ver. Established in early colonial times, it was pillaged by hostile Indians in 1872. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it conducted a thriving trade in mahogany. The town declined after demand for mahogany lessened. Sugarcane and citrus fruit cultivation and rum distilling are the main economic activities. The area's inhabitants are primarily Spanish-speaking mestizos. Recently excavated Maya archaeological sites date from 600 BC to AD 50. Pop. 11,728.Belize city former capital and chief seaport of Belize (formerly British Honduras). The city occupies both banks of the Haulover Creek, a delta mouth of the Belize River on the Caribbean coast. Its name was probably derived from an ancient Maya Indian word that refers to the Belize River, which was until the 10th century a heavily populated trade artery of the Maya Empire. Exports include sugar, mahogany, cedar, and other timbers (both mill wood and in the round), citrus fruits, coconuts, copra, bananas, and corn (maize). Furniture, boats, and wood products are manufactured, and livestock (hogs and cattle) are raised in the surrounding area. Fisheries and sawmilling are local activities. Ethnic GroupsMany Belizeans are of mixed ancestry, most of them descendant of immigrants. Mestizos (of mixed Maya Indian and European ancestry) are the largest ethnic group, accounting for more than two-fifths of the population. English-speaking people of largely African and African-European ancestry, who are called Creoles, account for nearly one-third of the population and predominate in the central coastal regions. Mestizos predominate in the more sparsely inhabited interior, along with the Maya, who account for one-ninth of the population. Several thousand Garifuna, formerly called Black Caribs who are descendants of the Carib Indians and Africans exiled from British colonies in the eastern Caribbean (Lesser Antilles) in the 18th century, live in communities on the south coast. People of ...
