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The Growth and Development of Belize City

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

John C. Everitt
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Extract

Although Belize City has almost always been the centre of population in Belize, few studies have been devoted to its historical geography–or indeed to the urban geography of the country as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to gather together much of the scattered material on Belize City, in the hope that this codification will help the reader to understand the growth and present status of the city, and, perhaps, inspire others to do further research on this, still the major urban centre of Belize.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , May 1986 , pp. 75 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 One major exception is Odaffer, D. G., ‘The Three Capitals of British Honduras’, unpublished M.A. Thesis, San Francisco State College, 1969.Google Scholar Throughout the present paper the contemporary name for Belize will be used, rather than the earlier name of ‘ British Honduras’; the name Belize City will be used for the subject area of this paper, even though it was only recently made a city, and was known simply by the name ‘Belize’ for most of its history. There is no certainty that this solution will solve the potential problems of the varied nomenclature, but a consistent approach will hopefully eliminate some of the difficulties.

2 Epstein, D. G., Brasília, Plan and Reality (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), p. 41.Google Scholar

3 Freeman, D. B., ‘The Geography of Development and Modernization A Survey of Present Trends and Future Prospects’, Discussion Paper No. 22 (Toronto: York University, Department of Geography, 1979), pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

4 Compare, for instance, the analyses of Caiger, S. L., British Honduras, Past and Present (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1951Google Scholar) and Bolland, O. N., The Formation of a Colonial Society: Belize from Conquest to Crown Colony, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977).Google Scholar

5 Thompson, J. Eric S., The Maya of Belize: Historical Chapters Since Columbus (Belize: The Benex Press, 1972), p. 31.Google Scholar

6 e.g. Xibum (Sibun) and Sayte (Sittee) Rivers, Thompson, op. cit., p. 32.

7 Moho Caye, off the main mouth of the Belize River was, however a Maya fishing site. See Anderson, A. H., Brief Sketch of British Honduras (Belize, Government Printing Office, 1952), p. 11Google Scholar and Ester, M., ‘The Cayes of Belize: An Archaeological Resource’, Belizean Studies, vol. 9, nos. 5 and 6 (1981), pp. 10–17.Google Scholar

8 Bolland, op. cit., p. 1.

9 Furley, P. A. (ed.) Expedition to British Honduras–Yucatán 1966 (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, 1968), p. 45.Google Scholar

10 Dobson, N., A History of Belize (Trinidad and Jamaica: Longman Caribbean Ltd, 1973), pp 53, 56.Google Scholar

11 Waddell, D. A. G., British Honduras: A Historical and Contemporary Survey (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 8.Google Scholar

12 The Belize Issue (London: The Latin American Bureau, 1978), p. 9.Google Scholar

13 Dobson, op. cit., p. 59.

14 Ashcraft, N., Colonialism and Underdevelopment: Processes of Political Economic Change in British Honduras (New York: Teachers College Press, 1973), p. 27.Google Scholar Female slaves were also imported to sexually service the Baymen, as the woodcutters' earlier source of supply for women – the Maya villages – was cut off when the Indians fled to the interior. Brukdown nos. 6 and 7 (1969), p. 21.Google Scholar

15 Bolland, O. N. and Shoman, A., Land In Belize 1765–1871, Law and Society in the Caribbean No. 6 (Mona: Jamaica, Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1977), p. 3.Google Scholar At times the price of logwood climbed to £100 per ton.

16 Bolland, op. cit., p. 6.

17 Bolland and Shoman, op. cit., p. 3. For instance, in 1754 a force of 1,500 strong descended the Belize River as far as Labouring Creek, and then retired. The Spanish regarded the Belize City settlement as being ‘only fit for the English’. Burdon, Sir John A. (ed.), The Archives of British Honduras, vol 1 (London: Sifton Praed, 1931), pp. 80–1.Google Scholar

18 Ashcraft, op. cit., p. 59.

19 Bolland, op. cit., p. 28.

20 Dobson, op cit., pp. 87–89. Details of Burnaby's Code can be found in Burdon op. cit., pp. 30–3.

21 The people of the settlement did not rely exclusively on imported foods-but also made ‘plantations’ to grow subsistence products along many of the river banks in Belize. here was no export production, however. See Bolland and Shoman, op. cit., pp. 22–5.

22 Dobson, op. cit., p. 73. Burdon, op. cit., p. 162.

23 Bolland, O. N., ‘Slavery in Belize’, B.I.S.R.A. Occasional Publication No. 7 (Belize: The Benex Press, 1979), p. 4.Google Scholar

24 Bolland (1977), op. cit., chapter 3.

25 Ashcraft, op. cit., chapter 9.

26 Dobson, op. cit., p. 68. The map in question is Map D in Burdon, vol. i, op. cit., between pp. 162 and 163.

27 Anderson, op. cit., p. 2.

28 Bradley, L. H., ‘Barrier Reef Country: Its Administrative Centres’, Belizean Studies, vol. 6, no. 4 (07 1978), pp. 1–7.Google Scholar

29 Bradley, op. cit., p. 3.

30 Ibid.

31 SirBurdon, John A. (ed.), The Archives of British Honduras vol. ii (London: Sifton Praed, 1934), p. 103.Google Scholar

32 Burdon, vol. ii op. cit., p. 103.

33 Ibid, p. 105.

34 Bolland (1977), op. cit., p. 42. The Mosquito Shore settlers consisted of 537 white and free persons and 1,677 slaves Burdon, vol. i, op. cit., p. 162.

35 Bradley, op. cit., p. 4. This was presumably named for the Jamaican Governor of the time, Lord Balcarres. A Sketch of the Haulover can be found in Burdon, vol. i, op. cit., Map E.

36 Dobson, op. cit., p. 68. An account of many of these problems can be found in Burdon, vol. i, op. cit., pp. 160–9.

37 Bolland (1977), op. cit.

38 Ashcraft, op. cit., p. 35.

39 Dobson, op. cit., p. 68.

40 Odaffer, op. cit., p. 11. In August 1791 the Grand Jury recommended that this land be obtained (Burdon, vol. i, op. cit., p. 194). This was to be a ‘Public Burial Ground with provision of space for those not entitled to Church rites.’

41 By 1819 Front Street had become Regent Street, and in 1863 Back Street became Albert Street. (Sir John A. Burdon, vol. ii, p. 20, and vol. iii, p. 250.

42 Waddell, op. cit., p. 12.

43 Belize City was still the ‘only regular establishment which the English settlers’ had formed by 1809 in Belize. Henderson, Captain, An Account of the British Settlement of Honduras (London: R. Baldwin, 1811), p. 15.Google Scholar

44 SirSwayne, Eric, ‘British Honduras’, The Geographical Journal, vol. 50, no. 3 (09 1917), p. 166.Google Scholar

45 Swayne, op. cit., p. 167.

46 D. G. Odaffer, personal communication, 1969, p. 7.

47 Clegern, W. M., British Honduras: Colonial Dead End, 1859–1900 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967), pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

48 Ibid, op. cit., pp. 7, 58–9.

49 Bolland (1977), op. cit., p. 57.

50 Bolland and Shoman, op. cit., p. 13.

51 Odaffer (1969), op. cit., p. 35. These canals were quite different in the early nineteenth century, from how we see them today. Although in roughly similar locations to when they were first dug, these canals were by no means as straight in 1820 as we find them now. A map of 1829 (reproduced in Dobson, op. cit. as plate 6) shows the South side canal almost as circuitous as a river, and the North Side canal little more than a ditch. In 1859 a new canal, and essentially the one we see today, was opened. It was 30 feet wide, 4 feet deep, and had 20 feet wide embankments on either side. ‘The old canal is presumably the now closed up Richard's Canal which has been converted into a street’ (Burdon, vol. iii, op. cit., p. 212). There were constantly problems with these canals as their dirt sides tended to collapse in to the water and the owners of lots along the old canal were once required to stake them to prevent this slumping (Burdon, vol. ii, op. cit., p. 201).

52 Bradley, op. cit., p. 4.

53 The Very Reverend Lewis, D. Gareth, Belize, Dean of, The History of St. John's Cathedral, Belize (Belize: Cubola Publications, 1976), p. 2.Google Scholar

54 Ibid. The bridge across the Belize River built from public subscription in the first years of the century, the gaol, and the Church were cited as being in a state of decay at this time (Dobson, op. cit., p. 115). A suitable system for financing public works in Belize was not found for some time, repairs commonly being completed on a piecemeal basis. A new bridge across Haulover Creek was often called for, e.g. in 1856. See Burdon, vol. iii, op. cit., p. 188.

55 Ibid, p. 2.

56 Ibid., p. 13.

57 Richard Buhler, S.J., ‘A History of the Catholic Church in Belize’, B.I.S.R.A. Occasional Publication No. 4 (Belize: the Benex Press, 1976), p. 7.Google Scholar

58 Buhler, op. cit., p. 10. An 1829 map (Dobson, op. cit., plate 6) also shows a chapel, seemingly shared by Baptists and Methodists, the other major religious groups in Belize at this time. These groups represented the first non-established clergy in Belize both arriving during the 1820s. (Brukdown, nos. 6 and 7, 1979, p. 53.Google Scholar) Brukdown was a Belizean newsletter, published between 1977 and 1982, ceasing publication with vol. 6, no. 1, (1982). A Presbyterian Church was built in the middle of the nineteenth century. A major, but almost invisible, change in the past century has been from a dominance of Anglicans to a majority of Catholics in Belize, despite the fact that the first Roman Catholic priest did not permanently settle in Belize until 1835 (Brukdown, nos. 6 and 7, 1979, p. 53) Protestants are still most numerous in Belize City, but the Catholic proportion of the population is also increasing here.

59 Burdon, vol. ii, op. cit., p. 180. The swampy nature of the city also led to a great problem with insects – particularly at the extreme north (Barracks) and south (Government House) ends of the city. Burdon, vol. iii, op. cit., p. 312.

60 Burdon, vol. ii, op. cit., pp. 178, 186, 187 and 224. Material dredged from the river bar and harbour was also later used to fill lots. Burdon, vol. ii, op. cit., p. 406. In 1854 an Act making the filling of lands in Belize City compulsory was passed – in part to help keep down the problem of disease – a cholera outbreak was related to the swampy nature of the town in that year. Burdon, vol. III, op. cit., p. 17. In 1877 free spoil for filling was offered after a steam dredger was purchased in 1876. Burdon, vol. iii, op. cit., p. 43.

61 Burdon vol. ii, op. cit., pp. 262, 340.

62 Ibid., pp. 146, 169, 346, 403; vol. iii, op. cit., p. 81.

63 Ibid., op. cit., p. 347.

64 Ibid., op. cit., p. 392.

65 Waddell, op. cit., p. 49. Probably in the area known as Newtown Barracks today. Colonel Barrow had chosen this area as a Barracks in 1798. Burdon, vol. I, op. cit., p. 244.

66 Burdon, vol. ii, op. cit., p. 213.

67 Ibid., op. cit., pp. 64, 226.

68 Bolland and Shoman, op. cit., p. 5.

69 Bolland (1979), op. cit., p. 8. The settlement's most bitter slave revolt took place in 1820. Brukdown, numbers 6 and 7 (1979), p. 48.Google Scholar

70 Bolland (1979), op. cit., p. 6. This area of town was destroyed by fire in 1819 but still appears on the 1829 map (Dobson, op. cit., plate 6). It was located between South Street, the South Side Canal, Berkley Street, and Albert Street West (then Back Street).

71 By 1829, Front Street (now Regent Street) Back Street (now Albert Street), South Front Street (Regent Street West), West Street, Water Street, Orange Street, Bishop Street, King Street, Prince Street, Dean Street, and South Street were established on the South Side of Belize City. The Gaol (completed 1827) and Court House (1818) were also to be found here in addition to Government House and the Church and related buildings. On the North Side, North Front Street, Gabourel Lane, Eve Street, Hyde's Lane and Pickstock Street were to be found. Bradley Military Road (now Barrack Road), Haulover Road (now Freetown Road), Widow's Lane (now Queen Street) are also on the 1829 map as is a road ‘from New Orleans’, now New Road. New Orleans is now Freetown (L. H. Bradley, personal conversation). Also on the North Shore were a public hospital (near the present hospital site) a Baptist/Methodist chapel (near the present Baptist Church) and a Pensioners Hospital close to where the North Side Canal now crosses Barrack Road. Potts Point, near the present Bonded Warehouse was the end of the peninsula as Fort George was still a small island about 1000 feet offshore.

72 Burdon, vol. ii, op. cit., p. 383.

73 Dobson, op. cit., p. 118.

74 Ibid., chapter 7.

75 As pointed out in Belize: New Nation in Central America (Belize: Cubola Publishers, 1976), p. 4Google Scholar, slavery was officially abolished in 1834, but continued in a different form with the colonial exploitation of the non-white peoples by the British. It is clear that the majority of the wealth was still being withheld from the majority of the population.

76 Bolland (1979), op. cit.

77 Clegern, op. cit., p. 9.

78 Ibid.

79 Of the 1861 population, 57% had not been born in Belize, and 85 % of these foreign-born persons had come from the neighbouring republics. Bolland (1977), op. cit., p. 4.

The country was made a colony in 1862 but did not achieve Crown Colony Government until 1871. Waddell, op. cit., p. 54.

80 Bolland (1977), op. cit., p. 4; Burdon, vol. iii, op. cit., p. 233.

81 Clegern, op. cit., p. 4.

82 Ibid., p. 41.

83 Ibid., chapter 2.

84 Although the mahogany trade was in the decline, the power structure that had evolved with it was still in place. Thus a few companies and individuals still owned most of the private land in the country, and these land owners were soon to come under metropolitan control. They could affect both the possibility of increased agriculture as well as government policy toward the land (such as taxation). The change from slave ownership to land ownership as the chief means of holding property had taken place quite quickly, as did the elimination of the white settler class in favour of overseas control. Bolland and Shoman, op. cit.

85 In 1845 4% of the population was white. By 1881 this had dropped to 1 % – mostly transient males. ‘At the same time that “British Honduras” became a colony’, therefore, it ceased to be a place of settlement for whites. Bolland (1977), op. cit., p. 188.

86 Burdon, vol. iii, op. cit., p. 28.

87 Burdon, vol. ii, op. cit., p. 96.

88 Burdon, vol. iii, op. cit., p. 153.

89 Ibid., p. 117. In the same year the ‘pay of Firemen’ was withheld, probably for budgetary reasons, as the city was in constant financial trouble. Burdon, vol. iii, op. cit., p. 10).

90 Ibid., pp. 17, 19.

91 Ibid., p. 191.

92 Ibid., p. 204.

93 Ibid., pp. 25, 249.

94 Ibid., p. 316. In 1869 there was a demand for the prosecution of people not complying with this law.

95 Ibid., p. 336.

96 Ibid., p. 341.

97 Bradley, op. cit., p. 4.

98 Burdon, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 245.

99 Ibid., p. 255. During this period a variety of currencies were legal tender. During the middle of the century dollars became the adopted currency – in lieu of pounds sterling.

100 Ibid., pp. 190, 192, and 215.

101 Ibid., pp. 162, 168, 175, 238, 299 and 316.

102 Bolland, (1977), op. cit. p. 153.

103 Swett, C., A Trip to British Honduras and to San Pedro, Republic of Honduras (New Orleans: Price Current Print, 1868), pp. 77–80.Google Scholar

104 Burdon, op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 41, 330.

105 Clegern, op. cit., chapter 4. In 1883 a ‘light railway’ was even proposed for Belize City. Burdon, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 351. One further crisis was a Labourers' Riot in 1894 which followed the devaluation of the dollar as Belize switched its currency backing from Guatemalan pesos to American gold. Wages were raised, as a result of uprising, to compensate for the rise in the price of imports. Brukdown, numbers 6 and 7 (1979), p. 50.Google Scholar

106 Dobson, op. cit., pp. 279–80; Burdon, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 344.

107 Clegern, op. cit., p. 87.

108 Ibid., p. 92.

109 Ibid., p. 93.

110 Carr, D. and Thorpe, J. (eds.), From the Cam to the Cays (London: Putnam, 1961), p. 15.Google Scholar

111 Clegern, op. cit., p. 162.

112 The East Indians came to Belize in the last 30 years of the nineteenth century. Although most originally worked on sugar plantations in Toledo, some moved elsewhere including Belize City. Queen Charlotte Town is now part of what is being called Loyolaville.

113 Burdon, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 348.

114 Anderson, op. cit., p. 3.

115 Odaffer, op. cit., p. 12.

116 Dobson, op. cit., p. 264.

117 Burdon, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 11.

118 Ashcraft, op. cit., p. 4.

119 Ibid., p. 47.

120 Ibid., p. 47.

121 Such as Euphrates, Tigris, Allenby, Cairo and Amara Streets.

122 Caiger, op. cit., p. 148, gives this date as 1918. Brukdown, nos. 6 and 7 (1979), p. 50,Google Scholar gives an account of the riot, and gives the date as July 1919.

123 This street may reflect an old Protestant influence in the colony, possibly dating back to times when the Orange Lodge was a significant force in the country.

124 Odaffer, op. cit., p. 49.

125 Ashcraft, op. cit., p. 50.

126 Anderson, op. cit., p. 32. Many of these workers were displaced by the Depression, but mahogany cutting had also been hard hit by overexploitation and mechanization. Ashcraft, op. cit., pp. 52–4.

127 Anderson, op. cit., p. 32. There have been some 15 major hurricanes since 1787 that have caused destruction along the coastline of Belize and caused damage to Belize City.

128 Ashdown, P. D., ‘Antonio Soberanis and the 1934–35 Disturbances in Belize, Part I’, in John Mather, S. J. (ed.), Readings in Belizean History, vol. i (Belize City: B.I.S.R.A., 1978), p. 45.Google Scholar

129 Anderson, op. cit., p. 3.

130 Dobson, op. cit., p. 263.

131 Ashdown (1978), op. cit., p. 45. See also Brukdown, numbers 6 and 7 (1979), pp. 50–2.

132 Ashdown, P. D., ‘Antonio Soberanis and the “Disturbances” in Belize: 1934–35’, a paper presented to the Fourth Annual Conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies, Swanwick, England, 05 1980, p. 2.Google Scholar

133 Ashdown (1980), op. cit., pp. 6–7.

134 Anderson, op. cit., p. 34.

135 Ashcraft, op. cit., p. 57.

136 Shoman, Assad, ‘Birth of the Nationalist Movement in Belize’, B.I.S.R.A., Occasional Publications No. 7 (Belize: the Benex Press, 1979), p. 41.Google Scholar

137 Grant, C. H., The Making of Modern Belize: Politics, Society and British Colonialism in Central America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), p. 68.Google Scholar

138 Grant, op. cit., p., 72.

139 Waddell, op. cit., pp. 98–9.

140 Ibid., pp. 99–100.

141 Burdon, op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 6, 147.

142 Anderson, op. cit., p. 4.

143 This distribution system is now over twenty percent complete. The next stage is to use C.I.D.A. money to develop a sewer system for Belize City.

144 British Honduras 1950, Colonial Report (London: H.M.S.O., 1951), p. 31.Google Scholar

145 L. H. Bradley, personal communication, 1980.

146 St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke, St John, St Edward and St Charles Streets.

147 Everitt, J. C., ‘Terra Incognita: An Analysis of a Geographical Anachronism and an Historical Accident or Aspects of the Cultural Geography of British Honduras C.A.’, M.A. Thesis at Simon Fraser University, Department of Geography, 1970.Google Scholar

148 Landivar is named after a Jesuit priest in Guatemala.

149 St John's College can trace its history to 1887. It was transferred to Loyola Park in 1917, an area to the south west of Queen Charlotte Town. This area took the full force of the 1931 hurricane.

150 Such as Waight, Haynes, Young and Rivero.

151 Faber refers to J. H. Faber, the Crown Surveyor in 1862 when the road was constructed.

152 This area is actually one of considerable confusion in terms of its nomenclature. Many people simply say they live in the ‘South Creek’, ‘Neal's Pen Road’, ‘Faber's Road’, or ‘Caesar's Road’ area. Others refer to Queen Charlotte Town, the Vaults or Ex-Serviceman's area. It would seem that an attempt is being made to call the whole of this area Loyolaville (after Loyola Park, the site of the old St John's College). Historically, however, it is far from being a unit.

153 Queen's Square itself was once a market but could never combat the power of the Downtown area. It is now largely disused.

154 It would thus form a boundary to ‘Loyolaville’ which is to encompass the old areas of Queen Charlotte Town, Ex-Serviceman's Area and presently unused areas to the west of these development.

155 Also Racoon, Armadillo, Miccatee, Dolphin, Bocotora and Curassow Streets.

156 Such as Ziricote, Pine, Logwood, Mahogany, Nargusta, Ebony, Mayflower and Cedar.

157 L. H. Bradley, personal communication, 1980.

158 British Honduras 1955 Colonial Report (London, H.M.S.O., 1957), p. 47.Google Scholar

159 British Honduras 1954, Colonial Report (London, H.M.S.O., 1956), pp. 68–69.Google Scholar Ten units were completed in Belize City in 1981 at a cost of $13,000 per unit. But these were cited as being particularly ‘low cost’ housing because palmetto was used in the construction. The New Belize, vol. xi, no. 8 (08 1981), p. 16.Google Scholar

160 British Honduras 1954, p. 69.

161 Odaffer, op. cit., p. 10.

162 Everitt, J. C. ‘Belmopan, Dream and Reality: A Study of the other planned capital in Latin America’. Revista Geográfica, no. 99 (01–06 1984), pp. 135–44.Google Scholar

163 Odaffer, op. cit., p. 14. An exception to this statement are the people who moved out to Hattieville, a settlement set up by the government for the homeless of Belize City after Hurricane Hattie.

164 The U.S. Consulate in Belize City estimates that between 35,000 and 50,000 Belizeans now live in the United States. The majority of these are Creoles from Belize City and its hinterland.

165 Belmopan: An Ex-Post Evaluation (London: Ministry of Overseas Development, 1974), p. 36.Google Scholar Housing projects are being intermittently completed in Belize City. For instance, one was finished in 1981 in the Pinks Alley area, but only consisted often units. The New Belize, vol. xi, no. 8 (Aug 1981), p. 16.

166 Dobson, op. cit., p. 284.

167 Gentle, Vasquez, Smith, Lottie Waight and Meighan.

168 Everitt (1970), op. cit., p. 125.

169 A current proposal is to extend this boundary to a line which would be a one and a half mile radius from the intersection of Cemetery Road and Central American Boulevard.

170 Ashcraft, op. cit., p. 88 and chapter 9.

171 There has been a Central Market in Downtown Belize City since at least 1803. Bolland (1977), op. cit., p. 60.

172 Ashcraft, op. cit., pp. 164–6, and U.S. Consulate, 1980.

173 Ibid., p. 84.

174 Bolland and Shoman, op. cit., p. 64.

175 Much of the population of Belize City may be viewed as what A. de Souza and J. B. Foust term the Proto Proletariat. The proto-proletariat is a peripheral social group which makes up a substantial proportion of the occupational structure of cities in most underdeveloped countries, and gains its income mainly from informal opportunities. World Space Economy (Columbus, Ohio, Charles E. Merrill, 1979), pp. 585–604.Google Scholar

176 In December 1984 the United Democratic Party took 21 of the 28 seats in the Belizean parliament – ending thirty years of rule by the Peoples' United Party. Prime Minister George Price lost his seat in the constituency of Freetown, Belize City.

177 Ashdown, 1980, op. cit., p. 1.

178 Ibid.