Belize

Belize was densely populated long before Europeans arrived. Cuello in the north has evidence of settled farming from around 1200 BC, and by the Classic period cities such as Caracol, Lamanai, Xunantunich and Altun Ha controlled trade in jade, obsidian, cacao and salt.

Caracol, in the Chiquibul forest, defeated Tikal in 562 and grew to perhaps 100,000 people, larger than Belize City today. Its main pyramid, Caana, is still the tallest building in the country.

Lamanai, on the New River lagoon, was occupied for more than 3,000 years, into the Spanish period. Caves such as Actun Tunichil Muknal were entrances to Xibalba, the underworld, where the Maya left offerings and human sacrifices.

Maya people still live in Belize: Yucatec Maya in the north, and Mopan and Q'eqchi' in Toledo, many of whom arrived from Guatemala in the 19th century. A 2015 court ruling recognised Maya customary land rights in Toledo.

Spain claimed the coast but never settled it. From the 1630s British buccaneers and loggers, the Baymen, cut logwood (used for dye) and later mahogany along the rivers, working with enslaved Africans brought from Jamaica.

In 1798 the settlers and the enslaved men who fought with them repelled a Spanish fleet at St George's Caye, a battle Belizeans celebrate every 10 September. Britain made the territory the colony of British Honduras in 1862.

The mahogany trade collapsed in the 20th century, and a 1931 hurricane and the Depression brought hardship and labour protests. George Price's People's United Party led the push for self-government in the 1950s, and the country was renamed Belize in 1973.

Independence came on 21 September 1981. British troops stayed to deter Guatemala, which claimed all or part of Belize; in 2019 both countries' voters agreed to send the dispute to the International Court of Justice, where it is still under consideration (check).

Belize has only about 420,000 people, but few countries mix so many cultures. Kriol people, descended from Baymen and enslaved Africans, shaped the national culture and the Kriol language that most Belizeans speak with each other.

Mestizos, many descended from refugees of Mexico's 19th-century Caste War and from later Central American migrants, are now about half the population and make Spanish the most common home language.

The Garífuna, of mixed Carib, Arawak and West African ancestry, were deported by the British from St Vincent to Roatán in 1797 and settled along the Belizean coast; their language, music and dance are on UNESCO's intangible heritage list.

German-speaking Mennonites arrived from Mexico in 1958 and farm large areas around Spanish Lookout and Shipyard, supplying much of the country's dairy, poultry and furniture. East Indian, Chinese, Lebanese and North American communities complete the picture.

The national plate is rice and beans cooked together in coconut milk, served with stewed chicken, potato salad and fried plantain. It is Sunday lunch across the country, whatever a family's background.

Breakfast means fry jacks or johnnycakes with beans, eggs and cheese. Mestizo cooks add salbutes, panades and escabeche, close cousins of Yucatán dishes.

The Garífuna kitchen is built on fish, coconut and cassava: hudut is fish in coconut broth with mashed plantain, and cassava bread is still made by hand in coastal villages.

Lobster and conch drive the cayes' restaurants, with closed seasons to protect stocks. Marie Sharp's habanero sauces, made in Stann Creek since the 1980s, are on nearly every table.

The Belize Barrier Reef runs for about 300 km along the coast, part of the Mesoamerican Reef system that stretches from Mexico to Honduras. Beyond it lie three of the four true atolls in the Caribbean: Turneffe, Lighthouse and Glover's.

The Great Blue Hole, a collapsed cave about 125 m deep on Lighthouse Reef, was made famous by Jacques Cousteau in 1971. The reef was placed on UNESCO's endangered list in 2009 and removed in 2018 after Belize banned offshore oil exploration.

About a third of the country's land is protected. Cockscomb Basin was set up as the world's first jaguar reserve in 1986, and the Chiquibul forest is the largest block of rainforest in the country, under pressure from illegal logging and farming across the border.

Hurricanes shape life on the coast: Hattie in 1961 destroyed much of Belize City and led to the building of the new inland capital, Belmopan.

Belize is a parliamentary democracy with a British-style system; the People's United Party under Prime Minister John Briceño won re-election in 2025 (check). Tourism is the largest earner, followed by sugar, citrus, bananas and seafood.

The Belize dollar has been fixed at two to one US dollar since 1978, which is why US dollars pass everywhere. Prices are high for the region because most goods are imported.

Crime is concentrated in Belize City's gang neighbourhoods, far from the cayes and Cayo. The government has used states of emergency in some districts to fight gang violence.

For visitors, entry is 30 days visa-free for most Western passports, Belize is outside the CA-4 agreement, and leaving by land or sea costs BZ$40. San Ignacio is the natural bridge to Tikal in Guatemala.