Belize

Belize is a country on the Caribbean coast of Central America, between Mexico to the north and Guatemala to the west and south. Belmopan is the capital, Belize City is the largest city, and English is the official language, the only one in Central America, while Belizean Creole, Spanish and Mayan languages are widely spoken.

The Maya spread into the area between 1500 BC and AD 300, and their civilization flourished until about 1200; Caracol in the south may once have supported over 140,000 people. Columbus sailed along the Gulf of Honduras between 1502 and 1504, and English settlers arrived in 1638. Spain and Britain both claimed the land until the British won the Battle of St. George's Caye in 1798. The name first appears in 1677, and the legend that it comes from a Scottish buccaneer named Peter Wallace has no evidence behind it.

Belize became a British colony in 1840 and a Crown colony in 1862, known as British Honduras until 1973. George Price led the push for independence from 1956, and the country became independent on 21 September 1981, the only mainland Central American state that keeps the British monarch as head of state. Guatemala long refused to recognize it, claiming Belize as its own territory, and the dispute shaped its early years.

Off the marshy coast runs the Belize Barrier Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. The country is the least densely populated in Central America and part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, founded in 1986, was the first wilderness reserve for the jaguar, and punta music comes from Belize as well.