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115-559: Belize ( / b ɪ ˈ l iː z , b ɛ -/ , bih- LEEZ , beh- ; Belize Kriol English : Bileez ) is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America . It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. Belize is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and

230-519: A House of Representatives and a Senate . The 31 members of the House are popularly elected to a maximum five-year term and introduce legislation affecting the development of Belize. The governor-general appoints the 12 members of the Senate, with a Senate president selected by the members. The Senate is responsible for debating and approving bills passed by the House. Legislative power is vested in both

345-441: A pidgin . It was a way for people of other backgrounds and languages, in this case slaves and English colonisers within the logging industry, to communicate with each other. Over generations the language developed into a creole , being a language used as some people’s mother tongue language. Belizean Creoles are people of Afro-European origin. While it is difficult to estimate the exact number of Belizean Creole speakers, it

460-509: A Spanish soldier and a number of Yucatec Maya warriors were taken prisoner. Spanish reinforcements arrived the next day but were beaten back. This turn of events convinced Martín de Ursúa that Kan Ek' would not surrender peacefully and he began to organise an all-out assault on Nojpetén. In 1696 the Ko'woj kingdom launched an attack upon Nojpetén. The Itza were able to push the Ko'woj out of Nojpetén, but

575-415: A fully fledged language, as it becomes a mother tongue for generations of speakers, and the result is a creole language. Belize Kriol specifically developed as a result of many West African slaves being subjected to English-speaking owners; and as a result, these people were forced to create a pidgin language using English as a substrate language which was then formed into a creole by their children. English

690-643: A general tendency to simplify the phonology of a language in order to ensure successful communication. Many creoles keep this tendency after creolization . Kriol is no exception to this. Kriol uses a high number of nasalized vowels, palatalizes non-labial stops, and prenasalizes voiced stops. Consonant clusters are reduced at the end of words and many syllables are reduced to only a consonant and vowel . Some of these sounds only appear as allophones of phonemes. Kriol uses three voiced plosives ( /b/ /d/ /ɡ/ ) and three voiceless plosives ( /p/ /t/ /k/ ). The voiceless stops can also be aspirated . However, aspiration

805-436: A habitual aspect in its own right. Other creoles have a general tendency to merge the habitual with the completive, the habitual with the progressive, or the habitual with the future. Kriol however, does not clearly merge it with anything. Thus, we can only assume that the habitual is expressed by context and not by morphological marking. The completive aspect is expressed either without marking — that is, by context only — or by

920-656: A key place in the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor . It is considered a Central American and Caribbean nation with strong ties to both the American and Caribbean regions. It has an area of 22,970 square kilometres (8,867 sq mi) and a population of 397,483 (2022). Its mainland is about 290 km (180 mi) long and 110 km (68 mi) wide. It is the least populated and least densely populated country in Central America. Its population growth rate of 1.87% per year (2018 estimate)

1035-673: A measure declaring that the region should work towards replacing the UK's Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as final court of appeal with the Caribbean Court of Justice. It is still in the process of acceding to CARICOM treaties including the trade and single market treaties. Belize is an original member (1995) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and participates actively in its work. The pact involves

1150-543: A minimum wage. Economic conditions improved during World War II , as many Belizean men entered the armed forces or otherwise contributed to the war effort. Following the war, the colony's economy stagnated. Britain's decision to devalue the British Honduras dollar in 1949 worsened economic conditions and led to the creation of the People's Committee, which demanded independence. The People's Committee's successor,

1265-628: A month travelling. Kan Ek' sent emissaries to Mérida in December 1695 to inform Martín de Ursúa that the Itza would peacefully submit to Spanish rule. A Spanish party led by Captain Pedro de Zubiaur arrived at Lake Petén Itza with 60 soldiers, friar San Buenaventura and allied Yucatec Maya warriors. Although they expected a peaceful welcome they were immediately attacked by approximately 2000 Maya warriors. San Buenaventura and one of his Franciscan companions,

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1380-465: A number of functions, including: The pronominal system of Standard English can distinguish person, number, gender and case. Some varieties of Kriol do not have a gender or case distinction, though most do; but Kriol does distinguish between the second person singular and plural (you). The question words found in Kriol are: Peten Itza kingdom The Peten Itza kingdom was a kingdom centered on

1495-699: A post he would hold under various titles until 1984. Progress toward independence was hampered by a Guatemalan claim to sovereignty over Belizean territory . In 1964 Britain granted British Honduras self-government under a new constitution. On 1 June 1973, British Honduras was officially renamed Belize. Belize was granted independence on 21 September 1981. Guatemala refused to recognize the new nation because of its longstanding territorial dispute, claiming that Belize belonged to Guatemala. After independence about 1,500 British troops remained in Belize to deter any possible Guatemalan incursions. With George Cadle Price at

1610-491: A rapid process of decreolization is taking place. As a result, a creole continuum exists and speakers are able to code-switch among various mesolect registers, between the most basilect to the acrolect ( Mid-Atlantic ) varieties. The acrolect, much like the basilect, is rarely heard. A 1987 travel guide in the Chicago Tribune newspaper reported that Belize Kriol is "a language that teases but just escapes

1725-528: A spiritual and political leader. He also renamed himself Hunac Ceel Cauich. The Itzas did not recognize his authority. Ceel gathered many followers from Mayapan and the Cocom region. In 1194 Hunac Ceel Cauich declared war on Chac Chac Xib, one of four rulers of Chichén Itzá. The other three brothers were Sac Xib Chac, Chac Ek Yuuan and Hun Yuuan Chac (also called uooh Puc). Itzáes finally migrated to Tayasal , an island on Lake Peten Itza , in 1194. In 1525, after

1840-538: A translation of the Bible's New Testament . The dictionary brought attention to grammar, as well as the definition of common Kriol words, and the dictionary influenced the creation of a few other books that were solely based on Kriol grammar. There has also been a rise in poetry, fiction, and newspapers written in Kriol. Kriol shares phonological similarities with many Caribbean English Creoles as well as with English, its superstrate language . Pidgin languages have

1955-479: A valuable fixing agent for clothing dyes, and was one of the first ways to achieve a fast black before the advent of artificial dyes. The Spanish granted the British settlers the right to occupy the area and cut logwood in exchange for their help suppressing piracy. The British government did not recognize the settlement as a colony for fear of provoking a Spanish attack. This delay in government oversight enabled

2070-609: Is Charles III , who is the King of Belize . He lives in the United Kingdom, and is represented in Belize by the governor-general . Executive authority is exercised by the cabinet, which advises the governor-general and is led by the prime minister , who is head of government. Cabinet ministers are members of the majority political party in parliament and usually hold elected seats within it concurrent with their cabinet positions. The bicameral National Assembly of Belize comprises

2185-810: Is a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court . The Belize Defence Force (BDF) serves as the country's military. The BDF, with the Belize National Coast Guard and the Immigration Department, is a department of the Ministry of Defence and Immigration. In 1997 the regular army numbered more than 900, the reserve army 381, the air wing 45 and the maritime wing 36, amounting to an overall strength of approximately 1,400. In 2005,

2300-417: Is a prepositional phrase. No overt marking is used when the complement is an adjective. di , finally, is used in the progressive aspect. The verb "to go" is irregular in Kriol, especially when set in the future progressive. It does not use the progressive marker di , which is replaced by the morpheme and ɡwein . The past tense is expressed similarly: instead of employing mi , the lexical item ɡaan

2415-593: Is a slightly different system of communication from the standard forms. In recent years there has been a movement to have Kriol used more within the Belizean education system and in government documentation. The Belize Kriol Project and the National Kriol Council of Belize are at the forefront of this movement, striving to bring more prestige and recognition to the language. Current literary works using Kriol include an English and Kriol dictionary, and

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2530-521: Is absent as a grammatical category). Mufwene (1984) and Gibson and Levy (1984) propose a past-only habitual category marked by /juustu doz/ , as in /weh wi juustu doz liv ih noh az koal az ya/ ("where we used to live is not as cold as here"). For the present tense, an uninflected verb combining with an iterative adverb expresses the habitual, as in /tam aalweiz noa entaim keiti tel pɑn hii/ ("Tom always knows when Katy tells/has told about him"). Like many other Caribbean Creoles, /fi/ and /fu/ have

2645-486: Is considered a myth. Writers and historians have suggested several other possible etymologies, including postulated French and African origins. The Maya civilization emerged at least three millennia ago in the lowland area of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands to the south, in the area of present-day southeastern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala , and western Honduras . Many aspects of this culture persist in

2760-515: Is considered part of the Caribbean region and the historical British West Indies . The Maya civilization spread into the area of Belize between 1500 BC and AD 300 and flourished until about 1200. European contact began in 1502–04 when Christopher Columbus sailed along the Gulf of Honduras . European exploration was begun by English settlers in 1638. Spain and Britain both laid claim to

2875-410: Is divided into six districts . These districts are further divided into 31 constituencies . Local government in Belize comprises four types of local authorities: city councils , town councils , village councils and community councils . The two city councils ( Belize City and Belmopan ) and seven town councils cover the urban population of the country, while village and community councils cover

2990-545: Is estimated that there are more than 70,000 in Belize who speak the language. The 2010 Belize Census recorded that 25.9% of the people within Belize claimed Creole ethnicity and 44.6% claimed to speak Belizean Creole and put the number of speakers at over 130,000. It is estimated that there are as many as 85,000 Creoles that have migrated to the United States and may or may not still speak the language. Belizean Creole

3105-474: Is found in Spanish records. When Spanish missionary Andrés de Avendaño y Loyola visited the city in early 1696, nine of the temples had recently been burnt during a Kowoj Maya attack and subsequently rebuilt; during the attack many houses had also been destroyed. Ritual ceramics, identified by the Spanish as idols, were arranged in pairs upon small benches throughout the city. The Spanish set about destroying

3220-421: Is made by adding -a to the stem ("taal" – "taala" – tall). The morpheme den is employed to form comparative statements: for instance, "hî tɑlɑ dan shee" – He is taller than she. Superlatives are created by adding -es to the stem. In all cases, the use of the definite article di is obligatory. The copula is present if the superlative is used predicatively. An example could be: "She dah di taales" – She

3335-404: Is more specific than dɑ is inɑ ("into"). It is used in contexts where dɑ is not strong enough. Together with the verb "look", however, dɑ is not used and considered as incorrect. To express "to look at", it is wrong to say "luk da". The correct version would be "luk pan". In a noun phrase, Kriol can employ a structure of both noun and pronoun to create emphasis. The ordering then

3450-746: Is not a constant feature; therefore, the aspirated and non-aspirated forms are allophonic . The language employs three nasal consonants, ( /m/ /n/ /ŋ/ ). It makes extensive use of fricatives, both unvoiced ( /f/ /s/ /ʂ/ ) and voiced ( /v/ /z/ /ʐ/ . Its two liquids, /l/ and /r/ , are articulated alveo-palatally. The tongue is more lax here than in American English; its position is more similar to that of British English. Kriol's glides /w/ , /j/ , and /h/ are used extensively. Glottal stops occur rarely and inconsistently. Kriol makes use of eleven vowels: nine monophthongs , three diphthongs , and schwa [ə] . The most frequently occurring diphthong, /ai/ ,

3565-413: Is not as systematic as fully fledged languages. When the people speaking the pidgin language begin having children who grow up having no entirely developed language, they will take the partial grammar of the pidgin language their parents speak and use it as a sort of blueprint with which they are able to assign a systematic grammatical structure to the language. It is at this point that the language becomes

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3680-422: Is noun + pronoun + verb (for instance, "mista filip hi noa di ansa" – Mr. Philip knows the answer). Adjectives are employed predicatively and attributively. They can be intensified either by the postposed adverb modifier bad , by iteration, or by the use of the adverb modifier onli . Iteration is here the usual way. Comparatives and superlatives are constructed according to morphosyntactic rules. A comparative

3795-483: Is still considered the main official language of Belize, as it carries much prestige , due to the fact it is a majority language . Road signs, official documents, and such are all written in English and the people of Belize are taught in English throughout their educational careers. Despite this, bilingualism and multilingualism is common within Belize; and many people of all ethnic backgrounds in Belize have adopted

3910-498: Is that Kriol allows double negation, so that some conjunctions are used differently. Some examples of conjunctions in Kriol are: "an" (and), "but" (but), "if" (if), "o:" (or) etc. Questions usually take the same form in Kriol as they do in Standard English: question word + subject + verb. The " do-support " does not occur here either. The rising intonation at the end of the sentence may increase even more if no question word

4025-424: Is the first language of some Garifunas , Mestizos , Maya , and other ethnic groups. When the National Kriol Council began standardising the orthography of the language, it decided to promote the spelling Kriol , though they continue to use the spelling Creole to refer to the people themselves. Belizean Creole was developed as a lingua franca for those who were forced to work within the logging industry, and

4140-425: Is the possibility to mark the past by putting the tense marker | mi | before the verb. Overt marking is rare, however, if the sentence includes a semantic temporal marker, such as "yestudeh" (yesterday) or "laas season" (last season). The future tense is indicated by employing the preverbal marker wa or a . Unlike the marking of past tense, this marking is not optional. The preverbal marker di expresses

4255-468: Is the second-highest in the region and one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere . Its capital is Belmopan , and its largest city is the namesake city of Belize City . The country has a diverse society composed of many cultures and languages. It is the only Central American country where English is the official language, while Belizean Creole is the most widely spoken dialect. Spanish

4370-539: Is the second-most-commonly-spoken language, followed by the Mayan languages , German dialects , and Garifuna . Over half the population is multilingual due to the diverse linguistic backgrounds of the population. It is known for its September Celebrations and punta music . The earliest known record of the name "Belize" appears in the journal of the Dominican priest Fray José Delgado, dating to 1677. Delgado recorded

4485-476: Is the tallest. Adverbs are used much as they are in Standard English. In almost all cases, they differ from adjectives not in form but in function. There are, however, a few exceptions, such as "properli" (properly), "errli" (early) or "po:li" (poorly). Adverbs can be intensified by reduplication. Most Kriol conjunctions are very similar to English and are employed in the same way. The main difference

4600-448: Is used in all regional varieties. Both /au/ and /oi/ can occur, but they are new additions and are viewed as a sign of decreolization. The same is perceived of four of the less productive monophthongs. Unlike most creoles, Kriol has a standardized orthography . Consonants: b, ch, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, sh, t, v, w, y, z, zh The symbol choices for lengthened vowels come from ways those vowels are spelled in English, not

4715-465: Is used. A verb that is used extensively in each conversation is mek . It can be used as a modal in casual requests, in threats and intentional statements, and, of course, like the standard verb "to make". Plurals are usually formed in Kriol by inserting the obligatory postnomial marker de . Variations of this marker are den and dem . As decreolization progresses, the standard English plural ending -s occurs far more frequently. Sometimes,

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4830-453: Is used. Thus, most declarative sentences can become interrogative with the right intonation. "Which" has various translations in Kriol. If the speaker means "which", he uses witʂ , but he can also use witʂ wan for "which one". The tense/aspect system of Kriol is fundamentally unlike that of English. There are no morphologically marked past tense forms corresponding to English -ed -t. There are three preverbal particles: "mi" and "did" for

4945-404: The de is added to this form: for instance, in "shoes de" – shoes. The absence of an appropriate plural marker occurs rarely. Many Spanish, Maya, and Garifuna words refer to popular produce and food items: The construction of sentences in Kriol is very similar to that in English. It uses a Subject-Verb-Object order (SVO). All declarative and most interrogative sentences follow this pattern,

5060-470: The 1993 national election , and Esquivel became prime minister for a second time. Soon afterwards, Esquivel announced the suspension of a pact reached with Guatemala during Price's tenure, claiming Price had made too many concessions to gain Guatemalan recognition. The pact may have curtailed the 130-year-old border dispute between the two countries. Border tensions continued into the early 2000s, although

5175-506: The International Phonetic Alphabet . There is a dictionary for Kriol with over 5000 entries, including sample sentences for each word. The present tense verb is not marked overtly in Kriol. It also does not indicate number or person . As an unmarked verb, it can refer both to present and to perfective . The English past tense marker | d | at the end of the verbs indicates acrolectal speech. However, there

5290-547: The Maya gods . Soon afterwards, the Itza caught Mirones and his soldiers off guard and unarmed in the church at Sacalum; they were slaughtered to a man. These events ended all Spanish attempts to contact the Itza until 1695. In 1695 the governor of Yucatán, Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi , began to build a road from Campeche south towards Petén. Franciscan Andrés de Avendaño followed the new road as far as possible then continued towards Nojpetén with local Maya guides. They arrived at

5405-583: The Organization of American States (OAS), Mexico, and the United States. On 15 April 2018, Guatemala's government held a referendum to determine if the country should take its territorial claim on Belize to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to settle the long-standing issue. Guatemalans voted 95% yes on the matter. A similar referendum was to be held in Belize on 10 April 2019, but a court ruling led to its postponement. The referendum

5520-788: The Organization of American States (OAS); the Central American Integration System (SICA); the Caribbean Community (CARICOM); the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME); the Association of Caribbean States (ACS); and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which currently serves as a final court of appeal for only Barbados, Belize, Guyana and Saint Lucia. In 2001, the Caribbean Community heads of government voted on

5635-512: The People's United Party (PUP), sought constitutional reforms that expanded voting rights to all adults. The first election under universal suffrage was held in 1954 and was decisively won by the PUP, beginning a three-decade period in which the PUP dominated the country's politics. Pro-independence activist George Cadle Price became PUP's leader in 1956 and the effective head of government in 1961,

5750-516: The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire , Hernán Cortés led an expedition to Honduras over land, cutting across the Itza kingdom en route. His aim was to subdue the rebellious Cristóbal de Olid , whom he had sent to conquer Honduras, but Cristóbal de Olid had set himself up independently on his arrival in that territory. Cortés arrived at the north shore of Lake Petén Itzá on 13 March 1525; he

5865-600: The United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, which established legal land rights to indigenous groups. Other court cases have affirmed these rights like the Supreme Court of Belize 's 2013 decision to uphold its ruling in 2010 that acknowledges customary land titles as communal land for indigenous peoples. Another such case is the Caribbean Court of Justice 's (CCJ) 2015 order on

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5980-399: The minority language Kriol as their native language . Kriol is the lingua franca of Belize and is the first language of some Garifunas , Mestizos , Maya , and other ethnic groups. It is a second language for most others in the country. Today, Belize Kriol is the first or second language of the majority of the country's inhabitants. Many of them speak standard English as well, and

6095-498: The 1980s this included a battalion and No. 1417 Flight RAF of Harriers. The main British force left in 1994, three years after Guatemala recognized Belizean independence, but the United Kingdom maintained a training presence via the British Army Training and Support Unit Belize (BATSUB) and 25 Flight AAC until 2011 when the last British Forces left Ladyville Barracks, with the exception of seconded advisers. Belize

6210-578: The 50-page voluntary national report Belize created on its progress toward the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals , indigenous groups are not factored into the country's indicators whatsoever. Belize's Maya population is only mentioned once in the entirety of the report. Belize is on the Caribbean coast of northern Central America. It shares a border on the north with the Mexican state of Quintana Roo , on

6325-592: The Baymen five to one. The local Kriol speech shifted to become something more like the Miskito Coast Creole . Belize Kriol is derived mainly from English but is influenced by other languages brought into the country due to the slave trade. Its substrate languages are the Native American language Miskito , Spanish , and the various West African and Bantu languages that were brought into

6440-707: The Belizean government, which stipulated that the country develop a land registry to classify and exercise traditional governance over Mayan lands. Despite these rulings, Belize has made little progress to support the land rights of indigenous communities; for instance, in the two years after the CCJ's decision, Belize's government failed to launch the Mayan land registry, prompting the group to take action into its own hands. The exact ramifications of these cases need to be examined. As of 2017, Belize still struggles to recognize indigenous populations and their respective rights. According to

6555-607: The Caribbean Forum ( CARIFORUM ) subgroup of the Group of African, Caribbean, and Pacific states (ACP). CARIFORUM presently the only part of the wider ACP-bloc that has concluded the full regional trade-pact with the European Union . The British Army Garrison in Belize is used primarily for jungle warfare training, with access to more than 13,000 square kilometres (5,000 sq mi) of jungle terrain. Belize

6670-457: The Court of Appeal hears appeals from convicted individuals seeking to have their sentences overturned. Defendants may, under certain circumstances, appeal their cases to the Caribbean Court of Justice . In 1935, elections were reinstated, but only 1.8 percent of the population was eligible to vote. In 1954, women won the right to vote. Since 1974, the party system in Belize has been dominated by

6785-620: The Itza, like his forebear, cited Itza prophecy and said the time was not yet right. He asked the Spanish to return in four months, at which time the Itza would convert and swear fealty to the King of Spain. Kan Ek' learnt of a plot by a rival Itza group to ambush and kill the Franciscans and the Itza king advised them to return to Mérida via Tipu. The Spanish friars became lost and suffered great hardships but eventually arrived back in Mérida after

6900-403: The Spanish garrison at Nuestra Señora de los Remedios y San Pablo. Reinforcements arrived from Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (modern Antigua Guatemala ) in 1699 but they did not stay long due to an outbreak of disease. When they returned to the Guatemalan capital they took Kan Ek', his son and two of his cousins with them. The cousins died en route but the last Kan Ek' and his son spent

7015-628: The UDP to a third consecutive general election victory in November 2015, increasing the party's number of seats from 17 to 19. He said the election would be his last as party leader and preparations are under way for the party to elect his successor. On 11 November 2020, the People's United Party (PUP), led by Johnny Briceño , defeated the United Democratic Party (UDP) for the first time since 2003, having won 26 seats out of 31 to form

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7130-499: The United Kingdom announced that it would end its military involvement in Belize, and the RAF Harrier detachment was withdrawn the same year, having remained stationed in the country continuously since its deployment had become permanent there in 1980. British soldiers were withdrawn in 1994, but the United Kingdom left behind a military training unit to assist with the newly created Belize Defence Force . The UDP regained power in

7245-567: The appointed day Kan Ek' failed to arrive; instead Maya warriors amassed both along the shore and in canoes upon the lake. Ursúa decided that any further attempts at peaceful incorporation of the Itza into the Spanish Empire were pointless and a waterbourne assault was launched upon Kan Ek's capital on 13 March. The city fell after a brief but bloody battle in which many Itza warriors died; the Spanish suffered only minor casualties. The surviving Itza abandoned their capital and swam across to

7360-677: The area of Belize City in the 1650s. Ken Decker proposed that the creole spoken in Belize previous to 1786 was probably more like Vincentian Creole than the Belize Kriol of today. By the Convention of London of 1786, the British were supposed to cease all logging operations along the Caribbean coast of Central America, except in the Belize settlement. Many of the settlers from the Miskito Coast moved to Belize, bringing their Miskito Coast Creole with them. The immigrants outnumbered

7475-539: The area of present-day Belize. When Spanish explorers arrived in the 16th century, the area of present-day Belize included at least three distinct Maya territories: Spanish conquistadors explored the land and declared it part of the Spanish Empire , but they failed to settle the territory because of its lack of resources and the tribes of the Yucatán defending their land. English pirates sporadically visited

7590-486: The area, despite nearly 500 years of European domination. Prior to about 2500 BC, some hunting and foraging bands settled in small farming villages; they domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squash , and chili peppers. A profusion of languages and subcultures developed within the Maya core culture. Between about 2500 BC and 250 AD, the basic institutions of Maya civilization emerged. The Maya civilization spread across

7705-479: The battle has been declared a national holiday in Belize and is celebrated to commemorate the "first Belizeans" and the defence of their territory taken from the Spanish empire. In the early 19th century, the British sought to reform the settlers, threatening to suspend the Public Meeting unless it observed the government's instructions to eliminate slavery outright. After a generation of wrangling, slavery

7820-473: The centre-left People's United Party and the centre-right United Democratic Party , although other small parties took part in all levels of elections in the past. Though none of these small political parties has ever won any significant number of seats or offices, their challenge has been growing over the years. Belize is a full participating member of the United Nations ; the Commonwealth of Nations ;

7935-410: The city had been significantly damaged. Martín de Ursúa arrived at the lakeshore with a Spanish army on 1 March 1697 and built a fortified camp and an attack boat. On 10 March Kan Ek' sent a canoe with a white flag raised bearing emissaries, including the Itza high priest, who offered peaceful surrender. Ursúa received the embassy in peace and invited Kan Ek' to visit his encampment three days later. On

8050-473: The coast of what is now Belize, seeking a sheltered region from which they could attack Spanish ships (see English settlement in Belize ) and cut logwood ( Haematoxylum campechianum ) trees. The first British permanent settlement was founded around 1716, in what became the Belize District , and during the 18th century, established a system using enslaved Africans to cut logwood trees. This yielded

8165-415: The coasts and in the northern interior reduces the actual land area to 21,400 square kilometres (8,263 sq mi). It is the only Central American country with no Pacific coastline. Belize Kriol English language Belizean Creole is a contact language that developed and grew between 1650 and 1930, as a result of the slave trade . Belizean Creole, like many Creole languages, first started as

8280-513: The comprehension of a native speaker of English." There are multiple regional vernacular varieties of Belizean Kriol; so, depending on where one is, the vernacular may be slightly different. A locale in the south of Belize, such as Punta Gorda , may have a slightly different Kriol vernacular than that one of the more northern areas, such as Belize City , which shows a vernacular closer to traditional Kriol, because of this, has gained more prestige than other vernaculars that stray farther away from

8395-404: The country by slaves, which include Akan , Efik , Ewe , Fula , Ga , Hausa , Igbo , Kikongo , and Wolof . There are numerous theories as to how creole languages form . The most common and linguistically supported hypothesis indicates that creoles start out as a pidgin languages when there exists a need for some type of verbal communication between members of communities who do not share

8510-535: The country's population (≈154,949 Belizeans) reside in this region. As of 2020, the border dispute with Guatemala remains unresolved and contentious. Guatemala's claim to Belizean territory rests, in part, on Clause VII of the Anglo-Guatemalan Treaty of 1859 , which obligated the British to build a road between Belize City and Guatemala. At various times, the issue has required mediation by the United Kingdom, Caribbean Community heads of government,

8625-417: The formerly enslaved Africans' working conditions if they stayed at their trade. A series of institutions restricted the ability of emancipated African individuals to buy land, in a debt-peonage system. Former "extra special" mahogany or logwood cutters undergirded the early ascription of the capacities (and consequently the limitations) of people of African descent in the colony. Because a small elite controlled

8740-580: The government and the Parliament of Belize . Constitutional safeguards include freedom of speech, press, worship, movement, and association. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Members of the independent judiciary are appointed. The judicial system includes local magistrates grouped under the Magistrates' Court, which hears less serious cases. The Supreme Court (chief justice) hears murder and similarly serious cases, and

8855-413: The helm, the PUP won all national elections until 1984 . In that election, the first national election after independence, the PUP was defeated by the United Democratic Party (UDP). UDP leader Manuel Esquivel replaced Price as prime minister, with Price himself unexpectedly losing his own House seat to a UDP challenger. The PUP under Price returned to power after elections in 1989 . The following year

8970-532: The infuriated natives by means of a particularly eloquent sermon that resulted in them being forgiven. Attempts to convert the Itza failed and the friars left Nojpetén on friendly terms with Kan Ek'. The friars returned in 1619, arriving in October and staying for eighteen days. Again Kan Ek' welcomed them in a friendly manner; however the Maya priesthood were hostile and jealous of the missionaries' influence upon

9085-423: The interrogatives with a changed emphasis. The construction of the phrases follows Standard English in many ways. Locatives are more frequently used in Kriol and much more productive than in Standard English. The general locative is expressed by the morpheme da ("at" or "to"). It is possible to use to or pɑn ("on") instead. This is an indication of either emphasis or decreolization. Another morpheme which

9200-472: The island-city of Nojpetén on Lake Peten Itza . Tayasal is on a small island surrounded by water, and unless the natives go by canoe, they cannot enter by land; and they whitewash the houses and temples so they may be seen from more than two leagues distant Bernal Díaz del Castillo described Nojpetén in Chapter CLXXVIII of his Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España Nojpetén

9315-527: The journey back to Mérida. In 1622 Captain Francisco de Mirones set out from Yucatán to launch an assault upon the Itza. His army was later joined by Franciscan friar Diego Delgado. En route to Nojpetén, Delgado believed that the army's treatment of the Maya was excessively cruel and he left the army to make his own way to Nojpetén with eighty Christianised Maya from Tipu in Belize . When the party arrived at Nojpetén, they were all seized and sacrificed to

9430-424: The king. They persuaded Kan Ek's wife to convince him to expel the unwelcome visitors. The missionaries' lodgings were surrounded by armed warriors and the friars and their accompanying servants were escorted to a waiting canoe and instructed to leave and never come back. Juan de Orbita attempted to resist and was rendered unconscious by an Itza warrior. The missionaries were expelled without food or water but survived

9545-455: The lake to meet him on the south shore. Cortés left behind a lame horse that the Itza treated as a deity, attempting to feed it poultry, meat, and flowers, but the animal soon died. Following Cortés' visit, no Spanish attempted to visit the warlike Itza inhabitants of Nojpetén for almost a hundred years. In 1618 two Franciscan friars set out from Mérida in Yucatán on a mission to attempt

9660-610: The land until Britain defeated the Spanish in the Battle of St. George's Caye (1798). It became a British colony in 1840, and a Crown colony in 1862. Belize achieved its independence from the United Kingdom on 21 September 1981. It is the only mainland Central American country which is a Commonwealth realm , with King Charles III as its monarch and head of state , represented by a governor-general . Belize's abundance of terrestrial and marine plants and animals and its diversity of ecosystems, including extensive coral reefs , give it

9775-575: The language itself is linked to many West African substrate languages . This is due to the fact that these slaves, more specifically identified as Belizean "Creoles", were taken from Africa and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and brought to what was then known as British Honduras , which was the name of Belize when it was a British crown colony , before gaining independence in September 1981. The European Baymen first began to settle in

9890-467: The mahogany trade throughout the rest of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The Great Depression of the 1930s caused a near-collapse of the colony's economy as British demand for timber plummeted. The effects of widespread unemployment were worsened by a devastating hurricane that struck the colony in 1931. Perceptions of the government's relief effort as inadequate were aggravated by its refusal to legalize labour unions or introduce

10005-490: The mainland with many dying in the water. Martín de Ursúa planted his standard upon the highest point of the island and renamed Nojpetén as Nuestra Señora de los Remedios y San Pablo, Laguna del Itza ("Our Lady of Remedy and Saint Paul, Lake of the Itza"). Kan Ek' was soon captured with help from the Yalain Maya ruler. Ursúa returned to Mérida, leaving Kan Ek' and other high-ranking members of his family as prisoners of

10120-500: The maritime wing became part of the Belizean Coast Guard. In 2012, the Belizean government spent about $ 17 million on the military, constituting 1.08% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). After Belize achieved independence in 1981 the United Kingdom maintained a deterrent force (British Forces Belize) in the country to protect it from invasion by Guatemala (see Guatemalan claim to Belizean territory ). During

10235-467: The masses held by the Catholic missionaries. Kan Ek' informed them that according to ancient Itza prophecy it was not yet time for them to convert to Christianity. In the time since Cortés had visited Nojpetén, the Itza had made a statue of the deified horse. Juan de Orbita was outraged when he saw the idol and he immediately smashed it into pieces. Fuensalida was able to save the lives of the visitors from

10350-464: The meaning, together with context. Emphasis can be strengthened by adding emphatic markers, or through repetition and redundancy. There are four forms of "be" in Kriol: de , two uses of di , and the absence of a marker. The equative form di is used as a copula (when the complement of the verb is either a noun or a noun phrase). de is the locative form that is used when the verb's complement

10465-533: The name comes from the Mayan phrase "bel Itza", meaning "the way to Itza ". In the 1820s, the Creole elite of Belize invented the legend that the toponym Belize derived from the Spanish pronunciation of the name of a Scottish buccaneer , Peter Wallace , who established a settlement at the mouth of the Belize River in 1638. There is no proof that buccaneers settled in this area and the very existence of Wallace

10580-546: The names of three major rivers that he crossed while travelling north along the Caribbean coast: Rio Soyte, Rio Kibum, and Rio Balis. The names of these waterways, which correspond to the Sittee River , Sibun River , and Belize River , were provided to Delgado by his translator. It has been proposed that Delgado's "Balis" was actually the Mayan word belix (or beliz ), meaning "muddy water", although no such Mayan word actually exists. More recently, it has been proposed that

10695-481: The new government of Belize. Briceño took office as Prime Minister on 12 November. In 2023, Belize became the second Central American country to be awarded certification for the elimination of malaria by the WHO . Belize is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy . The structure of government is based on the British parliamentary system, and the legal system is modelled on the common law of England . The head of state

10810-442: The pagan idols after conquering the city. In 1175, the league began to disintegrate. A Cocom man named Ceel Cauich Ah was thrown into the cenote of Chichen Itza . The cenote is a deep hole filled with water. It is 15 meters from the ground to the water, and the walls are very steep. It is considered an entrance to the afterlife, and it is almost impossible to climb out. But Ceel managed to climb out. He proclaimed himself Ajaw ,

10925-457: The past, "di" as an "aspect marker", and a host of articles to indicate the future ("(w)a(n)", "gwein", "gouɲ"). These are not verbs, they are simply invariant particles that cannot stand alone, unlike the English "to be". Their function differs somewhat from English. The progressive is marked by /di~de/ . Past habitual is marked by /doz/ or /juustu/ . The present habitual aspect is unmarked but can be indicated by "always", "usually", etc. (i.e.

11040-532: The peaceful conversion of the still pagan Itza in central Petén. Bartolomé de Fuensalida and Juan de Orbita were accompanied by the alcalde of Bacalar (a Spanish colonial official) and some Christianised Maya. After an arduous six-month journey the travellers were well received by the current Kan Ek'. They stayed at Nojpetén for some days in an attempt to evangelise the Itza but the Aj Kan Ek' refused to renounce his Maya religion , although he showed interest in

11155-506: The progressive aspect in both past and present tense. However, if the past is not marked overtly (lexically or by using mi ), an unambiguous understanding is only possible in context. di is always mandatory. In the past progressive, it is possible to achieve an unambiguous meaning by combining mi + di + verb. Progressive action in the future can be expressed by using bi in conjunction with wɑ . The correct combination here would be wɑ + bi + verb. Kriol does not have

11270-456: The rural population. Throughout Belize's history, Guatemala has claimed sovereignty over all or part of Belizean territory. This claim is occasionally reflected in maps drawn by Guatemala's government, showing Belize as Guatemala's twenty-third department . The Guatemalan territorial claim involves approximately 53% of Belize's mainland, which includes significant portions of four districts: Belize, Cayo, Stann Creek, and Toledo. Roughly 43% of

11385-462: The same language. In the case of Belize Kriol, the pidgin would have developed as a result of West Africans being captured and taken to the Americas as slaves to work in the logging industries, where they would be forced to communicate with slave owners of European descent. For the first generation of people speaking the pidgin language, the pidgin is not fully developed and the grammar of the language

11500-473: The settlement's land and commerce, formerly enslaved Africans had little choice but to continue to work in timber cutting. In 1836, after the emancipation of Central America from Spanish rule , the British claimed the right to administer the region. In 1862, the United Kingdom formally declared it a British Crown Colony , subordinate to Jamaica, and named it British Honduras. Since 1854, the richest inhabitants elected an assembly of notables by censal vote, which

11615-445: The settlers to establish their own laws and forms of government. During this period, a few settlers gained control of the local legislature, known as the Public Meeting, as well as of most of the settlement's land and timber. The British did not appoint their first superintendent over the Belize area until 1786. Throughout the 18th century, the Spanish attacked Belize every time war broke out with Britain. The Battle of St. George's Caye

11730-508: The territory of present-day Belize around 1500   BC, and flourished until around 900 AD. The recorded history of the middle and southern regions focuses on Caracol , an urban political centre that may have supported over 140,000 people. North of the Maya Mountains , the most important political centre was Lamanai . In the late Classic Era of Maya Civilization (600–1000   AD), an estimated 400,000 to 1,000,000 people inhabited

11845-428: The traditional vernacular. English taught in the schools of Belize is based on British English , but it is often influenced by the teachers' Kriol speech. The 1999 Ministry of Education: School Effectiveness Report (p. 84) notes that "Creole is spoken as the first language in most homes." Belizean people speak English, Kriol, and often Spanish, while learning the English system of writing and reading in schools. It

11960-514: The two countries cooperated in other areas. In 1996, the Belize Barrier Reef , one of the Western Hemisphere's most pristine ecosystems, was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The PUP won a landslide victory in the 1998 national elections, and PUP leader Said Musa was sworn in as prime minister. In the 2003 elections the PUP maintained its majority, and Musa continued as prime minister. He pledged to improve conditions in

12075-428: The underdeveloped and largely inaccessible southern part of Belize. In 2005, Belize was the site of unrest caused by discontent with the PUP government, including tax increases in the national budget. On 8 February 2008, Dean Barrow was sworn in as prime minister after his UDP won a landslide victory in general elections. Barrow and the UDP were re-elected in 2012 with a considerably smaller majority. Barrow led

12190-403: The use of a completive preverbal marker, such as don or finiʂ . The conditional mood is expressed through the conditional verbs wuda , mi-wa , and mia . The short version, da , is employed only in the present tense; the past tense requires the longer forms. There is no overt lexical marking of active and passive in Kriol. It is only the emphasis of a sentence that can clarify

12305-527: The west with the Guatemalan department of Petén , and on the south with the Guatemalan department of Izabal . To the east in the Caribbean Sea, the second-longest barrier reef in the world flanks much of the 386 kilometres (240 mi) of predominantly marshy coastline. The area of the country totals 22,960 square kilometres (8,865 sq mi), an area slightly larger than El Salvador , Israel , New Jersey , or Wales . The many lagoons along

12420-433: The western end of Lake Petén Itzá to an enthusiastic welcome by the local Itza. The following day, the current Aj Kan Ek' travelled across the lake with eighty canoes to greet the visitors. The Franciscans returned to Nojpetén with Kan Ek' and baptised over 300 Itza children over the following four days. Avendaño tried to convince Kan Ek' to convert to Christianity and surrender to the Spanish crown, without success. The king of

12535-544: Was abolished in the British Empire in 1833. As a result of their enslaved Africans' abilities in the work of mahogany extraction, owners in British Honduras were compensated at £53.69 per enslaved African on average, the highest amount paid in any British territory. This was a form of reparation that was not given to the enslaved Africans at the time, nor since. The end of slavery did little to change

12650-529: Was about half the size of the Mayapan castillo ; its nine levels may each have been less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) high; the pyramid would still have been imposing. It possibly had only one access stairway rather than the four radial stairways found in the examples in Yucatán. The pyramid was topped by a flat-roofed summit shrine that contained idols representing Itza gods. The dismantling of this pyramid would have required considerable effort but no mention of this

12765-473: Was closely packed with buildings that included temples, palaces and thatched houses. In 1698 Spanish accounts describe the city as having had twenty-one temples, the largest of these (which the Spanish called a castillo (castle or palace) had a square base measuring 16.5 metres (54 ft) on each side. It had nine stepped levels and faced northward; it appeared very similar in design to the principal pyramids at Chichen Itza and Mayapan in Yucatán . This

12880-461: Was held on 8 May 2019, and 55.4% of voters opted to send the matter to the ICJ. Both countries submitted requests to the ICJ (in 2018 and 2019, respectively) and the ICJ ordered Guatemala's initial brief be submitted by December 2020 and Belize's response by 2022. On 7 June 2023, the stage of written submissions ended, with the next step being oral arguments from each country's legal teams. Belize backed

12995-460: Was met there by the Aj Kan Ek'. The Roman Catholic priests accompanying the expedition celebrated mass in the presence of Kan Ek', who was said to be so impressed that he pledged to worship the Cross and to destroy his idols. Cortés accepted an invitation from the king to visit Nojpetén, and crossed to the Maya city with a small contingent of Spanish soldiers while the rest of his army continued around

13110-480: Was replaced by a legislative council appointed by the British government. As a colony, Belize began to attract British investors. Among the British firms that dominated the colony in the late 19th century was the Belize Estate and Produce Company, which eventually acquired half of all privately held land and eventually eliminated peonage . Belize Estate's influence accounts in part for the colony's reliance on

13225-467: Was the last of such military engagements, in 1798, between a Spanish fleet and a force of Baymen and their slaves. From 3 to 5 September, the Spaniards tried to force their way through Montego Caye shoal, but were blocked by defenders. Spain's last attempt occurred on 10 September, when the Baymen repelled the Spanish fleet in a short engagement with no known casualties on either side. The anniversary of

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