widespread protests against the coup

  14. Honduras Today • In November of the same year, rushed elections criticized by many elected Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa of the conservative National Party • Lobo is still the president of Honduras; the next elections are November 2013 Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo Sosa

  15. Sources • http://countrystudies.us/honduras/100.htm • http://www.destination360.com/central-america/honduras/history • http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/mitch/mitch.html • http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n15/john-perry/in-tegucigalpa (London Review of Books) • http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18974519 • http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/25/world/the-hurricane-is-history-but-for-battered-honduras-the-agony-lingers.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

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