Belize
Belize’s history and politics reflect the country’s anomalous position between the Anglophone Caribbean and Hispanic Central America. Older historical narratives emphasized its exceptionalism as the region’s sole British colony, associating national identity with its creole (English-speaking) residents. Official discourses belied the country’s actual ethnic complexity, and patterns of wealth and land distribution that mirrored the inequities of the neighboring countries. Recent historiography has emphasized its arduous path to independence, which was complicated by colonial intransigence to self-governance and a long-standing Guatemalan territorial claim. Belize’s contemporary challenges stem from its political affinities with the Commonwealth and geographic location in Central America. Like most of the Caribbean, its agricultural economy has been wracked by market liberalization, caused by the loss of EU trade preferences. Migration from other Central American countries and between Belize and the United States has reshaped the country’s demography, heightening inequities rooted in the colonial era.