7 ATLASES

History of Belize in maps

Belize as it appears in 7 interactive history atlases, from 1750 to 2015: Belize, British Honduras, British Honduras / Belize. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

Open this map in the interactive atlas →

WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.

Free printable Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution study guide, sent by email ↓

Map of women’s rights in May 1970, showing Belize — MAP OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN MAY 1970

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1 historical polities · ILO: Equal Remuneration Convention C100 · Natural Earth 1:10m countries and physical geography · Natural Earth 1:10m administrative references (US states and Berlin)

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY 4.0 · Selected source records; component selection, documented unions and date proxies; projected for display.
International Labour Organization. Factual historical evidence; no source prose reproduced
Natural Earth. Public domain · Property selection and semantic ID normalization; full coordinates retained. An upstream Egyptian ring self-intersection is repaired with area change below 1e-9 square degrees; see natural-earth-admin0-review.json.
Natural Earth. Public domain

Modern reference outlines locate the historical thematic data. The underlying rights/protest classifications remain unchanged.

Germany uses dated East/West source extents together with a Berlin reference; Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union use reviewed historical extents. For Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, the 1953–68 references are retained where later Cliopatria records show military occupation rather than treaty-party territory.

reconstruction: 1953–1968 · reconstruction: 1958–1989; 1953–1972 · reconstruction: Cartographic device · vector: 1949–1990 · vector: 1953–1968 · vector: 1963–1975

Layer records and reconstruction methods

What was Belize before it was Belize? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.

Belize · Industrial Revolution

c. 1750

Colony or dependency — the opening position

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

British Honduras (mod. Belize) · Age of Revolutions

APR 1775

Britain & its empire — the opening position

AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

British Honduras / Belize · Haiti and Kenya independence

1789	Under colonial rule — the opening position

HAITI AND KENYA INDEPENDENCE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

British Honduras (Belize) · American Civil War

British Honduras, a colony of mahogany camps and a port, became a refuge for Confederate irreconcilables after 1865. A few thousand ex-Confederates chose to emigrate and plant cotton and sugar in Toledo district rather than live under the Union. Rain, debt and homesickness defeated most of them, and within a decade they drifted home. Their failed exile offers a verdict on the Lost Cause: there was no elsewhere.