Old page wikitext, before the edit (old_wikitext) | '{{short description|Historical development of Honduras}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{History of Honduras}}
[[File:Kopan.png|thumb|Mayan representative hieroglyphic of the Kingdom of "Xukpi" also known as Copan. The [[Maya civilization|Mayan civilization]] was predominant in the western part of Honduras.]]
[[File:Coat of arms of Honduras (Colonial).svg|thumb|140px|First coat of arms of Honduras given by the emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles I]] of [[Spain]] an 5th of the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman empire]]. By the time of the colonial era Honduras suffered a demographic change due the arrival of Spanish immigrants ]]
'''Honduras''' was inhabited by many indigenous peoples when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. The western-central part of [[Honduras]] was inhabited by the [[Lencas]], the central north coast by the [[Jicaque people|Tol]], the area east and west of [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]] by the [[Pech people|Pech (or Paya)]], the [[Maya civilization|Maya]] and [[Sumo people|Sumo]]. These autonomous groups maintained commercial relationships with each other and with other populations as distant as [[History of Panama|Panama]] and [[History of Mexico|Mexico]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1922.htm|title=U.S. Relations With Honduras|date=9 April 2015|website=U.S. Department of State|access-date=11 June 2016}}</ref> Honduras has ruins of several cities dating from the Mesoamerican [[Preclassic Maya|pre-classic]] period that show the [[pre-Columbian Honduras|pre-Columbian]] past of the country.
For the arrival of the Spanish, new cities were founded such as [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]], [[Comayagua]], [[Gracias]], and [[Tegucigalpa]]. Starting in the colonial era, the territory of what is today Honduras was dedicated to harvesting, mining, and ranching. After its independence from the [[Spanish Empire]] in 1821, Central America would join the [[first Mexican Empire]] for a very short time, which would fall in 1823 and the [[Federal Republic of Central America|Central American federation]] would be created, which would fall in 1839. After that, the Honduran territory has become an independent nation.
==Pre-Columbian era==
{{Main|Copán}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
| image1 = CPN Rosalila 01.jpg|caption1=The Rosalila Temple in the Copan Ruinas Museum
| image2 = CPN ST B 01.jpg|caption2=A [[Maya stelae|Maya stela]], an emblematic symbol of the Honduran Mayan civilization at Copan
}}
Archaeologists have demonstrated that Honduras has a multi-ethnic prehistory. An important part of that prehistory was the [[Maya civilization|Maya]]n presence around the city of [[Copán]] in western Honduras near the Guatemalan border. Copán was a major Maya city that began to flourish around 150 A.D. but reached its height in the Late Classic (700–850 A.D.). It has left behind many carved inscriptions and [[stelae]]. The ancient kingdom, named ''[[Copán|Xukpi]]'', existed from the 5th century to the early 9th century, and had antecedents going back to at least the 2nd century. Other Mayan city was El puente, that ended up being conquered by Copan during the classic period, which ruins are a few kilometers from Copan. Other Mayan archeological sites in Honduras are [[Rastrojón|El Rastrojon]], [[Rio Amarillo (Mayan Site)|Rio Amarillo]], [[El Puente (Maya site)|El Puente]], and [[Playa de los Muertos|Playa de los muertos]]. Mayan culture extended from what today are the departments of Copan, Ocotepeque, Santa Barbara, and Cortes. Archaeological studies determined that these people made several villages around the territories that comprise these departments.
The [[Mayan civilization]] began a marked decline in population in the 9th century, but there is evidence of people still living in and around the city until at least 1200.<ref>Paine, Richard R and Freter, AnnCorinne 1996 "Environmental Degradation and the Classic Maya Collapse at Copan, Honduras" ''Ancient Mesoamerica'' 7:37–47 Cambridge University Press</ref> By the time the Spanish came to Honduras, the once great city-state of Copán was overrun by the jungle, and the surviving [[Ch'orti' people|Ch’orti']] were isolated from their Choltian linguistic peers to the west. The non-Maya [[Lenca people|Lenca]]s were then dominant in western Honduras, creating several villages in the valleys. The Lenca people was the biggest and most well organized society in terms of military organization by the time of the conquest at the early 16th century.<ref>Newson, Linda The Cost of Conquest: Indian Decline in Honduras Under Spanish Rule. Dellplain Latin American Studies; No. 20, Westview Press, Boulder</ref>
[[File:Los Naranjos Honduras.jpg|thumb|One of the Pyramids of Los Naranjos, these ones are considered to be the oldest structures of Honduras. |alt=|left]]
Many other regions were host to large societies. Archaeological sites include {{illm|Naco (Honduras)|lt=Naco|es|Naco (Honduras)}}, La Sierra, and El Curruste in the northwest (thought to have been populated by [[Western Jicaque language|Western Jicaque]] speakers), [[Los Naranjos, Honduras|Los Naranjos]] north of [[Lake Yojoa]], [[Temanpua|Tenampua]] and [[Yarumela]] in the [[Comayagua]] valley were built by the ancestors of the [[Lenca people|Lenca]] people.
[[File:Yacimiento arquelogico de Yarumela.jpg|thumb|Pyramid 102 of [[Yarumela]], one of the oldest Honduran archeological sites.]]
Honduras was mainly part of [[Mesoamerica]], and was home to complex settled societies for several thousand consecutive years, just as the other neighboring regions, and it is clear that neighboring Maya societies and more distant Central Mexican societies were a major influence on Honduran communities, both through trade (especially with the Maya civilization, and, during the [[Mesoamerican chronology#Preclassic Era or Formative Period|Formative Period]], the [[Olmec civilization]]) and occasionally migration. For example, during internal conflict in the late [[Toltec Empire]], around 1000 to 1100 AD, [[Nahuatl]]-speakers migrated from Central Mexico and dispersed into different parts of Central America, including Honduras, especially [[Chapagua]]. In present-day El Salvador, they became the [[Pipil people|Pipil]] and founded [[Kuzshkatán (Cuzcatlan)|Kuskatan]], and in Nicaragua, they became the [[Nicarao people|Nicarao]].
[[La Ciudad Blanca]] is the major exception, which lies on the very fringe of Mesoamerica and is better described in relation to the [[Isthmo-Colombian area]]. This civilization thrived from 500 A.D to 1000 A.D, and included sophisticated management of the environment in accordance with large urban centers. Despite being outside the Mesoamerican area, studies reveal that the city has elements of the Mayan cities, like a ball game, and some pyramidal structures that share similarities with the ones found in western Honduras. Studies in the area show that the structures of the city have a huge size, and one had a ceremonial area where they performed all their sacred rituals to a series of kings and gods in whom they believed.
==Conquest period==
{{Main|Spanish conquest of Honduras}}
[[File:Coat of arms of Colon, Honduras.png|thumb|left|140px|Coat of Arms of Trujillo, one of the oldest towns in Honduras.|alt=]]
Honduras was first sighted by Europeans when [[Christopher Columbus]] arrived at the [[Bay Islands Department|Bay Islands]] very close to the island of [[Guanaja]] on 30 July 1502 on his [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|fourth voyage]]. On 14 August 1502 Columbus landed on the mainland near modern [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]]. Columbus named the country Honduras ("depths") for the deep waters off its coast. {{citation needed|date=September 2021}}
[[File:Retrato de Hernán Cortés.jpg|thumb|After the fall of [[Tenochtitlan]], [[Hernán Cortés]] make his journey to the region of las Hibueras, modern day Honduras.]]
In January 1524, [[Hernán Cortés]] directed captain [[Cristóbal de Olid]] to establish a colony in Honduras named "''Triunfo de la Cruz''", modern day town of [[Tela]]. Olid sailed with several ships and over 400 soldiers and colonists to Cuba to pick up supplies Cortés had arranged for him. There Governor [[Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar]] convinced him to claim the colony he was to found as his own. Olid sailed to the coast of Honduras and came ashore east of [[Puerto Cortés|Puerto Caballos]] at ''Triunfo de la Cruz'' where he settled and declared himself governor. Cortés got word of Olid's insurrection however, and sent his cousin [[Francisco de las Casas]] with several ships to Honduras to remove Olid and claim the area for Cortés. Las Casas, however, lost most of his fleet in a series of storms along the coast of [[Belize]] and Honduras. His ships limped into the bay at Triunfo, where Olid had established his headquarters.
When Las Casas arrived at Olid's headquarters, a large part of Olid's army was inland, dealing with another threat from a party of Spaniards under [[Gil González Dávila]]. Nevertheless, Olid decided to launch an attack with two [[caravel]]s. Las Casas returned fire and sent boarding parties to capture Olid's ships. Under the circumstances, Olid proposed a truce. Las Casas agreed, and did not land his forces. During the night, a fierce storm destroyed his fleet and about a third of his men were lost. The remainder were taken prisoner after two days of exposure and no food. After being forced to swear loyalty to Olid, they were released. But Las Casas was kept prisoner, and soon joined by González, who had been captured by Olid's inland force.
The Spanish record two different stories about what happened next. [[Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas]], writing in the 17th century, said that Olid's soldiers rose up and murdered him. [[Bernal Diaz del Castillo]], in his book named ''Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de Nueva España'', says that Las Casas captured Olid and beheaded him at Naco. In the meantime Cortés marched overland from Mexico to Honduras, arriving in 1525. Cortés ordered the founding of two cities, Nuestra Señora de la Navidad, near modern [[Puerto Cortés]] and [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]], and named Las Casas governor. However, both Las Casas and Cortés sailed back to Mexico before the end of 1525, where Las Casas was arrested and returned to Spain as a prisoner by Estrada and Alboronoz{{who|date=August 2017}}. Las Casas returned to Mexico in 1527, and returned again to Spain with Cortés in 1528.
On 25 April 1526, before going back to Mexico, Cortes appointed [[Hernando Arias de Saavedra|Hernando de Saavedra]] governor of Honduras with instructions to treat the indigenous people well. On 26 October 1526, Diego López de Salcedo was appointed by the emperor as governor of [[Honduras]], replacing Saavedra. The next decade was marked by clashes between the personal ambitions of the rulers and conquerors, which hindered the installation of good government.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}} The Spanish colonists rebelled against their leaders, and the indigenous people rebelled against the Spanish and against the abuses they imposed.
Salcedo, seeking to enrich himself, seriously clashed with [[Pedro Arias Dávila]], governor of [[Castilla del Oro]], who wanted Honduras as part of his domains. In 1528, Salcedo arrested Pedarias and forced him to cede part of his Honduran domain, but [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]] rejected that outcome. After the death of Salcedo in 1530, settlers became arbiters of power.{{clarify|date=December 2017}} Governors hung and removed.{{clarify|date=December 2017}} In this situation, the settlers asked [[Pedro de Alvarado]] to end the anarchy. With the arrival of Alvarado in 1536, chaos decreased, and the region was under authority.{{clarify|date=August 2017}}
[[File:LEMPIRA acrílico sobre tela.jpg|thumb|Painting of Lempira during the conquest of Honduras.]]
In 1537 [[Francisco de Montejo]] was appointed governor. He set aside the division of territory made by Alvarado on arriving in Honduras. One of his principal captains, [[Alonso de Cáceres]], quelled the indigenous revolt led by the [[cacique]] [[Lempira (Lenca ruler)|Lempira]] in 1537 and 1538. In 1539 Alvarado and Montejo disagreed over who was governor, which caught the attention of the [[Council of India]]. Montejo went to [[Chiapas]], and Alvarado became governor of [[Honduras]].<ref>{{Cite book|year=1991|editor-last=Olson|editor-first=James Stuart|editor2-last=Shadle|editor2-first=Robert|title=Historical Dictionary of European Imperialism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uyqepNdgUWkC |location=Westport, Connecticut|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=0-313-26257-8|pages=284–285|access-date=11 June 2016}}</ref>
During the period leading up to the conquest of Honduras by [[Pedro de Alvarado]], many indigenous people along the north coast of Honduras were captured and taken as slaves to work on Spain's Caribbean [[plantation]]s. It wasn't until Alvarado defeated the indigenous resistance headed by Çocamba near Ticamaya that the Spanish began to conquer the country in 1536. Alvarado divided the native towns and gave their labor to the Spanish conquistadors as ''[[repartimiento]]''. Further indigenous uprisings near [[Gracias a Dios Department|Gracias a Dios]], [[Comayagua]], and [[Olancho]] occurred in 1537–38. The uprising near Gracias a Dios was led by [[Lempira (Lenca ruler)|Lempira]], who is honored today by the name of the Honduran [[currency]].
==Colonial Honduras==
[[File:Iglesia de la merced de Comayagua.jpg|thumb|The church of la Merced in Comayagua was the first Cathedral of Honduras in 1550.]]
The defeat of Lempira's revolt, and the decline in fighting among rival Spanish factions all contributed to expanded settlement and increased economic activity in Honduras. In late 1540, Honduras looked to be heading towards development and prosperity, thanks to the establishment of [[Gracias]] as the regional capital of the Audiencia of Guatemala (1544). However, this decision created resentment in the populated areas of [[Guatemala]] and El Salvador. In 1549, the capital was moved to [[Antigua, Guatemala]], and Honduras and remained a new province within the [[Captaincy General of Guatemala]] until 1821.<ref name="Honduras: A Country Study">{{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/|title=Honduras: A Country Study|publisher=Tim Merrill for the Library of Congress|year=1995|access-date=20 March 2011}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=June 2016}}
===Colonial mining operations===
[[File:Barrio La Hoya, Tegucigalpa, Honduras - panoramio (2).jpg|thumb|[[Tegucigalpa Cathedral|Cathedral of Saint Michael Archangel]] in Tegucigalpa was built during the XVIII century.]]
The first mining centers were located near the Guatemalan border, around the city of Gracias in Lempira. In 1538 these mines produced significant quantities of gold for the spanish crown. In the early 1540s, the center for mining shifted eastward to the [[Guayape River|Río Guayape]] Valley, and silver joined gold as a major product. This change contributed to the rapid decline of Gracias and the rise of [[Comayagua]] as the center of colonial Honduras. The demand for labor also led to further revolts and accelerated the decimation of the native population. As a result, [[African slavery]] was introduced into Honduras, and by 1545 the province may have had as many as 2,000 slaves. Other gold deposits were found near [[San Pedro Sula]] and the port of Trujillo.<ref>{{cite book |date=1995 |title=Honduras a country study |url=http://memory.loc.gov/master/frd/frdcstdy/ho/hondurascountrys00merr_0/hondurascountrys00merr_0.pdf |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Federal Research Division Library of Congress |page=9 |isbn=0-8444-0836-0}}</ref>
Mining production began to decline in 1560, and thus the importance of Honduras. In early 1569, new silver discoveries briefly revived the economy, which led to the founding of [[Tegucigalpa]], which soon began to rival Comayagua as the most important city of the province. The silver boom peaked in 1584, and economic depression returned shortly thereafter. Honduran mining efforts were hampered by lack of capital and labor, and by difficult terrain. Due to the fall of the indigenous population which was used as labor, the Spanish decided to import slaves from Africa for mining work. Mercury, vital for the production of silver, was scarce, besides the neglect of officials.<ref>{{cite book |date=1995 |title=Honduras a country study |url=http://memory.loc.gov/master/frd/frdcstdy/ho/hondurascountrys00merr_0/hondurascountrys00merr_0.pdf |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Federal Research Division Library of Congress |page=10 |isbn=0-8444-0836-0}}</ref>
[[File:Francoislollonais.JPG|thumb|European pirates, especially British, French, and Dutch attacked Honduran towns during the colonial era.|alt=]]
===The partially conquered northern coast===
While the Spanish made significant conquests in the south, they had less success on the Caribbean coast, to the north. They founded a number of towns on the coast such as [[Puerto Cortés|Puerto Caballos]] in the east, and sent minerals and other exports across the country from the Pacific coast to be shipped to Spain from the Atlantic ports. They founded a number of inland towns on the northwestern side of the province, notably Naco and [[San Pedro Sula]].
In the northeast, the province of tegucigalpa resisted all attempts to conquer it, physically in the sixteenth century, or spiritually by missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries. Among the groups found along the northern coast and in neighboring [[Nicaragua]] were the [[Miskito people|Miskito]], who although organized in a democratic and egalitarian way, had a king, and hence were known as the [[Mosquito Coast|Mosquito Kingdom]].
One of the major problems for the Spanish rulers of Honduras, was the activity of the British in northern Honduras, a region over which they had only tenuous control. These activities began in the sixteenth century and continued until the nineteenth century. In the early years, European pirates frequently attacked the villages on the Honduran Caribbean. The [[Providence Island Company]], which occupied [[Providence Island colony|Providence Island]] not far from the coast, raided it occasionally and probably also had settlements on the shore, possibly around [[Cape Gracias a Dios]]. Around 1638, the king of the Miskito visited England and made an alliance with the English crown.<ref>[[Karen Ordahl Kupperman]], ''Providence Island: The Other Puritan Colony, 1631–41'' (Cambridge, 19xx), pp.</ref> In 1643 an English expedition destroyed the city of Trujillo, Honduras's main port.<ref name="Apuntes para la Historia de Honduras">{{Cite book|last=Vera|first=Robustiano|year=1899|title=Apuntes para la Historia de Honduras|location=Tegucigalpa|publisher=Imprenta El Correo|language=es}}</ref>
===The British and the Miskito Kingdom===
[[File:Flag of the Mosquito Coast 1834-1860.svg|thumb|left|The flag of the British protectorate of The [[Mosquito Coast|Miskito Coast]].|alt=]]
The Spanish sent a fleet from [[Cartagena, Colombia|Cartagena]] which destroyed the English colony at Providence island in 1641, and for a time the presence of an English base so close to the shore was eliminated. At about the same time, however, a group of slaves revolted and captured the ship on which they were traveling, then wrecked it at Cape Gracias a Dios. Managing to get ashore, they were received by the Miskito, which led within a generation to the [[Miskito Sambu|Miskito Zambo]], a mixed-race group that by 1715 had become the leaders of the kingdom.
Meanwhile, the English captured [[Jamaica]] in 1655 and soon sought allies on the coast, and hit upon the Miskito, whose king [[Jeremy I]] visited [[Jamaica]] in 1687.
A variety of other Europeans settled in the area during this time. An account from 1699 reveals a patchwork of private individuals, large Miskito family groups, Spanish settlements and pirate hideouts along the coast.<ref>M. W. "The Mosqueto Indian and his Golden River," in [[Ansham Churchill]], ''A Collection of Voyages and Travels'' (London, 1732), vol. 6</ref> Britain declared much of the area a protectorate in 1740, though they exercised little authority there as a result of the decision. British colonization was particularly strong in the [[Bay Islands, Honduras|Bay Islands]], and alliances between the British and [[Miskito people|Miskito]] as well as more local supporters made this an area the Spanish could not easily control, and a haven for pirates.<ref>{{cite book | first=Troy | last=Floyd | title=The Anglo-Spanish Struggle for Mosquitia | location=Albuquerque | year=1967}}</ref>
===Bourbon reforms===
[[File:San Fernando de Omoa Fortress, Honduras.jpg|thumb|left|The Fortress of [[San Fernando de Omoa]]]]
In the early eighteenth century, the [[House of Bourbon]], linked to the rulers of France, replaced the [[Habsburgs]] on the throne of Spain. The new dynasty began a series of reforms throughout the empire (the [[Bourbon Reforms]]), designed to make administration more efficient and profitable, and to facilitate defense of the colonies. Among these reforms was a reduction in tax on precious metals and of the price of [[mercury (element)|mercury]], a royal monopoly. In Honduras, these reforms contributed to the resurgence of the mining industry in the 1730s.<ref name="Honduras: A Country Study"/>{{failed verification|date=June 2016}}
Under the [[Bourbons]], the Spanish government made several efforts to regain control of the Caribbean coast. In 1752, the Spaniards built the fort of [[San Fernando de Omoa]]. In 1780, the Spanish returned to Trujillo, which started out as base of operations against British settlements to the east. During the 1780s, the Spanish regained control of the [[Bay Islands Department|Bay Islands]] and took most of the British and their allies in the Black River area. They were not, however, able to expand their control beyond Puerto Caballos and Trujillo, thanks to determined Miskito resistance. The Anglo-Spanish Convention of 1786 issued the final recognition of Spanish sovereignty over the Caribbean coast.<ref name="Apuntes para la Historia de Honduras"/>
==Honduras in the nineteenth century==
===Independence from Spain (1821)===
[[File:Comayagua monumento de la independencia.JPG|thumb|La Merced plaza of Comayagua after the independence from Spain.]]
In the early 19th century, Napoleon's occupation of Spain led to the outbreak of revolts all across Spanish America. In New Spain, all of the fighting by those seeking independence was done in the center of that area from 1810 to 1821, what today is central Mexico. Once the Viceroy was defeated in the capital, Mexico City, in 1821, the news of the independence were sent to all the territories of New Spain including the Intendencies of the former Captaincy of Guatemala. Accepting this as a fact, Honduras joined the other Central American Intendencies in a joint declaration of independence from Spain. The public proclamation was done through the Act of Independence in 1821.
After the declaration of independence it was the intention of the New Spain parliament to establish a commonwealth whereby the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, would also be Emperor of New Spain, and in which both countries were to be governed by separate laws and with their own legislative offices. Should the king refuse the position, the law provided for a member of the House of Bourbon to accede to the New Spain throne. Ferdinand VII, did not recognize the independence and said that Spain would not allow any other European prince to take the throne of New Spain.
By request of Parliament, the president of the regency Agustín de Iturbide was proclaimed emperor of New Spain but the Parliament also decided to rename New Spain to Mexico. The Mexican Empire was the official name given to this monarchical regime from 1821 to 1823. The territory of the Mexican Empire included the continental intendencies and provinces of New Spain proper (including those of the former Captaincy General of Guatemala) (See: History of Central America).
===Federal independence period (1821–1838)===
[[File:Don Francisco Morazan Quezada.JPG|thumb|left|Central american president General [[Francisco Morazán|Francisco Morazán Quezada]]. |alt=]]
In 1823, a revolution in Mexico ousted Emperor [[Agustín de Iturbide]], and a new Mexican congress voted to allow the Central American Intendencies to decide their own fate. That year, the United Provinces of Central America was formed of the five Central American Intendencies (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) under General [[Manuel José Arce]]. The intendencies took the new name of "states".
Among the most important figures of the federal era include the first democratically elected president in Honduras, [[Dionisio de Herrera]], a lawyer, whose government, begun in 1824 established the first constitution, after him became the presidential period of Gen. [[Francisco Morazán]], Federal President 1830–1834 and 1835–1839, whose figure embodies the ideal American Unionist, and [[José Cecilio del Valle]], editor of the Declaration of Independence signed in Guatemala on 15 September 1821 and Foreign Minister of foreign policies in Mexico in 1823.
[[File:Flag of the Federal Republic of Central America.svg|thumb|Flag of the Central American Federation that lasted until 1839.]]
Soon, social and economic differences between Honduras social classes and its regional neighbors exacerbated harsh partisan strife among Central American leaders and brought the collapse of the Federation from 1838 to 1839. General Morazán led many successful efforts to maintain the federation during the known [[First Central American Civil War|first Central American civil War]], against the conservatives, that saw Morazan policies like making the federation a [[secular state]] as a thread to their interests. However, despite General Morazan's victories, his army began to wear out by the efforts of war, until the situation became almost untenable until he was captured and shot in Costa Rica, but not before being buried with honors. His legacy was so important in Honduras and Central America that the department of Francisco Morazan was named after him, and several statues were erected at the end of the 19th century. Restoring Central American unity remained the officially stated chief aim of Honduran foreign policy until after [[World War I]].
Honduras broke away from the Central American Federation in October 1838 and became independent and sovereign state.
==Democratic period between 1838 to 1899==
{{Main|History of Honduras (1838–1932)}}Comayagua was the capital of Honduras until 1880, when it was transferred to [[Tegucigalpa]].
[[File:Fuerte San Cristóbal Gracias Honduras 09.jpg|thumb|[[San Cristóbal fortress (Honduras)|San Cristóbal fortress]], in the city of Gracias, built during the 19th century.|250x250px]]
In the decades of 1840 and 1850 Honduras participated in several failed attempts to restore Central American unity, such as the Confederation of Central America (1842–1845), the covenant of Guatemala (1842), the Diet of Sonsonate ( 1846), the Diet of Nacaome (1847) and National Representation in Central America (1849–1852). All of them were sabotaged by the conservatives of all Central American countries.
Although Honduras eventually adopted the name Republic of Honduras, the unionist ideal never waned, and Honduras was one of the Central American countries that pushed hardest for the policy of regional unity.
In 1850, Honduras attempted to build, with foreign assistance, an Inter-Oceanic Railroad from [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]] to [[Tegucigalpa]] and then on to the Pacific Coast. The project stalled due to difficulties in the work, corruption and other issues, and in 1888, ran out of money when it reached [[San Pedro Sula]], resulting in its growth into the nation's main industrial center and second largest city. Since independence, nearly 300 small internal rebellions and civil wars have occurred in the country, including some changes of government.
==Honduras in the twentieth century==
===The internationalization of the north, 1899–1932===
Political stability and instability both aided and distracted the economic revolution which transformed Honduras through the development of a [[plantation economy]] on the north coast. As American corporations consolidated increasingly large landholdings in Honduras, they lobbied the US government to protect their investments. Conflicts over land ownership, peasant rights, and a US-aligned [[comprador]] class of elites led to armed conflicts and multiple invasions by US armed forces.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} In the first decades of the century, US military incursions took place in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924, and 1925.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://wais.stanford.edu/USA/us_supportforladictators8703.html| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20031128124847/http://wais.stanford.edu/USA/us_supportforladictators8703.html| archive-date = 28 November 2003| title = US: Support for Latin American dictators}}</ref> Because the country was effectively controlled by American fruit corporations, it was the original inspiration for the term "[[banana republic]]".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/27/us-honduras-coup|title = History of US intervention in Honduras|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 27 November 2009}}</ref>
====The rise of US influence in Honduras (1899–1919)====
[[File:Manuel Bonilla.jpg|thumb|President Manuel Bonilla.]]
In 1899, the [[History of modern banana plantations in the Americas|banana industry]] in Honduras was growing rapidly. A peaceful transfer of power from [[Policarpo Bonilla]] to General [[Terencio Sierra]] marked the first time in decades that a constitutional transition had taken place.<ref name=fkpr /> By 1902, railroads had been built along the country's Caribbean coast to accommodate the growing banana industry.<ref name=fkpr /> However, Sierra made efforts to stay in office and refused to step down when a new president was elected in 1902, and was overthrown by [[Manuel Bonilla]] in 1903.<ref name=fkpr />
After toppling Sierra, Bonilla, a conservative,<ref name=fkpr /> imprisoned ex-president [[Policarpo Bonilla]], a liberal rival,<ref name=fkpr /> for two years and made other attempts to suppress liberals throughout the country,<ref name=fkpr /> as they were the only other organized political party.<ref name=fkpr /> The conservatives were divided into a host of personalist factions and lacked coherent leadership,<ref name=fkpr /> but Bonilla reorganized the conservatives into a "national party."<ref name=fkpr /> The present-day National Party of Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduras—PNH) traces its origins to his administration.<ref name=fkpr />
[[File:Conflicto Honduras 1907.png|left|thumb|242x242px|Honduran armed conflict of 1907.]]
Bonilla proved to be an even better friend to the banana companies than Sierra.<ref name=fkpr /> Under Bonilla's rule,<ref name=fkpr /> companies gained exemptions from taxes and permission to construct wharves and roads,<ref name=fkpr /> as well as permission to improve interior waterways and to obtain charters for new railroad construction.<ref name=fkpr /> He also successfully established the border with [[Nicaragua]] and resisted an invasion from [[Guatemala]] in 1906.<ref name=fkpr>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/15.htm|title = Honduras - THE RISE OF UNITED STATES INFLUENCE, 1899-1932}}</ref> After fending off Guatemalan military forces, Bonilla sought peace and signed a friendship pact with both Guatemala and El Salvador.<ref name=fkpr />
Nicaragua's president [[José Santos Zelaya]] saw this friendship pact as an alliance to counter Nicaragua and began to undermine Bonilla.<ref name="fkpr" /> Zelaya supported liberal Honduran exiles in Nicaragua in their efforts to topple Bonilla,<ref name="fkpr" /> who had established himself as a dictator.<ref name="fkpr" /> Supported by elements of the Nicaraguan army, the exiles invaded Honduras in February 1907.<ref name="fkpr" /> With the assistance of Salvadoran troops, Manuel Bonilla tried to resist, but in March his forces were decisively beaten in a battle notable for the introduction of [[machine gun]]s into Central America.<ref name="fkpr" /> After toppling Bonilla, the exiles established a provisional junta,<ref name="fkpr" /> but this junta did not last.<ref name="oipnp" />
American elites noticed: it was in their interests to contain Zelaya, protect the region of the new [[Panama Canal]], and defend the increasingly important banana trade. This Nicaragua-assisted invasion by Honduran exiles strongly displeased the United States government,<ref name=oipnp>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/16.htm|title = Honduras - the Expanded Role of the United States}}</ref> which concluded that Zelaya wanted to dominate the entire Central American region,<ref name=oipnp /> sent marines to [[Puerto Cortes]] to protect the banana trade.<ref name=oipnp /> US naval units were also sent to Honduras and were able to successfully defend Bonilla's last defense position at [[Amapala]] in the [[Gulf of Fonseca]]. Through a peace settlement arranged by the US [[chargé d'affaires]] in [[Tegucigalpa]],<ref name=oipnp /> Bonilla stepped down and the war with Nicaragua came to an end.<ref name=oipnp />
[[File:Central American Peace Conference.jpg|left|thumb|The central american peace conference in 1907.|252x252px]]The settlement also provided for a compromise régime headed by General [[Miguel R. Davila]] in Tegucigalpa.<ref name=oipnp /> Zelaya however was not pleased by the settlement,<ref name=oipnp /> as he strongly distrusted Davila.<ref name=oipnp /> Zelaya made a secret arrangement with El Salvador to oust Davila from office.<ref name=oipnp /> The plan failed to reach fruition,<ref name=oipnp /> but alarmed American stakeholders in Honduras.<ref name=oipnp /> Mexico and the U.S. called the five Central American countries into [[diplomacy|diplomatic]] talks at the [[Central American Peace Conference]] to increase stability in the area.<ref name=oipnp /> At the conference, the five countries signed the [[General Treaty of Peace and Amity of 1907]],<ref name=oipnp /> which established the [[Central American Court of Justice]] to resolve future disputes among the five nations.<ref name=oipnp /> Honduras also agreed to become permanently neutral in any future conflicts among the other nations.<ref name=oipnp />
[[File:Tegucigalpa c. 1910.jpg|thumb|Tegucigalpa in 1910.]]
In 1908, opponents of Davila made an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow him.<ref name=oipnp /> Despite the failure of this coup, American elites became concerned over Honduran instability.<ref name=oipnp /> The Taft Administration saw the huge Honduran debt, over $120 million,<ref name=oipnp /> as a contributing factor to the instability and began efforts to refinance the largely British debt with provisions for a United States customs receivership or some similar arrangement.<ref name=oipnp /> Negotiations were arranged between Honduran representatives and New York bankers,<ref name=oipnp /> headed by [[J.P. Morgan]].<ref name=oipnp /> By the end of 1909,<ref name=oipnp /> an agreement had been reached providing for a reduction in the debt and the issuance of new 5% [[bond (finance)|bond]]s:<ref name=oipnp /> The bankers would control the Honduran railroad,<ref name=oipnp /> and the United States government would guarantee continued Honduran independence and would take control of custom revenue.<ref name=oipnp />
The terms proposed by the bankers met with considerable opposition in Honduras,<ref name=oipnp /> further weakening the Dávila government.<ref name=oipnp /> A treaty incorporating the key provisions of this agreement with J.P. Morgan was finally signed in January 1911 and submitted to the Honduran legislature by Dávila.<ref name=oipnp /> However, that body, in a rare display of independence, rejected it by a vote of thirty-three to five.<ref name=oipnp />
An uprising in 1911 against Dávila interrupted efforts to deal with the debt problem.<ref name=oipnp /> The [[United States Marines]] landed, which forced both sides to meet on a US warship.<ref name=oipnp /> The revolutionaries, headed by former president Manuel Bonilla,<ref name=oipnp /> and the government agreed to a cease-fire and the installation of a provisional president who would be selected by the United States mediator, [[Thomas Cleland Dawson|Thomas Dawson]].<ref name=oipnp /> Dawson selected [[Francisco Bertrand]], who promised to hold early, free elections,<ref name=oipnp /> and Dávila resigned.<ref name=oipnp />
[[File:Playback-fm colorize-photo 951ada5c8df7bba6ad346395bd9f3a45.jpg|thumb|City of [[Comayagua]] in 1911.]]
The 1912 elections were won by Manuel Bonilla,<ref name=oipnp /> but he died after just over a year in office.<ref name=oipnp /> Bertrand, who had been his vice president, returned to the presidency and in 1916 won election for a term that lasted until 1920.<ref name=oipnp /> Between 1911 and 1920, Honduras saw relative stability.<ref name=oipnp /> Railroads expanded throughout Honduras and the banana trade grew rapidly.<ref name=oipnp /> This stability however would prove to be difficult to maintain in the years following 1920.<ref name=oipnp /> Revolutionary intrigues also continued throughout the period, accompanied by constant rumors that one faction or another was being supported by one of the banana companies.<ref name=oipnp />
The development of the banana industry contributed to the beginnings of organized labor movements in Honduras and to the first major strikes in the nation's history.<ref name=oipnp /> The first of these occurred in 1917 against the [[Cuyamel Fruit Company]].<ref name=oipnp /> The strike was suppressed by the Honduran military,<ref name=oipnp /> but the following year additional labor disturbances occurred at the [[Standard Fruit Company]]'s holding in La Ceiba.<ref name=oipnp /> In 1920, a general strike hit the Caribbean coast.<ref name=oipnp /> In response, a United States warship was sent to the area, and the Honduran government began arresting leaders.<ref name=oipnp /> When Standard Fruit offered a new wage—equivalent to US$1.75 per day—the strike ultimately collapsed.<ref name=oipnp /> Labor troubles in the banana trade however were far from over.<ref name=oipnp />
====The fruit companies' activity====
{{Main|Banana production in Honduras}}
[[File:La ceiba.jpg|thumb|Train station in [[La Ceiba]] during the 1920's. The locomotives were one of the main means of transportation in Honduras during the 20th century.]]
The Liberal government opted to expand production in mining and agriculture, and in 1876 began granting substantial grants of land and tax exemptions to foreign concerns as well as to local businesses. Mining was particularly important, and the new policies coincided with the growth of banana [[export]]s, which began in the Bay Islands in the 1870s and was pursued on the mainland by small and middling farmers in the 1880s. Liberal concessions allowed U.S.-based concerns to enter the Honduran market, first as shipping companies, then as railroad and banana producing enterprises. The U.S. companies created very large [[Banana production in Honduras|plantations]] worked by labor that flooded into the region from the densely settled Pacific coast, other Central American countries, and thanks to the company's policies favoring English speaking people, from the [[English-speaking Caribbean]].<ref>{{cite book | first=Glen | last=Chambers | title=Race, Nation and West Indian Immigration to Honduras, 1890–1940 | location=Baton Rouge | publisher=Louisiana State University Press | year=2010}}</ref> The result was an [[enclave economy]] centered on the settlements and activities of the three major companies, Cuyamel Fruit Company, [[Standard Fruit Company|Standard Fruit]] and particularly [[United Fruit Company|United Fruit]] after it absorbed Cuyamel in 1930.
In 1899, Vaccaro Brothers and Company (later known as [[Standard Fruit Company|Standard Fruit]]), a New Orleans-based fruit corporation, came to Honduras in 1899 to buy coconuts, oranges and bananas on [[Roatán]].<ref name="oipnp" /> After successfully selling the fruit in New Orleans,<ref name="oipnp" /> the company moved to the mainland of Honduras.<ref name="oipnp" /> In 1901, Vaccaro Brothers established offices in [[La Ceiba]] and Salado and eventually controlled the banana industry between [[Boca Cerrada]] and [[Balfate]] (an area of about 80 kilometers of coastline).<ref name="oanfavoal" /> In 1900, American businessman [[Samuel Zemurray]] and [[United Fruit Company|United Fruit]] came to Honduras to purchase banana plantations.<ref name="oipnp" /> In 1905,<ref name="oanfavoal" /> Zemurray started buying his own plantations and in 1910, after purchasing {{convert|5000|acre|km2}} of plantation land in Honduras,<ref name="oqqvoonq">{{Cite web|url=http://www.unitedfruit.org/zemurray.htm|title=United Fruit Company - Samuel Zemurray|website=www.unitedfruit.org}}</ref> formed his own company, the [[Cuyamel Fruit Company]].<ref name="oqqvoonq" /> The two companies' wealth and powerful connections allowed them to gain extraordinary influence in the Honduran government.<ref name="oipnp" />
Rivalries between the companies, however, escalated in 1910, when the [[United Fruit Company|United Fruit]] came to Honduras to set up operations;<ref name="oipnp" /> the company had already been a local producer of bananas in Honduras.<ref name="oipnp" /> By 1912, United Fruit had two concessions it had purchased with government approval.<ref name="oipnp" /> One was to build a railroad from Tela to Progreso in the Sula Valley,<ref name="oipnp" /> and the other was to build a railroad from Trujillo to the city of Juticalpa in Olancho.<ref name="oipnp" /> In 1913, United Fruit established the Tela Railroad Company and shortly thereafter a similar subsidiary, the Trujillo Railroad Company;<ref name="oipnp" /> these two railroads managed the concessions which the Honduran government granted them.<ref name="oipnp" /> Through these two railroad companies, United Fruit dominated the banana trade in Honduras.<ref name="oipnp" />
[[File:Agriculture and trade of Honduras (IA agriculturetrade33coyn).pdf|thumb|Agriculture and trade of Honduras, a manual published in the early XX century.]]
An 1899 census showed that northern Honduras had been exporting bananas for several years and that over 1,000 people in the region between Puerto Cortes and La Ceiba (and inland as far as San Pedro Sula) were tending bananas, most of them small holders.<ref>Soluri, ''Banana Culture: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States'' (Austin: University of Texas Press: 2005)</ref> The fruit companies received very large concessions of land, often forcing small holders who had been growing and exporting bananas on their land out of business. In addition, they brought in many workers from Jamaica and Belize, both to work on the plantations, but also as lower managers and skilled workers. The companies often favored the West Indian workers because they spoke English and were sometimes better educated than their Honduran counterparts. This perception of foreign occupation, coupled with a growing race-prejudice against the African-descended West Indians, led to considerable tension, as the arrival of the West Indians drove demographic change in the region.<ref>{{cite book | first=Glen | last=Chambers | title=Race Nation and West Indian Immigration to Honduras, 1890–1940 | location=Baton Rouge | publisher=Louisiana State University Press | year=2010}}</ref>
The connection between the wealth of the banana trade and the influence of outsiders, particularly North Americans, led [[O. Henry]], the American writer who took temporary refuge in Honduras in 1896–97, to coin the term "[[banana republic]]" to describe a fictional nation he modeled on Honduras.<ref>{{cite news|title=Where did banana republics get their name?|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/11/economist-explains-16|access-date=22 February 2016|work=The Economist|date=21 November 2013}}</ref> By 1912, three companies dominated the banana trade in Honduras:<ref name="oanfavoal">{{Cite web |url=http://laceiba.honduras.com/banana-trade/banana-history.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=1 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809120252/http://laceiba.honduras.com/banana-trade/banana-history.html |archive-date=9 August 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Samuel Zemurray]]'s [[Cuyamel Fruit Company]], Vaccaro Brothers and Company and the [[United Fruit Company]];<ref name="oanfavoal" /> all of which tended to be vertically integrated, owning their own lands and railroad companies and ship lines such as United's "Great White Fleet". Through land subsidies granted to the railroads, they soon came to control vast tracts of the best land along the Caribbean coast. Coastal cities such as [[La Ceiba]], [[Tela]], and Trujillo and towns further inland such as [[El Progreso]] and La Lima became virtual company towns.<ref name="oipnp" />
For the next twenty years, the U.S. government was involved in quelling Central American disputes, insurrections, and revolutions, whether supported by neighboring governments or by United States companies.<ref name="oipnp" /> As part of the so-called [[Banana Wars]] all around the Caribbean, Honduras saw the insertion of [[U.S. Army|American troops]] in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.yachana.org/teaching//resources/interventions.html|title=History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America|website=www.yachana.org}}</ref> For instance, in 1917 the Cuyamel Fruit Company extended its rail lines into disputed Guatemalan territory.<ref name="oipnp" />
====Renewed instability (1919–1924)====
[[File:El General Luis Bogran.jpg|thumb|General Luis Bogran.]]
In 1919, it became obvious that [[Francisco Bertrand]] would refuse to allow an open election to choose his successor.<ref name="ipavapnp">{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/17.htm|title = Honduras - the Threat of Renewed Instability, 1919-24}}</ref> This course of action was opposed by the United States and had little popular support in Honduras.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The local military commander and governor of Tegucigalpa, General [[Rafael López Gutiérrez]], took the lead in organizing PLH opposition to Bertrand.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> López Gutiérrez also solicited support from the liberal government of Guatemala and even from the conservative regime in Nicaragua.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Bertrand, in turn, sought support from El Salvador.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
Determined to avoid an international conflict, the United States government, after some hesitation, offered to meditate the dispute, hinting to the Honduran president that if he refused the offer, open intervention might follow.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The United States landed US Marines on 11 September 1919.<ref name="Umpenhour">{{cite book |last=Umpenhour|first=Charles Merlin | title = Freedom, a Fading Illusion|year=2005| publisher = BookMakers Ink| isbn= 9780972678957|page=92}}</ref> Bertrand promptly resigned and left the country.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The United States ambassador helped install an interim government headed by [[Francisco Bográn]], who promised to hold free elections. General López Gutiérrez, who now controlled the military, made it clear that he was determined to be the next president. After considerable negotiation and some confusion, a formula was worked out under which elections were held. López Gutiérrez won easily in a manipulated election, and in October 1920 he assumed the presidency.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
[[File:Tela Rail Road company Honduras 2019.jpg|left|thumb|[[Tela]]'s railroad company building, built in 1919.]]
During Bográn's brief time in office, he had agreed to a United States proposal to invite a United States financial adviser to Honduras.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> [[Arthur N Young|Arthur N. Young]] of the Department of State was selected for this task and began work in Honduras in August 1920, continuing to August 1921.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> While there, Young compiled extensive data and made numerous recommendations, even persuading the Hondurans to hire a New York police lieutenant to reorganize their police forces.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Young's investigations clearly demonstrated the desperate need for major financial reforms in Honduras, whose always precarious budgetary situation was considerably worsened by the renewal of revolutionary activities.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
In 1919, for example, the military had spent more than double the amount budgeted for them, accounting for over 57 percent of all federal expenditures.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Young's recommendations for reducing the military budget, however, found little favor with the new López Gutiérrez administration,<ref name="ipavapnp" /> and the government's financial condition remained a major problem.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The purpose was to modernize the Honduran army, which still possessed technology from the late-19th century. If anything, continued uprisings against the government and the threat of a renewed Central America conflict made the situation even worse.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> From 1919 to 1924, the Honduran government expended US$7.2 million beyond the amount covered by the regular budgets for military operations.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
====Coups====
[[File:Esquina de la plaza de Amapala.jpg|thumb|Port of Amapala.]]
From 1920 through 1923, seventeen uprisings or attempted coups in Honduras contributed to growing United States concern over political instability in Central America.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> In August 1922, the presidents of Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador met on the [[USS Tacoma (CL-20)|USS Tacoma]] in the [[Gulf of Fonseca]].<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Under the watchful eye of the United States ambassadors to their nations, the presidents pledged to prevent their territories from being used to promote revolutions against their neighbors and issued a call for a general meeting of Central American states in Washington at the end of the year.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
The Washington conference concluded in February with the adoption of the General Treaty of Peace and Amity of 1923, which had eleven supplemental conventions.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The treaty in many ways followed the provisions of the 1907 treaty.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The Central American court was reorganized, reducing the influence of the various governments over its membership.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The clause providing for withholding recognition of revolutionary governments was expanded to preclude recognition of any revolutionary leader, his relatives, or anyone who had been in power six months before or after such an uprising unless the individual's claim to power had been ratified by free elections.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The governments renewed their pledges to refrain from aiding revolutionary movements against their neighbors and to seek peaceful resolution for all outstanding disputes.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
The supplemental conventions covered everything from the promotion of agriculture to armament limitation. One, which remained unratified, provided for [[free trade]] among all of the states except [[Costa Rica]].<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The arms limitation agreement set a ceiling on the size of each nation's military forces (2,500 men in the case of Honduras) and included a United States-sponsored pledge to seek foreign assistance in establishing more professional armed forces.<ref name="ipavapnp" />[[File:Fachada del antiguo palacio presidencial de Honduras.jpg|thumb|Old presidential palace of Honduras.]]The October 1923 Honduran presidential elections and subsequent political and military conflicts provided the first real tests of these new treaty arrangements.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Under heavy pressure from Washington, López Gutiérrez allowed an unusually open campaign and election. The long-fragmented conservatives reunited as the National Party of Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduras—PNH),<ref name="ipavapnp" /> which ran as its candidate General [[Tiburcio Carías Andino]],<ref name="ipavapnp" /> the governor of the department of Cortés.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
The liberal PLH was unable to unite around a single candidate and split into two dissident groups, one supporting former president [[Policarpo Bonilla]],<ref name="ipavapnp" /> the other advancing the candidacy of [[Juan Angel Arias Boquin|Juan Angel Arias]]. As a result, no candidate secured a majority.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Carías received the greatest number of votes, with Bonilla second and Arias a distant third.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Under the terms of the Honduran constitution, this stalemate left the final choice of president up to the legislature, but that body was unable to obtain a [[quorum]] and reach a decision.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> In January 1924, López Gutiérrez announced his intention to remain in office until new elections could be held, but he repeatedly refused to specify a date for the elections.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Carías, reportedly with the support of United Fruit,<ref name="ipavapnp" /> declared himself president, and an armed conflict broke out.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> In February the United States, warning that recognition would be withheld from anyone coming to power by revolutionary means, suspended relations with the López Gutiérrez government for its failure to hold elections.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
Conditions rapidly deteriorated in the early months of 1924.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> On 28 February, a pitched battle took place in La Ceiba between government troops and rebels.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
[[File:Second Honduran civil war 1924.jpg|thumb|221x221px|Battle of Teguciglapa during the Second Honduran civil war.]]
Even the presence of the [[USS Denver (CL-16)|USS Denver]] and the landing of a force of [[United States Marines]] were unable to prevent widespread looting and arson resulting in over US$2 million in property damage.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Fifty people, including a United States citizen, were killed in the fighting.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> In the weeks that followed, additional vessels from the United States Navy Special Service Squadron were concentrated in Honduran waters, and landing parties put ashore to protect United States interests.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> One force of marines and sailors was dispatched inland to Tegucigalpa to provide additional protection for the United States legation.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Shortly before the arrival of the force, López Gutiérrez died, and what authority remained with the central government was being exercised by his cabinet. General Carías and a variety of other rebel leaders controlled most of the countryside but failed to coordinate their activities effectively enough to seize the capital.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
In an effort to end the fighting, the United States government dispatched [[Sumner Welles]] to the port of [[Amapala]];<ref name=ipavapnp /> he had instructions to try to produce a settlement that would bring to power a government eligible for recognition under the terms of the 1923 treaty.<ref name=ipavapnp /> Negotiations, which were once again held on board a United States cruiser, lasted from 23 to 28 April.<ref name=ipavapnp /> An agreement was worked out that provided for an interim presidency headed by General [[Vicente Tosta]], who agreed to appoint a cabinet representing all political factions and to convene a Constituent Assembly within ninety days to restore constitutional order.<ref name=ipavapnp /> Presidential elections were to be held as soon as possible, and Tosta promised to refrain from running himself.<ref name=ipavapnp /> Once in office, the new president showed signs of reneging on some of his pledges, especially those related to a bipartisan cabinet.<ref name=ipavapnp /> Under heavy pressure from the United States delegation, however, he ultimately complied with the provisions of the peace agreement.<ref name=ipavapnp />
Keeping the 1924 elections on track proved difficult.<ref name=ipavapnp /> To put pressure on Tosta to conduct a fair election, the United States continued an embargo on arms to Honduras and barred the government from access to loans—including a requested US$75,000 from the Banco Atlántida.<ref name=ipavapnp /> Furthermore, the United States persuaded El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua to join in declaring that under the 1923 treaty provision, no leader of the recent revolution would be recognized as president for the coming term.<ref name=ipavapnp /> These pressures ultimately helped persuade Carías to withdraw his candidacy and also helped ensure the defeat of an uprising led by General [[Gregorio Ferrera]] ( great-grandfather of American Actress [[America Ferrera]]) of the PNH.<ref name=ipavapnp /> The PNH nominated [[Miguel Paz Barahona]] (1925–29), a civilian, as president.<ref name=ipavapnp /> The PLH, after some debate, refused to nominate a candidate, and on 28 December Paz Barahona won virtual unanimous election.<ref name=ipavapnp />
====Restoration of order (1925–1931)====
[[File:Palacio Telecomunicaciones Teguciglapa.jpg|thumb|Telecommunications Palace of Teguciglapa. One of the examples of the neoclassical architecture in Honduras at this time]]
Despite another minor uprising led by General Ferrera in 1925, Paz Barahona's administration was, by Honduran standards, rather tranquil. The banana companies continued to expand, the government's budgetary situation improved, and there was even an increase in labor organizing.<ref name=honordarq>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/18.htm|title = Honduras - the Restoration of Order, 1925-31}}</ref> On the international front, the Honduran government, after years of negotiations, finally concluded an agreement with the British bondholders to liquidate most of the immense national debt.<ref name=honordarq /> The bonds were to be redeemed at 20 percent of face value over a thirty-year period.<ref name=honordarq /> Back interest was forgiven, and new interest accrued only over the last fifteen years of this arrangement.<ref name=honordarq /> Under the terms of this agreement, Honduras, at last, seemed on the road to fiscal solvency.<ref name=honordarq />
[[File:Honduras - Tegucigalpa - NARA - 68154818.jpg|thumb|Honduran army in 1926.|left]]Fears of disturbances increased again in 1928 as the scheduled presidential elections approached.<ref name=honordarq /> The ruling PNH nominated General Carías while the PLH, united again following the death of Policarpo Bonilla in 1926, nominated [[Vicente Mejía Colindres]].<ref name=honordarq /> To the surprise of most observers, both the campaign and the election were conducted with a minimum of violence and intimidation.<ref name=honordarq /> Mejía Colindres won a decisive victory—obtaining 62,000 votes to 47,000 for Carías. Even more surprising was Carías's public acceptance of defeat and his urging of his supporters to accept the new government.<ref name=honordarq />
Mejía Colindres took office in 1929 with high hopes for his administration and his nation.<ref name=honordarq /> Honduras seemed on the road to political and economic progress.<ref name=honordarq /> Banana exports, then accounting for 80 percent of all exports, continued to expand.<ref name=honordarq /> By 1930 Honduras had become the world's leading producer of the fruit, accounting for one-third of the world's supply of bananas.<ref name=honordarq /> United Fruit had come increasingly to dominate the trade, and in 1929 it bought out the Cuyamel Fruit Company, one of its two principal remaining rivals.<ref name=honordarq /> Because conflicts between these companies had frequently led to support for rival groups in Honduran politics, had produced a border controversy with Guatemala, and may have even contributed to revolutionary disturbances, this merger seemed to promise greater domestic tranquility.<ref name=honordarq /> The prospect for tranquility was further advanced in 1931 when Ferrera and his insurgents<ref name=honferrea>{{cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741562,00.html?promoid=googlep | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130105024016/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741562,00.html?promoid=googlep | url-status=dead | archive-date=5 January 2013 | work=Time | title=CARIBBEAN: Alarums | date=4 May 1931}}</ref> were killed,<ref name=honordarq /> while leading one last unsuccessful effort to overthrow the government,<ref name=honordarq /> after government troops discovered their hiding place in Chamelecon.<ref name=honferrea />
Many of Mejía Colindres's hopes, however, were dashed with the onset of the Great Depression.<ref name=honordarq /> Banana exports peaked in 1930, then declined rapidly.<ref name=honordarq /> Thousands of workers were laid off, and the wages of those remaining on the job were reduced, as were the prices paid to independent banana producers by the giant fruit companies.<ref name=honordarq /> Strikes and other labor disturbances began to break out in response to these conditions, but most were quickly suppressed with the aid of government troops.<ref name=honordarq /> As the depression deepened, the government's financial situation deteriorated;<ref name=honordarq /> in 1931 Mejía Colindres was forced to borrow US$250,000 from the fruit companies to ensure that the army would continue to be paid.<ref name=honordarq />
===Tiburcio Carías Andino (1932–1949)===
[[File:Dictador General Tiburcio Carias Andino.jpg|thumb|Carias ruled the country for more than 16 years, his government was characterized by strong repression, and a rapid modernization of the army.]]
Despite growing unrest and severe economic strains, the 1932 presidential elections in Honduras were relatively peaceful and fair.<ref name=richca>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/19.htm|title = Honduras - the Era of Tiburcio Carías Andino, 1932-54}}</ref> The [[peaceful transition of power]] was surprising because the onset of the depression had led to the overthrow of governments elsewhere throughout Latin America,<ref name=richca /> in nations with much stronger democratic traditions than those of Honduras.<ref name=richca /> After United Fruit bought out Cuyamel, [[Sam Zemurray]], a strong supporter of the Liberal Party, left the country and the Liberals were short on cash by the 1932 general election.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch17-2.htm|title=Central America in the 1930s|website=www.fsmitha.com}}</ref> Mejía Colindres, however, resisted pressure from his own party to manipulate the results to favor the PLH candidate, {{ILL|Angel Zúñiga Huete|es|José Ángel Zúñiga Huete}}.<ref name=richca /> As a result, the PNH candidate, Carías, won the election by a margin of some 20,000 votes.<ref name=richca /> On 16 November 1932, Carías took office, beginning what was to be the longest period of continuous time in power by any individual in Honduran history.<ref name=richca />
Shortly before Carías's inauguration, dissident liberals, despite the opposition of Mejía Colindres,<ref name=richca /> had risen in revolt.<ref name=richca /> Carías had taken command of the government forces, obtained arms from El Salvador, and crushed the uprising in short order.<ref name=richca /> Most of Carías's first term in office was devoted to efforts to avoid financial collapse, improve the military, engage in a limited program of road building, and lay the foundations for prolonging his own hold on power.<ref name=richca />
The economy remained extremely bad throughout the 1930s.<ref name=richca /> In addition to the dramatic drop in banana exports caused by the depression,<ref name=richca /> the fruit industry was further threatened by the outbreak in 1935 of epidemics of Panama disease (a debilitating fungus) and sigatoka (leaf blight) in the banana-producing areas.<ref name=richca /> Within a year, most of the country's production was threatened. Large areas, including most of those around Trujillo, were abandoned, and thousands of Hondurans were thrown out of work.<ref name=richca /> By 1937 a means of controlling the disease had been found, but many of the affected areas remained out of production because a significant share of the market formerly held by Honduras had shifted to other nations.<ref name=richca />
Carías had made efforts to improve the military even before he became president.<ref name=richca /> Once in office, both his capacity and his motivation to continue and to expand such improvements increased. He gave special attention to the fledgling air force, founding the Military Aviation School in 1934 and arranging for a United States colonel to serve as its commandant.<ref name=richca />
As months passed, Carías moved slowly but steadily to strengthen his hold on power.<ref name=richca /> He gained the support of the banana companies through opposition to strikes and other labor disturbances.<ref name=richca /> He strengthened his position with domestic and foreign financial circles through conservative economic policies. Even in the height of the depression, he continued to make regular payments on the Honduran debt,<ref name=richca /> adhering strictly to the terms of the arrangement with the British bondholders and also satisfying other creditors.<ref name=richca /> Two small loans were paid off completely in 1935.<ref name=richca />
[[File:Fuerzas Navales de Honduras.jpg|thumb|Honduran naval force in the 1930's, one of the main goals of the government was to obtain a great development in the country and modernizing completely the army.]]
Political controls were instituted slowly under Carías.<ref name=richca /> The [[Communist Party of Honduras]] (Partido Comunista de Honduras—PCH) was outlawed,<ref name=richca /> but the PLH continued to function,<ref name=richca /> and even the leaders of a small uprising in 1935 were later offered free air transportation should they wish to return to Honduras from their exile abroad.<ref name=richca /> At the end of 1935, however, stressing the need for peace and internal order, Carías began to crack down on the opposition press and political activities.<ref name=richca /> Meanwhile, the PNH, at the president's direction, began a propaganda campaign stressing that only keeping Carías in office could give the nation continued peace and order.<ref name=richca /> The constitution, however, prohibited immediate reelection of presidents.<ref name=richca />
To extend his term of office Carías called a constituent assembly to write a new constitution and select the individual to serve for the first presidential term under that document.<ref name=richca /> Except for the president's desire to perpetuate himself in office,<ref name=richca /> there seemed little reason to alter the nation's basic charter.<ref name=richca /> Earlier constituent assemblies had written thirteen constitutions (only ten of which had entered into force), and the latest had been adopted in 1924.<ref name=richca /> The handpicked [[Honduran Constituent Assembly election, 1936|Constituent Assembly]] of 1936 incorporated thirty of the articles of the 1924 document into the 1936 constitution.<ref name=richca />
The major changes were the elimination of the prohibition on immediate reelection of a president and vice president and lengthening the presidential term from four years to six.<ref name=richca /> Other changes included restoration of the death penalty,<ref name=richca /> reductions in the powers of the legislature, and denial of citizenship to women, and therefore also of the right to vote.<ref name=richca /> Finally, the new constitution included an article specifying that the incumbent president and vice president would remain in office until 1943.<ref name=richca /> But Carías, by then a virtual dictator, wanted even more,<ref name=richca /> so in 1939 the legislature,<ref name=richca /> now completely controlled by the PNH,<ref name=richca /> extended his term in office by another six years (to 1949).<ref name=richca />
The PLH and other opponents of the government reacted to these changes by attempting to overthrow Carías.<ref name=richca /> Numerous coup attempts in 1936 and 1937,<ref name=richca /> succeeded only in further weakening the PNH's opponents.<ref name=richca /> By the end of the 1930s, the PNH was the only organized functioning political party in the nation.<ref name=richca /> Numerous opposition leaders had been imprisoned,<ref name=richca /> and some had reportedly been chained and put to work in the streets of Tegucigalpa.<ref name=richca /> Others, including the leader of the PLH, Zúñiga Huete, had fled into exile.<ref name=richca />
During his presidency, Carías cultivated close relations with his fellow Central American dictators,<ref name=richca /> generals [[Jorge Ubico]] in Guatemala, [[Maximiliano Hernández Martínez]] in El Salvador, and [[Anastasio Somoza García]] in Nicaragua.<ref name=richca /> Relations were particularly close with Ubico,<ref name=richca /> who helped Carías reorganize his secret police and also captured and shot the leader of a Honduran uprising who had made the mistake of crossing into Guatemalan territory.<ref name=richca /> Relations with Nicaragua were somewhat more strained as a result of the continuing border dispute,<ref name=richca /> but Carías and Somoza managed to keep this dispute under control throughout the 1930s and 1940s.<ref name=richca />
The value of these ties became somewhat questionable in 1944 when popular revolts in Guatemala and El Salvador deposed Ubico and Hernández Martínez.<ref name="richca" /> For a time, it seemed as if revolutionary contagion might spread to Honduras as well.<ref name="richca" /> A plot, involving some military officers as well as opposition civilians, had already been discovered and crushed in late 1943.<ref name="richca" /> In May 1944, a group of women began demonstrating outside of the Presidential Palace in Tegucigalpa, demanding the release of political prisoners.<ref name="richca" />
Despite strong government measures,<ref name="richca" /> tension continued to grow,<ref name="richca" /> and Carías was ultimately forced to release some prisoners.<ref name="richca" /> This gesture failed to satisfy the opposition,<ref name="richca" /> and antigovernment demonstrations continued to spread.<ref name="richca" /> In July several demonstrators were killed by troops in San Pedro Sula.<ref name="richca" /> In October a group of exiles invaded Honduras from El Salvador but were unsuccessful in their efforts to topple the government.<ref name="richca" /> The military remained loyal, and Carías continued in office.<ref name="richca" />
==== Second world war ====
{{main| Honduras in World War II}}
[[File:Contessa SWPA.png|thumb|The [[SS Contessa]], a Honduran ship that participated in the [[Operation Torch]] in the north african campaign in the Second World War.]]
Honduras maintained diplomatic relations with nations that belonged to the axis until 1941 when it declared war on the [[Empire of Japan]] on 8 December 1941 after the Japanese attack on [[Pearl Harbor]], which then spread to [[Nazi Germany]] and the [[Kingdom of Italy]] on 12 December of the same year.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Urtecho-Osorto|first1=Oscar Rolando|last2=Reyes-Flores|first2=Luis Gerardo|last3=Landa-Blanco|first3=Miguel|last4=Abate-Flores|first4=Cristhian|last5=Ávila|first5=Julio César|date=2019-12-20|title=Factores asociados a la elección de la carrera policial en agentes de escala básica de la Policía Nacional de Honduras|journal=Revista Logos, Ciencia & Tecnología|volume=12|issue=1|doi=10.22335/rlct.v12i1.1096|issn=2145-549X|doi-access=free}}</ref> Several Honduran merchant ships were sunk in the Caribbean by German submarines, which had already been sighted in the [[Gulf of Fonseca]] and the [[Caratasca Lagoon|Caratasca lagoon]], therefore air patrols began in 1942.
[[File:Honduran planes during world war II.png|thumb|Honduran NA-16 planes patrolling the coaststo avoid gemran U-boats in 1942.]]
This was thanks to the modernization of the Honduran army and the foundation of the [[Honduran Air Force]]. The aircraft used for this operation were the [[North American NA-16]], [[Vought F4U Corsair|Chance Vought F4U Corsair]], and the [[Boeing Model 40]] and [[Boeing Model 95|Model 95]] modified to drop bombs. The first sighting of a German [[U-boat]] by the air force occurred on 24 July 1942 and was attacked by planes with 60-pound bombs, being the first and possible only official record of a military confrontation between Honduras and Nazi Germany. Many of the raw materials produced in Honduras were sent to the North American country to bring supplies to soldiers in the [[Pacific War]] against the Japanese. the [[North African campaign|North African]] theater, and later with its entry into the European theater in 1944 after the [[Normandy landings|D-Day landing]].
==== End of Caria's regime ====
Anxious to curb further disorder in the region,<ref name=richca /> the United States began to urge Carías to step aside and allow free elections when his term of office expired.<ref name=richca /> Carías, by then in his early seventies, ultimately yielded and announced October 1948 elections,<ref name=richca /> in which he would not run.<ref name=richca /> He continued, however, to find ways to use his power.<ref name=richca /> The PNH nominated Carías's choice for president – [[Juan Manuel Gálvez]],<ref name=richca /> who had been minister of war since 1933.<ref name=richca /> Exiled opposition figures were allowed to return to Honduras,<ref name=richca /> and the PLH, trying to overcome years of inactivity and division,<ref name=richca /> nominated Zúñiga Huete, the same individual whom Carías had defeated in 1932.<ref name=richca /> The PLH rapidly became convinced that it had no chance to win and, charging the government with manipulation of the electoral process,<ref name=richca /> boycotted the elections.<ref name=richca /> This act gave Gálvez a virtually unopposed victory, and in January 1949, he assumed the presidency.<ref name=richca />
Evaluating the Carías presidency is a difficult task.<ref name=richca /> His time in office provided the nation with a badly needed period of relative peace and order. The country's fiscal situation improved steadily,<ref name=richca /> education improved slightly,<ref name=richca /> the road network expanded,<ref name=richca /> and the armed forces were modernized.<ref name=richca /> At the same time, nascent democratic institutions withered,<ref name=richca /> opposition and labor activities were suppressed,<ref name=richca /> and national interests at times were sacrificed to benefit supporters and relatives of Carías or major foreign interests.<ref name=richca />
===New Reform (1949–1954)===
[[File:Congreso nacional de Honduras.jpg|thumb|Honduran National Congress, built during the 1950s]]
Once in office Gálvez showed more independence than expected.<ref name=richca /> He continued and expanded some policies of the Carías administration, such as road building and development of coffee exports.<ref name=richca /> By 1953 nearly one-quarter of the government budget was allocated to road construction.<ref name=richca /> Gálvez also continued most of the prior administration's fiscal policies,<ref name=richca /> reducing external debt and paying off the last of the British bonds.<ref name=richca /> The fruit companies continued to receive favorable treatment at the hands of the Gálvez administration;<ref name=richca /> for example, United Fruit received a highly favorable twenty-five-year contract in 1949.<ref name=richca />
Galvez however did institute some notable innovations.<ref name=richca /> Education got more attention and a larger share of the national budget.<ref name=richca /> Congress passed an income tax law, although enforcement was sporadic at best.<ref name=richca /> A considerable degree of press freedom was restored,<ref name=richca /> the PLH and other groups were allowed to organize,<ref name=richca /> and some worker organization was permitted.<ref name=richca /> Labor also benefited from legislation during this period.{{clarify|date=August 2017}} Congress passed, and the president signed, legislation establishing the [[eight-hour day|eight-hour workday]], paid holidays for workers,<ref name=richca /> limited employer responsibility for work-related injuries,<ref name=richca /> and regulations over the employment of women and children.<ref name=richca />
===1955–1979===
After the general strike in 1954, young military reformists staged a coup in October 1955 that installed a provisional junta. [[Capital punishment]] was abolished in 1956, though Honduras hadn't had an execution since 1940. Constituent assembly elections in 1957 appointed [[Ramón Villeda Morales|Ramón Villeda]] as president, and the constituent assembly itself became a [[Congress of Honduras|national Congress]] with a 6-year term. The [[Liberal Party of Honduras]] (PLH) held power in 1957–63. The military began to become a professional institution independent of politics, with the newly created military academy graduating its first class in 1960. In October 1963, conservative military officers preempted constitutional elections and deposed [[Ramón Villeda Morales]] in a bloody coup. These officers exiled PLH members and governed under General [[Oswaldo López Arellano|Oswaldo López]] until 1970.
[[File:Football war Honduras & el Salvador.jpg|thumb|Honduran soldiers during the [[Football War]].]]
In July 1969, [[El Salvador]] invaded Honduras in the short [[Football War]]. Tensions in the aftermath of the conflict remain.
A civilian president for the PNH, [[Ramón Ernesto Cruz Uclés|Ramón Ernesto Cruz]], took power briefly in 1970 until, in December 1972, López staged another coup. This time he adopted more progressive policies, including [[land reform]].
López' successors continued armed forces modernization, building army and security forces, concentrating on Honduran air force superiority over its neighbors. During the governments of General [[Juan Alberto Melgar Castro]] (1975–78) and General [[Policarpo Paz García]] (1978–82), Honduras built most of its physical infrastructure and electricity and terrestrial telecommunications systems, both state monopolies. The country experienced economic growth during this period, with greater international demand for its products and increased availability of foreign commercial capital.
===Constituent assembly (1980)===
In 1982, the country returned to civilian rule. A constituent assembly was popularly elected in April 1980 and general elections were held in November 1981. A new constitution was approved in 1982 and the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] government of [[Roberto Suazo Córdova|Roberto Suazo]] assumed power.
===1980s===
[[File:F5e-fah.gif|left|thumb|In 1986 Honduras bombed two Nicaraguan towns.]]
[[Roberto Suazo Córdova]] won the elections on an ambitious program of economic and social development to tackle the country's recession. During this time, Honduras also assisted the [[Contras|contra]] guerillas.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/politics/cables-show-central-negroponte-role-in-80s-covert-war-against.html|title=Cables Show Central Negroponte Role in 80's Covert War Against Nicaragua|first=Scott|last=Shane|date=13 April 2005|via=[[NYTimes.com]]}}</ref>
President Suazo launched ambitious social and economic development projects sponsored by American development aid. Honduras became host to the largest [[Peace Corps]] mission in the world, and nongovernmental and international voluntary agencies proliferated.<ref name="DOS-Honduras">{{cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1922.htm|title=Background Note: Honduras|publisher=United States Department of State}}</ref>
From 1972 to 1983, Honduras was governed by military juntas.
[[File:82nd Airborne troops jump from C-141Bs in 1988.JPEG|thumb|American troops arriving in Honduras in 1988 during Operation Golden Pheasant.]]
Though spared the bloody civil wars wracking its neighbors, the Honduran army quietly waged a campaign against [[Marxist–Leninist]] rebels such as the [[People's Liberation Movement - Cinchoneros|Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement]], notorious for kidnappings and bombings,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/exgi_0001_0001_0/exgi_0001_0001_0_00044.html|title=Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement|access-date=5 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515130507/http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/exgi_0001_0001_0/exgi_0001_0001_0_00044.html|archive-date=15 May 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> and many non-militants. The operation included a campaign of extrajudicial killings by government units, most notably the CIA-trained [[Battalion 3-16 (Honduras)|Battalion 3-16]].<ref>[http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-negroponte3a,0,3966794.story??track=sto-relcon "A survivor tells her story"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930040920/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-negroponte3a,0,3966794.story?%3Ftrack=sto-relcon |date=30 September 2007 }} ''baltimoresun.com'', 15 June 1995, retrieved 8 January 2007.</ref> Numerous trade unionists, academics, farmers and students disappeared. Declassified documents show that U.S. Ambassador [[John Negroponte]] personally intervened to prevent possible disclosures of these crimes, in order to avoid "creating human rights problems in Honduras". The U.S. established a continuing military presence in Honduras to support the [[Contra (guerrillas)|Contra]] guerillas fighting the [[Sandinista]] [[Nicaragua]]n government, and to support the fight against leftist guerrillas in El Salvador and Guatemala.They also developed an air strip and a modern port in Honduras. U.S. military assistance to Honduras increased from $4 million in 1981 to $77.4 million in 1984.<ref>Alexander Main, Passage en force au Honduras, Le Monde, 2018</ref>
[[Roberto Suazo Córdova|President Suazo]], relying on U.S. support, created ambitious social and economic development projects to help with a severe economic recession and with the perceived threat of regional instability.
[[File:Tren Hondureño en 1984.jpg|thumb|Honduran train in the north coast during the 80s. ]]
As the November 1985 election approached, the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] could not settle on a presidential candidate and interpreted election law as permitting multiple candidates from any one party. The PLH claimed victory when its presidential candidates collectively outpolled the [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] candidate, [[Rafael Leonardo Callejas]], who received 42% of the total vote. [[José Azcona del Hoyo|José Azcona]], the candidate receiving the most votes (27%) among the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]], assumed the presidency in January 1986. With strong endorsement and support from the Honduran military, the Suazo administration ushered in the first peaceful transfer of power between civilian presidents in more than 30 years. In 1989 he oversaw the dismantling of Contras which were based in Honduras.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/07/world/with-contras-fate-at-stake-honduran-is-man-in-middle-at-talks.html "With Contras' Fate at Stake, Honduran Is Man in Middle at Talks"] ''NY Times'', 7 August 1990, retrieved 5 November 2009.</ref>
In 1988, in [[Operation Golden Pheasant]], US forces were deployed to Honduras in response to Nicaraguan attacks on Contra supply caches in Honduras.
===1990s===
In January 1990, [[Rafael Leonardo Callejas]] won the presidential election and took office, concentrating on economic reform and reducing the deficit. He began a movement to place the military under [[civilian control of the military|civilian control]] and laid the groundwork for the creation of the public prosecution service.
In 1993, [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] candidate [[Carlos Roberto Reina]] was elected with 56% of the vote against [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] contender [[Oswaldo Ramos Soto]]. He won on a platform calling for "moral revolution" and made active efforts to prosecute corruption and pursue those responsible for alleged human rights abuses in the 1980s. The Reina administration successfully increased civilian control over the armed forces and transferred the national police from military to civilian authority. In 1996, Reina named his own defense minister, breaking the precedent of accepting the nominee of the armed forces leadership.
His administration substantially increased Central Bank net international reserves, reduced [[inflation]] to 12.8% a year, restored a better pace of economic growth (about 5% in 1997), and held down spending to achieve a 1.1% non-financial public sector deficit in 1997.
The [[Liberal Party of Honduras]] (PLH)'s [[Carlos Roberto Flores]] took office 27 January 1998 as Honduras' fifth democratically elected president since free elections were restored in 1981, with a 10% margin over his main opponent, [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] nominee [[Nora Gúnera de Melgar]], widow of former leader [[Juan Alberto Melgar Castro|Juan Alberto Melgar]]). Flores inaugurated [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) programs of reform and modernization of the Honduran government and economy, with emphasis on maintaining the country's fiscal health and improving international competitiveness.
In October 1998, [[Hurricane Mitch]] devastated Honduras, leaving more than 5,000 people dead and 1.5 million displaced. Damages totaled nearly $3 billion. International donors came forward to assist in rebuilding infrastructure, donating [[US$]]1400 million in 2000.
==Honduras in the twenty-first century==
===2000s===
[[File:2009 Honduras political crisis 5.jpg|thumb|After the 2009 coup d'état, the military presence in the streets began to be more common.]]
In November 2001, the National Party won presidential and parliamentary elections. The [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] gained 61 seats in Congress and the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] won 55. The [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] candidate Rafael Pineda was defeated by the [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] candidate [[Ricardo Maduro]], who took office in January 2002. Maduro administration emphasized stopping ''mara'' growth, especially [[18th Street gang|Mara 18]] and [[Mara Salvatrucha]].
On 27 November 2005, the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] candidate [[Manuel Zelaya]] beat the [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] candidate and current Head of Congress [[Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo]], and became the new president on 27 January 2006.
[[Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales]] of the [[Liberal Party of Honduras]] won 27 November 2005 presidential elections with less than a 4% margin of victory, the smallest margin ever in Honduran electoral history. Zelaya's campaign theme was "citizen power," and he vowed to increase transparency and combat narcotrafficking while maintaining macroeconomic stability. The Liberal Party won 62 of the 128 congressional seats, just short of an absolute majority.
In 2009 Zelaya caused controversy with his call to have [[Honduran constitutional referendum, 2009|a constitutional referendum]] in June to decide about convening a Constitutional National Assembly to formulate a new constitution.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.laprensahn.com/Pa%C3%ADs/Ediciones/2009/06/11/Noticias/Sigue-rechazo-a-la-cuarta-urna|title=Sigue rechazo a la cuarta urna|date=10 June 2009|website=La Prensha.hn_APERTURA|publisher=OPSA|language=es|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625170850/http://www.laprensahn.com/Pa%C3%ADs/Ediciones/2009/06/11/Noticias/Sigue-rechazo-a-la-cuarta-urna|archive-date=25 June 2009|access-date=11 June 2016}}</ref> The constitution explicitly bars changes to some of its clauses, including the term limit, and the move precipitated a [[2009 Honduran constitutional crisis|Constitutional Crisis]].
An injunction against holding the referendum was issued by the Honduran Supreme Court.<ref name="herald1">{{cite web|url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1117277.html|title=Honduran leader pushes ahead with divisive vote|newspaper=Miami Herald}}{{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic|fix-attempted=yes}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref name=Cuevas1>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ilB4EYZ3kF-s2I4kUt5k-8AT6_yAD992FJTO2|title=Honduras heads toward crisis over referendum|last1=Freddy|first1=Cuevas|last2=Rueda|first2=Jorge|last3=Rodriguez|first3=Carlos|last4=Lederer|first4=Edith M.|date=26 June 2009|website=Google|publisher=The Associated Press|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090705062927/https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ilB4EYZ3kF-s2I4kUt5k-8AT6_yAD992FJTO2 |archive-date=5 July 2009|access-date=26 June 2009}}</ref>
Zelaya rejected the ruling and sacked [[Romeo Vásquez Velásquez]], the head of [[Military of Honduras|Honduras's armed forces]]. Vásquez had refused to help with the referendum because he did not want to violate the law. The sacking was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court as well as by Congress and Vásquez was reinstated. The President then further defied the Supreme Court by pressing ahead with the vote, which the Court had deemed "illegal".<ref name=Cuevas1/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8120161.stm|title=Honduran leader defies top court|website=BBC News|publisher=BBC|date=26 June 2009|access-date=5 January 2010}}</ref> The military had confiscated the ballots and polls in a military base in Tegucigalpa. On 27 June, a day before the election, Zelaya followed by a big group of supporters entered the base and ordered, as Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces, for the ballots and polls to be returned to him. Congress saw this as an abuse of power and ordered his capture.
On 28 June 2009, the military [[2009 Honduran political crisis|removed]] Zelaya from office and deported him to Costa Rica, a neutral country. [[Elvin Santos]], the vice-president during the start of Zelaya's term, had resigned in order to run for president in the coming elections, and by a presidential line of succession the head of Congress, [[Roberto Micheletti]], was appointed president. However, due to the stance taken by the United Nations and the Organization of American States on the use of military force to depose a president, most countries in the region and in the world continued to recognize Zelaya as the President of Honduras and denounced the actions as an assault on democracy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-28-voa22.cfm|title=Honduran President Ousted by Military|last=Bowman|first=Michael|date=28 June 2009|website=VOANews.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090717061715/http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-28-voa22.cfm|archive-date=17 July 2009|access-date=11 June 2016}}</ref>
Honduras continued to be ruled by Micheletti's administration under strong foreign pressure. On 29 November, democratic [[Honduran general election, 2009|general elections]] were held, with former Congressional president and 2005 nominee, [[Pepe Lobo]] as victor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://consulta.tse.hn:2185/Estadistica.aspx |title=Elecciones Generales "Estadisticas 2009" |date=29 November 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101119075729/http://consulta.tse.hn:2185/Estadistica.aspx |archive-date=19 November 2010 }}</ref>
===2010s===
[[File:Comayagüela desde EL parque Juan. A Laínez.jpg|thumb|City of Comayagüela in the 2010s]]
Inaugurated on 27 January 2010, [[Porfirio Lobo Sosa|Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa]] and his administration focused throughout the first year for foreign recognition of presidential legitimacy and Honduras's reinstitution in the [[Organization of American States|OAS]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/27/honduras.president/index.html|title=New Honduran president takes office - CNN.com|website=www.cnn.com}}</ref>
After the presidential period of Lobo Sosa, [[Juan Orlando Hernandez|Juan Orlando <span dir="ltr" lang="spanish">Hernández</span>]] defeated [[Xiomara Castro]], wife of ousted former president Manuel Zelaya, in the general [[2013 Honduran general election|elections]] in 2013.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25346676|title = Honduras: Juan Orlando Hernandez confirmed as president|work = BBC News|date = 12 December 2013}}</ref> During the first years of his presidency the economic growth helped to improve the infrastructure of the main cities. However, unemployment and social unrest increased during his first term. He opened the possibility of changing the constitution, enraging a considerable part of the population. In 2015, the supreme court of Honduras removed a single-term limit for the country’s presidency.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/24/honduran-judges-throw-out-single-term-limit-on-presidency|title = Honduran judges throw out single-term limit on presidency|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 24 April 2015}}</ref> President Juan Orlando Hernández was reelected in 2017, winning the [[2017 Honduran general election|election]] through an alleged electoral fraud that produced constant protests and violence in the streets.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/22/us-recognizes-re-election-of-honduras-president-despite-calls-for-a-new-vote|title = US recognizes re-election of Honduras president despite fraud allegations|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 22 December 2017}}</ref> In 2019, Juan Orlando Hernández's younger brother Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernández was brought to trial in New York for drug trafficking. He was convicted of all four charges against him, including drug trafficking and lying to authorities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/tony-hernandez-conviction-honduras/|title = Will Tony Hernández Conviction Upend Narco-Politics in Honduras?|date = 18 October 2019}}</ref>
=== 2020s ===
In September 2020, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández announced that Honduras will relocate its embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Honduras became the third country in the world after the United States and Guatemala to establish embassies to Israel in Jerusalem.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/21/honduras-to-move-its-israel-embassy-to-jerusalem-by-end-of-year|title = Honduras to move its Israel embassy to Jerusalem by end of year}}</ref>
In January 2021, Honduras changed the country's constitution to make it almost impossible to legalize abortion in the future. Before that, Honduras was already one of few countries with a complete ban on abortion. The constitutional reform was supported by Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández's ruling [[National Party (Honduras)|National Party]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/31/americas/honduras-abortion-ban-ratified-intl/index.html|title=How lawmakers made it nearly impossible to legalize abortion in Honduras|first=Tatiana|last=Arias|website=CNN}}</ref>
On 28 November 2021, the former first lady [[Xiomara Castro]], leftist presidential candidate of opposition [[Liberty and Refoundation |Liberty and Refoundation Party]], won 53% of the votes in the [[2021 Honduran general election|presidential election]] to become the first female president of Honduras.<ref>{{cite news |title=Honduras elected its first female president, Xiomara Castro |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/honduras-elected-first-female-president-xiomara-castro-rcna7218 |work=NBC News |date=1 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref> On 27 January 2022, Xiomara Castro was sworn in as Honduras' president. Her husband, Manuel Zelaya, hold the same office from 2006 until 2009.<ref>{{cite news |title=Xiomara Castro: Honduras' first female president sworn in |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-60155634 |work=BBC News |date=27 January 2022}}</ref>
In April 2022, former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who served two terms between 2014 and January 2022, was extradited to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. Hernandez denied the accusations.<ref>{{cite news |title=Juan Orlando Hernández: Honduran ex-leader extradited to US |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-61174692 |work=BBC News |date=21 April 2022}}</ref>
==See also==
*[[List of presidents of Honduras]]
*[[Politics of Honduras]]
*[[Hondurans]]
'''General:'''
*[[History of the Americas]]
*[[History of Central America]]
*[[History of Latin America]]
*[[History of North America]]
*[[Spanish colonization of the Americas]]
* {{portal-inline|Honduras}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
;Attribution
{{Refbegin}}
{{StateDept}}
{{Refend}}
==Further reading==
* Carvajal, Roger A. "Violence in Honduras: an analysis of the failure in public security and the states response to criminality" (Naval Postgraduate School, 2014) [https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a607085.pdf online]
* Euraque, Darío A. ''Reinterpreting the Banana Republic: region and state in Honduras, 1870-1972'' (U of North Carolina Press, 1996).
* Humphreys, Robert Arthur. ''The diplomatic history of British Honduras, 1638-1901'' (Oxford UP, 1961). [https://archive.org/details/diplomatichistor0000unse_q0k2 online]
* {{cite book |title=Geography |volume=3 |series=[[English Cyclopaedia]] |editor= Knight, Charles |location=London |year=1866 |publisher=Bradbury, Evans, & Co. |chapter-url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433000064802?urlappend=%3Bseq=119 |chapter=Republic of Honduras |hdl=2027/nyp.33433000064802?urlappend=%3Bseq=119 }}
* Leonard, Thomas M. ''The history of Honduras'' (ABC-CLIO, 2011) [https://www.amazon.com/History-Honduras-Greenwood-Histories-Nations/dp/031336303X/ excerpt]; a standard scholarly history with long bibliography
* Merrill, Tim L. ''In Honduras: A Country Study'' (3rd ed. US Library of Congress, 1995).
* Moody, Jason M. "Crisis in Honduras: the search for answers to the removal of president Manuel Zelaya" (Naval Postgraduate School, 2013) [https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a589706.pdf online]
* Reichman, Daniel R. ''The Broken Village: Coffee, Migration, and Globalization in Honduras'' (2011) [https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Village-Migration-Globalization-Honduras/dp/0801477298/ excerpt]
* Ruhl, J. Mark. "Trouble in Central America: Honduras Unravels." ''Journal of Democracy'' 21.2 (2010): 93-107.
* Schulz, Donald E. and Deborah Sundloff Schulz. ''The United States, Honduras, And The Crisis In Central America'' (1984) [https://www.amazon.com/United-States-Honduras-Central-America/dp/0367319047/ excerpt]
* Soluri, John. ''Banana cultures: Agriculture, consumption, and environmental change in Honduras and the United States'' (U of Texas Press, 2005). [https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/131101 PhD dissertation version]
==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}
{{Honduras topics}}
{{Honduras year nav}}
{{History of North America}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:History of Honduras}}
[[Category:History of Honduras| ]]' |
New page wikitext, after the edit (new_wikitext) | '{{short description|Historical development of Honduras}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{History of Honduras}}
[[File:Kopan.png|thumb|Mayan representative hieroglyphic of the Kingdom of "Xukpi" also known as Copan. The [[Maya civilization|Mayan civilization]] was predominant in the western part of Honduras.]]
[[File:Coat of arms of Honduras (Colonial).svg|thumb|140px|First coat of arms of Honduras given by the emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles I]] of [[Spain]] an 5th of the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman empire]]. By the time of the colonial era Honduras suffered a demographic change due the arrival of Spanish immigrants ]]
'''Honduras''' was inhabited by many indigenous peoples when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. The western-central part of [[Honduras]] was inhabited by the [[Lencas]], the central north coast by the [[Jicaque people|Tol]], the area east and west of [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]] by the [[Pech people|Pech (or Paya)]], the [[Maya civilization|Maya]] and [[Sumo people|Sumo]]. These autonomous groups maintained commercial relationships with each other and with other populations as distant as [[History of Panama|Panama]] and [[History of Mexico|Mexico]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1922.htm|title=U.S. Relations With Honduras|date=9 April 2015|website=U.S. Department of State|access-date=11 June 2016}}</ref> Honduras has ruins of several cities dating from the Mesoamerican [[Preclassic Maya|pre-classic]] period that show the [[pre-Columbian Honduras|pre-Columbian]] past of the country.
For the arrival of the Spanish, new cities were founded such as [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]], [[Comayagua]], [[Gracias]], and [[Tegucigalpa]]. Starting in the colonial era, the territory of what is today Honduras was dedicated to harvesting, mining, and ranching. After its independence from the [[Spanish Empire]] in 1821, Central America would join the [[first Mexican Empire]] for a very short time, which would fall in 1823 and the [[Federal Republic of Central America|Central American federation]] would be created, which would fall in 1839. After that, the Honduran territory has become an independent nation.
==Pre-Columbian era==
{{Main|Copán}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
| image1 = CPN Rosalila 01.jpg|caption1=The Rosalila Temple in the Copan Ruinas Museum
| image2 = CPN ST B 01.jpg|caption2=A [[Maya stelae|Maya stela]], an emblematic symbol of the Honduran Mayan civilization at Copan
}}
Archaeologists have demonstrated that Honduras has a multi-ethnic prehistory. An important part of that prehistory was the [[Maya civilization|Maya]]n presence around the city of [[Copán]] in western Honduras near the Guatemalan border. Copán was a major Maya city that began to flourish around 150 A.D. but reached its height in the Late Classic (700–850 A.D.). It has left behind many carved inscriptions and [[stelae]]. The ancient kingdom, named ''[[Copán|Xukpi]]'', existed from the 5th century to the early 9th century, and had antecedents going back to at least the 2nd century. Other Mayan city was El puente, that ended up being conquered by Copan during the classic period, which ruins are a few kilometers from Copan. Other Mayan archeological sites in Honduras are [[Rastrojón|El Rastrojon]], [[Rio Amarillo (Mayan Site)|Rio Amarillo]], [[El Puente (Maya site)|El Puente]], and [[Playa de los Muertos|Playa de los muertos]]. Mayan culture extended from what today are the departments of Copan, Ocotepeque, Santa Barbara, and Cortes. Archaeological studies determined that these people made several villages around the territories that comprise these departments.
The [[Mayan civilization]] began a marked decline in population in the 9th century, but there is evidence of people still living in and around the city until at least 1200.<ref>Paine, Richard R and Freter, AnnCorinne 1996 "Environmental Degradation and the Classic Maya Collapse at Copan, Honduras" ''Ancient Mesoamerica'' 7:37–47 Cambridge University Press</ref> By the time the Spanish came to Honduras, the once great city-state of Copán was overrun by the jungle, and the surviving [[Ch'orti' people|Ch’orti']] were isolated from their Choltian linguistic peers to the west. The non-Maya [[Lenca people|Lenca]]s were then dominant in western Honduras, creating several villages in the valleys. The Lenca people was the biggest and most well organized society in terms of military organization by the time of the conquest at the early 16th century.<ref>Newson, Linda The Cost of Conquest: Indian Decline in Honduras Under Spanish Rule. Dellplain Latin American Studies; No. 20, Westview Press, Boulder</ref>
[[File:Los Naranjos Honduras.jpg|thumb|One of the Pyramids of Los Naranjos, these ones are considered to be the oldest structures of Honduras. |alt=|left]]
Many other regions were host to large societies. Archaeological sites include {{illm|Naco (Honduras)|lt=Naco|es|Naco (Honduras)}}, La Sierra, and El Curruste in the northwest (thought to have been populated by [[Western Jicaque language|Western Jicaque]] speakers), [[Los Naranjos, Honduras|Los Naranjos]] north of [[Lake Yojoa]], [[Temanpua|Tenampua]] and [[Yarumela]] in the [[Comayagua]] valley were built by the ancestors of the [[Lenca people|Lenca]] people.
[[File:Yacimiento arquelogico de Yarumela.jpg|thumb|Pyramid 102 of [[Yarumela]], one of the oldest Honduran archeological sites.]]
Honduras was mainly part of [[Mesoamerica]], and was home to complex settled societies for several thousand consecutive years, just as the other neighboring regions, and it is clear that neighboring Maya societies and more distant Central Mexican societies were a major influence on Honduran communities, both through trade (especially with the Maya civilization, and, during the [[Mesoamerican chronology#Preclassic Era or Formative Period|Formative Period]], the [[Olmec civilization]]) and occasionally migration. For example, during internal conflict in the late [[Toltec Empire]], around 1000 to 1100 AD, [[Nahuatl]]-speakers migrated from Central Mexico and dispersed into different parts of Central America, including Honduras, especially [[Chapagua]]. In present-day El Salvador, they became the [[Pipil people|Pipil]] and founded [[Kuzshkatán (Cuzcatlan)|Kuskatan]], and in Nicaragua, they became the [[Nicarao people|Nicarao]].
[[La Ciudad Blanca]] is the major exception, which lies on the very fringe of Mesoamerica and is better described in relation to the [[Isthmo-Colombian area]]. This civilization thrived from 500 A.D to 1000 A.D, and included sophisticated management of the environment in accordance with large urban centers. Despite being outside the Mesoamerican area, studies reveal that the city has elements of the Mayan cities, like a ball game, and some pyramidal structures that share similarities with the ones found in western Honduras. Studies in the area show that the structures of the city have a huge size, and one had a ceremonial area where they performed all their sacred rituals to a series of kings and gods in whom they believed.
==Conquest period==
{{Main|Spanish conquest of Honduras}}
[[File:Coat of arms of Colon, Honduras.png|thumb|left|140px|Coat of Arms of Trujillo, one of the oldest towns in Honduras.|alt=]]
Honduras was first sighted by Europeans when [[Christopher Columbus]] arrived at the [[Bay Islands Department|Bay Islands]] very close to the island of [[Guanaja]] on 30 July 1502 on his [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|fourth voyage]]. On 14 August 1502 Columbus landed on the mainland near modern [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]]. Columbus named the country Honduras ("depths") for the deep waters off its coast. {{citation needed|date=September 2021}}
[[File:Retrato de Hernán Cortés.jpg|thumb|After the fall of [[Tenochtitlan]], [[Hernán Cortés]] make his journey to the region of las Hibueras, modern day Honduras.]]
In January 1524, [[Hernán Cortés]] directed captain [[Cristóbal de Olid]] to establish a colony in Honduras named "''Triunfo de la Cruz''", modern day town of [[Tela]]. Olid sailed with several ships and over 400 soldiers and colonists to Cuba to pick up supplies Cortés had arranged for him. There Governor [[Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar]] convinced him to claim the colony he was to found as his own. Olid sailed to the coast of Honduras and came ashore east of [[Puerto Cortés|Puerto Caballos]] at ''Triunfo de la Cruz'' where he settled and declared himself governor. Cortés got word of Olid's insurrection however, and sent his cousin [[Francisco de las Casas]] with several ships to Honduras to remove Olid and claim the area for Cortés. Las Casas, however, lost most of his fleet in a series of storms along the coast of [[Belize]] and Honduras. His ships limped into the bay at Triunfo, where Olid had established his headquarters.
When Las Casas arrived at Olid's headquarters, a large part of Olid's army was inland, dealing with another threat from a party of Spaniards under [[Gil González Dávila]]. Nevertheless, Olid decided to launch an attack with two [[caravel]]s. Las Casas returned fire and sent boarding parties to capture Olid's ships. Under the circumstances, Olid proposed a truce. Las Casas agreed, and did not land his forces. During the night, a fierce storm destroyed his fleet and about a third of his men were lost. The remainder were taken prisoner after two days of exposure and no food. After being forced to swear loyalty to Olid, they were released. But Las Casas was kept prisoner, and soon joined by González, who had been captured by Olid's inland force.
The Spanish record two different stories about what happened next. [[Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas]], writing in the 17th century, said that Olid's soldiers rose up and murdered him. [[Bernal Diaz del Castillo]], in his book named ''Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de Nueva España'', says that Las Casas captured Olid and beheaded him at Naco. In the meantime Cortés marched overland from Mexico to Honduras, arriving in 1525. Cortés ordered the founding of two cities, Nuestra Señora de la Navidad, near modern [[Puerto Cortés]] and [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]], and named Las Casas governor. However, both Las Casas and Cortés sailed back to Mexico before the end of 1525, where Las Casas was arrested and returned to Spain as a prisoner by Estrada and Alboronoz{{who|date=August 2017}}. Las Casas returned to Mexico in 1527, and returned again to Spain with Cortés in 1528.
On 25 April 1526, before going back to Mexico, Cortes appointed [[Hernando Arias de Saavedra|Hernando de Saavedra]] governor of Honduras with instructions to treat the indigenous people well. On 26 October 1526, Diego López de Salcedo was appointed by the emperor as governor of [[Honduras]], replacing Saavedra. The next decade was marked by clashes between the personal ambitions of the rulers and conquerors, which hindered the installation of good government.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}} The Spanish colonists rebelled against their leaders, and the indigenous people rebelled against the Spanish and against the abuses they imposed.
Salcedo, seeking to enrich himself, seriously clashed with [[Pedro Arias Dávila]], governor of [[Castilla del Oro]], who wanted Honduras as part of his domains. In 1528, Salcedo arrested Pedarias and forced him to cede part of his Honduran domain, but [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]] rejected that outcome. After the death of Salcedo in 1530, settlers became arbiters of power.{{clarify|date=December 2017}} Governors hung and removed.{{clarify|date=December 2017}} In this situation, the settlers asked [[Pedro de Alvarado]] to end the anarchy. With the arrival of Alvarado in 1536, chaos decreased, and the region was under authority.{{clarify|date=August 2017}}
[[File:LEMPIRA acrílico sobre tela.jpg|thumb|Painting of Lempira during the conquest of Honduras.]]
In 1537 [[Francisco de Montejo]] was appointed governor. He set aside the division of territory made by Alvarado on arriving in Honduras. One of his principal captains, [[Alonso de Cáceres]], quelled the indigenous revolt led by the [[cacique]] [[Lempira (Lenca ruler)|Lempira]] in 1537 and 1538. In 1539 Alvarado and Montejo disagreed over who was governor, which caught the attention of the [[Council of India]]. Montejo went to [[Chiapas]], and Alvarado became governor of [[Honduras]].<ref>{{Cite book|year=1991|editor-last=Olson|editor-first=James Stuart|editor2-last=Shadle|editor2-first=Robert|title=Historical Dictionary of European Imperialism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uyqepNdgUWkC |location=Westport, Connecticut|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=0-313-26257-8|pages=284–285|access-date=11 June 2016}}</ref>
During the period leading up to the conquest of Honduras by [[Pedro de Alvarado]], many indigenous people along the north coast of Honduras were captured and taken as slaves to work on Spain's Caribbean [[plantation]]s. It wasn't until Alvarado defeated the indigenous resistance headed by Çocamba near Ticamaya that the Spanish began to conquer the country in 1536. Alvarado divided the native towns and gave their labor to the Spanish conquistadors as ''[[repartimiento]]''. Further indigenous uprisings near [[Gracias a Dios Department|Gracias a Dios]], [[Comayagua]], and [[Olancho]] occurred in 1537–38. The uprising near Gracias a Dios was led by [[Lempira (Lenca ruler)|Lempira]], who is honored today by the name of the Honduran [[currency]].
==Colonial Honduras==
[[File:Iglesia de la merced de Comayagua.jpg|thumb|The church of la Merced in Comayagua was the first Cathedral of Honduras in 1550.]]
The defeat of Lempira's revolt, and the decline in fighting among rival Spanish factions all contributed to expanded settlement and increased economic activity in Honduras. In late 1540, Honduras looked to be heading towards development and prosperity, thanks to the establishment of [[Gracias]] as the regional capital of the Audiencia of Guatemala (1544). However, this decision created resentment in the populated areas of [[Guatemala]] and El Salvador. In 1549, the capital was moved to [[Antigua, Guatemala]], and Honduras and remained a new province within the [[Captaincy General of Guatemala]] until 1821.<ref name="Honduras: A Country Study">{{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/|title=Honduras: A Country Study|publisher=Tim Merrill for the Library of Congress|year=1995|access-date=20 March 2011}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=June 2016}}
===Colonial mining operations===
[[File:Barrio La Hoya, Tegucigalpa, Honduras - panoramio (2).jpg|thumb|[[Tegucigalpa Cathedral|Cathedral of Saint Michael Archangel]] in Tegucigalpa was built during the XVIII century.]]
The first mining centers were located near the Guatemalan border, around the city of Gracias in Lempira. In 1538 these mines produced significant quantities of gold for the spanish crown. In the early 1540s, the center for mining shifted eastward to the [[Guayape River|Río Guayape]] Valley, and silver joined gold as a major product. This change contributed to the rapid decline of Gracias and the rise of [[Comayagua]] as the center of colonial Honduras. The demand for labor also led to further revolts and accelerated the decimation of the native population. As a result, [[African slavery]] was introduced into Honduras, and by 1545 the province may have had as many as 2,000 slaves. Other gold deposits were found near [[San Pedro Sula]] and the port of Trujillo.<ref>{{cite book |date=1995 |title=Honduras a country study |url=http://memory.loc.gov/master/frd/frdcstdy/ho/hondurascountrys00merr_0/hondurascountrys00merr_0.pdf |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Federal Research Division Library of Congress |page=9 |isbn=0-8444-0836-0}}</ref>
Mining production began to decline in 1560, and thus the importance of Honduras. In early 1569, new silver discoveries briefly revived the economy, which led to the founding of [[Tegucigalpa]], which soon began to rival Comayagua as the most important city of the province. The silver boom peaked in 1584, and economic depression returned shortly thereafter. Honduran mining efforts were hampered by lack of capital and labor, and by difficult terrain. Due to the fall of the indigenous population which was used as labor, the Spanish decided to import slaves from Africa for mining work. Mercury, vital for the production of silver, was scarce, besides the neglect of officials.<ref>{{cite book |date=1995 |title=Honduras a country study |url=http://memory.loc.gov/master/frd/frdcstdy/ho/hondurascountrys00merr_0/hondurascountrys00merr_0.pdf |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Federal Research Division Library of Congress |page=10 |isbn=0-8444-0836-0}}</ref>
[[File:Francoislollonais.JPG|thumb|European pirates, especially British, French, and Dutch attacked Honduran towns during the colonial era.|alt=]]
===The partially conquered northern coast===
While the Spanish made significant conquests in the south, they had less success on the Caribbean coast, to the north. They founded a number of towns on the coast such as [[Puerto Cortés|Puerto Caballos]] in the east, and sent minerals and other exports across the country from the Pacific coast to be shipped to Spain from the Atlantic ports. They founded a number of inland towns on the northwestern side of the province, notably Naco and [[San Pedro Sula]].
In the northeast, the province of tegucigalpa resisted all attempts to conquer it, physically in the sixteenth century, or spiritually by missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries. Among the groups found along the northern coast and in neighboring [[Nicaragua]] were the [[Miskito people|Miskito]], who although organized in a democratic and egalitarian way, had a king, and hence were known as the [[Mosquito Coast|Mosquito Kingdom]].
One of the major problems for the Spanish rulers of Honduras, was the activity of the British in northern Honduras, a region over which they had only tenuous control. These activities began in the sixteenth century and continued until the nineteenth century. In the early years, European pirates frequently attacked the villages on the Honduran Caribbean. The [[Providence Island Company]], which occupied [[Providence Island colony|Providence Island]] not far from the coast, raided it occasionally and probably also had settlements on the shore, possibly around [[Cape Gracias a Dios]]. Around 1638, the king of the Miskito visited England and made an alliance with the English crown.<ref>[[Karen Ordahl Kupperman]], ''Providence Island: The Other Puritan Colony, 1631–41'' (Cambridge, 19xx), pp.</ref> In 1643 an English expedition destroyed the city of Trujillo, Honduras's main port.<ref name="Apuntes para la Historia de Honduras">{{Cite book|last=Vera|first=Robustiano|year=1899|title=Apuntes para la Historia de Honduras|location=Tegucigalpa|publisher=Imprenta El Correo|language=es}}</ref>
===The British and the Miskito Kingdom===
[[File:Flag of the Mosquito Coast 1834-1860.svg|thumb|left|The flag of the British protectorate of The [[Mosquito Coast|Miskito Coast]].|alt=]]
The Spanish sent a fleet from [[Cartagena, Colombia|Cartagena]] which destroyed the English colony at Providence island in 1641, and for a time the presence of an English base so close to the shore was eliminated. At about the same time, however, a group of slaves revolted and captured the ship on which they were traveling, then wrecked it at Cape Gracias a Dios. Managing to get ashore, they were received by the Miskito, which led within a generation to the [[Miskito Sambu|Miskito Zambo]], a mixed-race group that by 1715 had become the leaders of the kingdom.
Meanwhile, the English captured [[Jamaica]] in 1655 and soon sought allies on the coast, and hit upon the Miskito, whose king [[Jeremy I]] visited [[Jamaica]] in 1687.
A variety of other Europeans settled in the area during this time. An account from 1699 reveals a patchwork of private individuals, large Miskito family groups, Spanish settlements and pirate hideouts along the coast.<ref>M. W. "The Mosqueto Indian and his Golden River," in [[Ansham Churchill]], ''A Collection of Voyages and Travels'' (London, 1732), vol. 6</ref> Britain declared much of the area a protectorate in 1740, though they exercised little authority there as a result of the decision. British colonization was particularly strong in the [[Bay Islands, Honduras|Bay Islands]], and alliances between the British and [[Miskito people|Miskito]] as well as more local supporters made this an area the Spanish could not easily control, and a haven for pirates.<ref>{{cite book | first=Troy | last=Floyd | title=The Anglo-Spanish Struggle for Mosquitia | location=Albuquerque | year=1967}}</ref>
===Bourbon reforms===
[[File:San Fernando de Omoa Fortress, Honduras.jpg|thumb|left|The Fortress of [[San Fernando de Omoa]]]]
In the early eighteenth century, the [[House of Bourbon]], linked to the rulers of France, replaced the [[Habsburgs]] on the throne of Spain. The new dynasty began a series of reforms throughout the empire (the [[Bourbon Reforms]]), designed to make administration more efficient and profitable, and to facilitate defense of the colonies. Among these reforms was a reduction in tax on precious metals and of the price of [[mercury (element)|mercury]], a royal monopoly. In Honduras, these reforms contributed to the resurgence of the mining industry in the 1730s.<ref name="Honduras: A Country Study"/>{{failed verification|date=June 2016}}
Under the [[Bourbons]], the Spanish government made several efforts to regain control of the Caribbean coast. In 1752, the Spaniards built the fort of [[San Fernando de Omoa]]. In 1780, the Spanish returned to Trujillo, which started out as base of operations against British settlements to the east. During the 1780s, the Spanish regained control of the [[Bay Islands Department|Bay Islands]] and took most of the British and their allies in the Black River area. They were not, however, able to expand their control beyond Puerto Caballos and Trujillo, thanks to determined Miskito resistance. The Anglo-Spanish Convention of 1786 issued the final recognition of Spanish sovereignty over the Caribbean coast.<ref name="Apuntes para la Historia de Honduras"/>
==Honduras in the nineteenth century==
===Independence from Spain (1821)===
[[File:Comayagua monumento de la independencia.JPG|thumb|La Merced plaza of Comayagua after the independence from Spain.]]
In the early 19th century, Napoleon's occupation of Spain led to the outbreak of revolts all across Spanish America. In New Spain, all of the fighting by those seeking independence was done in the center of that area from 1810 to 1821, what today is central Mexico. Once the Viceroy was defeated in the capital, Mexico City, in 1821, the news of the independence were sent to all the territories of New Spain including the Intendencies of the former Captaincy of Guatemala. Accepting this as a fact, Honduras joined the other Central American Intendencies in a joint declaration of independence from Spain. The public proclamation was done through the Act of Independence in 1821.
After the declaration of independence it was the intention of the New Spain parliament to establish a commonwealth whereby the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, would also be Emperor of New Spain, and in which both countries were to be governed by separate laws and with their own legislative offices. Should the king refuse the position, the law provided for a member of the House of Bourbon to accede to the New Spain throne. Ferdinand VII, did not recognize the independence and said that Spain would not allow any other European prince to take the throne of New Spain.
By request of Parliament, the president of the regency Agustín de Iturbide was proclaimed emperor of New Spain but the Parliament also decided to rename New Spain to Mexico. The Mexican Empire was the official name given to this monarchical regime from 1821 to 1823. The territory of the Mexican Empire included the continental intendencies and provinces of New Spain proper (including those of the former Captaincy General of Guatemala) (See: History of Central America).
===Federal independence period (1821–1838)===
[[File:Don Francisco Morazan Quezada.JPG|thumb|left|Central american president General [[Francisco Morazán|Francisco Morazán Quezada]]. |alt=]]
In 1823, a revolution in Mexico ousted Emperor [[Agustín de Iturbide]], and a new Mexican congress voted to allow the Central American Intendencies to decide their own fate. That year, the United Provinces of Central America was formed of the five Central American Intendencies (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica) under General [[Manuel José Arce]]. The intendencies took the new name of "states".
Among the most important figures of the federal era include the first democratically elected president in Honduras, [[Dionisio de Herrera]], a lawyer, whose government, begun in 1824 established the first constitution, after him became the presidential period of Gen. [[Francisco Morazán]], Federal President 1830–1834 and 1835–1839, whose figure embodies the ideal American Unionist, and [[José Cecilio del Valle]], editor of the Declaration of Independence signed in Guatemala on 15 September 1821 and Foreign Minister of foreign policies in Mexico in 1823.
[[File:Flag of the Federal Republic of Central America.svg|thumb|Flag of the Central American Federation that lasted until 1839.]]
Soon, social and economic differences between Honduras social classes and its regional neighbors exacerbated harsh partisan strife among Central American leaders and brought the collapse of the Federation from 1838 to 1839. General Morazán led many successful efforts to maintain the federation during the known [[First Central American Civil War|first Central American civil War]], against the conservatives, that saw Morazan policies like making the federation a [[secular state]] as a thread to their interests. However, despite General Morazan's victories, his army began to wear out by the efforts of war, until the situation became almost untenable until he was captured and shot in Costa Rica, but not before being buried with honors. His legacy was so important in Honduras and Central America that the department of Francisco Morazan was named after him, and several statues were erected at the end of the 19th century. Restoring Central American unity remained the officially stated chief aim of Honduran foreign policy until after [[World War I]].
Honduras broke away from the Central American Federation in October 1838 and became independent and sovereign state.
==Democratic period between 1838 to 1899==
{{Main|History of Honduras (1838–1932)}}Comayagua was the capital of Honduras until 1880, when it was transferred to [[Tegucigalpa]].
[[File:Fuerte San Cristóbal Gracias Honduras 09.jpg|thumb|[[San Cristóbal fortress (Honduras)|San Cristóbal fortress]], in the city of Gracias, built during the 19th century.|250x250px]]
YOU SUCK
Although Honduras eventually adopted the name Republic of Honduras, the unionist ideal never waned, and Honduras was one of the Central American countries that pushed hardest for the policy of regional unity.
In 1850, Honduras attempted to build, with foreign assistance, an Inter-Oceanic Railroad from [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]] to [[Tegucigalpa]] and then on to the Pacific Coast. The project stalled due to difficulties in the work, corruption and other issues, and in 1888, ran out of money when it reached [[San Pedro Sula]], resulting in its growth into the nation's main industrial center and second largest city. Since independence, nearly 300 small internal rebellions and civil wars have occurred in the country, including some changes of government.
==Honduras in the twentieth century==
===The internationalization of the north, 1899–1932===
Political stability and instability both aided and distracted the economic revolution which transformed Honduras through the development of a [[plantation economy]] on the north coast. As American corporations consolidated increasingly large landholdings in Honduras, they lobbied the US government to protect their investments. Conflicts over land ownership, peasant rights, and a US-aligned [[comprador]] class of elites led to armed conflicts and multiple invasions by US armed forces.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} In the first decades of the century, US military incursions took place in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924, and 1925.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://wais.stanford.edu/USA/us_supportforladictators8703.html| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20031128124847/http://wais.stanford.edu/USA/us_supportforladictators8703.html| archive-date = 28 November 2003| title = US: Support for Latin American dictators}}</ref> Because the country was effectively controlled by American fruit corporations, it was the original inspiration for the term "[[banana republic]]".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/27/us-honduras-coup|title = History of US intervention in Honduras|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 27 November 2009}}</ref>
====The rise of US influence in Honduras (1899–1919)====
[[File:Manuel Bonilla.jpg|thumb|President Manuel Bonilla.]]
In 1899, the [[History of modern banana plantations in the Americas|banana industry]] in Honduras was growing rapidly. A peaceful transfer of power from [[Policarpo Bonilla]] to General [[Terencio Sierra]] marked the first time in decades that a constitutional transition had taken place.<ref name=fkpr /> By 1902, railroads had been built along the country's Caribbean coast to accommodate the growing banana industry.<ref name=fkpr /> However, Sierra made efforts to stay in office and refused to step down when a new president was elected in 1902, and was overthrown by [[Manuel Bonilla]] in 1903.<ref name=fkpr />
After toppling Sierra, Bonilla, a conservative,<ref name=fkpr /> imprisoned ex-president [[Policarpo Bonilla]], a liberal rival,<ref name=fkpr /> for two years and made other attempts to suppress liberals throughout the country,<ref name=fkpr /> as they were the only other organized political party.<ref name=fkpr /> The conservatives were divided into a host of personalist factions and lacked coherent leadership,<ref name=fkpr /> but Bonilla reorganized the conservatives into a "national party."<ref name=fkpr /> The present-day National Party of Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduras—PNH) traces its origins to his administration.<ref name=fkpr />
[[File:Conflicto Honduras 1907.png|left|thumb|242x242px|Honduran armed conflict of 1907.]]
Bonilla proved to be an even better friend to the banana companies than Sierra.<ref name=fkpr /> Under Bonilla's rule,<ref name=fkpr /> companies gained exemptions from taxes and permission to construct wharves and roads,<ref name=fkpr /> as well as permission to improve interior waterways and to obtain charters for new railroad construction.<ref name=fkpr /> He also successfully established the border with [[Nicaragua]] and resisted an invasion from [[Guatemala]] in 1906.<ref name=fkpr>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/15.htm|title = Honduras - THE RISE OF UNITED STATES INFLUENCE, 1899-1932}}</ref> After fending off Guatemalan military forces, Bonilla sought peace and signed a friendship pact with both Guatemala and El Salvador.<ref name=fkpr />
Nicaragua's president [[José Santos Zelaya]] saw this friendship pact as an alliance to counter Nicaragua and began to undermine Bonilla.<ref name="fkpr" /> Zelaya supported liberal Honduran exiles in Nicaragua in their efforts to topple Bonilla,<ref name="fkpr" /> who had established himself as a dictator.<ref name="fkpr" /> Supported by elements of the Nicaraguan army, the exiles invaded Honduras in February 1907.<ref name="fkpr" /> With the assistance of Salvadoran troops, Manuel Bonilla tried to resist, but in March his forces were decisively beaten in a battle notable for the introduction of [[machine gun]]s into Central America.<ref name="fkpr" /> After toppling Bonilla, the exiles established a provisional junta,<ref name="fkpr" /> but this junta did not last.<ref name="oipnp" />
American elites noticed: it was in their interests to contain Zelaya, protect the region of the new [[Panama Canal]], and defend the increasingly important banana trade. This Nicaragua-assisted invasion by Honduran exiles strongly displeased the United States government,<ref name=oipnp>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/16.htm|title = Honduras - the Expanded Role of the United States}}</ref> which concluded that Zelaya wanted to dominate the entire Central American region,<ref name=oipnp /> sent marines to [[Puerto Cortes]] to protect the banana trade.<ref name=oipnp /> US naval units were also sent to Honduras and were able to successfully defend Bonilla's last defense position at [[Amapala]] in the [[Gulf of Fonseca]]. Through a peace settlement arranged by the US [[chargé d'affaires]] in [[Tegucigalpa]],<ref name=oipnp /> Bonilla stepped down and the war with Nicaragua came to an end.<ref name=oipnp />
[[File:Central American Peace Conference.jpg|left|thumb|The central american peace conference in 1907.|252x252px]]The settlement also provided for a compromise régime headed by General [[Miguel R. Davila]] in Tegucigalpa.<ref name=oipnp /> Zelaya however was not pleased by the settlement,<ref name=oipnp /> as he strongly distrusted Davila.<ref name=oipnp /> Zelaya made a secret arrangement with El Salvador to oust Davila from office.<ref name=oipnp /> The plan failed to reach fruition,<ref name=oipnp /> but alarmed American stakeholders in Honduras.<ref name=oipnp /> Mexico and the U.S. called the five Central American countries into [[diplomacy|diplomatic]] talks at the [[Central American Peace Conference]] to increase stability in the area.<ref name=oipnp /> At the conference, the five countries signed the [[General Treaty of Peace and Amity of 1907]],<ref name=oipnp /> which established the [[Central American Court of Justice]] to resolve future disputes among the five nations.<ref name=oipnp /> Honduras also agreed to become permanently neutral in any future conflicts among the other nations.<ref name=oipnp />
[[File:Tegucigalpa c. 1910.jpg|thumb|Tegucigalpa in 1910.]]
In 1908, opponents of Davila made an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow him.<ref name=oipnp /> Despite the failure of this coup, American elites became concerned over Honduran instability.<ref name=oipnp /> The Taft Administration saw the huge Honduran debt, over $120 million,<ref name=oipnp /> as a contributing factor to the instability and began efforts to refinance the largely British debt with provisions for a United States customs receivership or some similar arrangement.<ref name=oipnp /> Negotiations were arranged between Honduran representatives and New York bankers,<ref name=oipnp /> headed by [[J.P. Morgan]].<ref name=oipnp /> By the end of 1909,<ref name=oipnp /> an agreement had been reached providing for a reduction in the debt and the issuance of new 5% [[bond (finance)|bond]]s:<ref name=oipnp /> The bankers would control the Honduran railroad,<ref name=oipnp /> and the United States government would guarantee continued Honduran independence and would take control of custom revenue.<ref name=oipnp />
The terms proposed by the bankers met with considerable opposition in Honduras,<ref name=oipnp /> further weakening the Dávila government.<ref name=oipnp /> A treaty incorporating the key provisions of this agreement with J.P. Morgan was finally signed in January 1911 and submitted to the Honduran legislature by Dávila.<ref name=oipnp /> However, that body, in a rare display of independence, rejected it by a vote of thirty-three to five.<ref name=oipnp />
An uprising in 1911 against Dávila interrupted efforts to deal with the debt problem.<ref name=oipnp /> The [[United States Marines]] landed, which forced both sides to meet on a US warship.<ref name=oipnp /> The revolutionaries, headed by former president Manuel Bonilla,<ref name=oipnp /> and the government agreed to a cease-fire and the installation of a provisional president who would be selected by the United States mediator, [[Thomas Cleland Dawson|Thomas Dawson]].<ref name=oipnp /> Dawson selected [[Francisco Bertrand]], who promised to hold early, free elections,<ref name=oipnp /> and Dávila resigned.<ref name=oipnp />
[[File:Playback-fm colorize-photo 951ada5c8df7bba6ad346395bd9f3a45.jpg|thumb|City of [[Comayagua]] in 1911.]]
The 1912 elections were won by Manuel Bonilla,<ref name=oipnp /> but he died after just over a year in office.<ref name=oipnp /> Bertrand, who had been his vice president, returned to the presidency and in 1916 won election for a term that lasted until 1920.<ref name=oipnp /> Between 1911 and 1920, Honduras saw relative stability.<ref name=oipnp /> Railroads expanded throughout Honduras and the banana trade grew rapidly.<ref name=oipnp /> This stability however would prove to be difficult to maintain in the years following 1920.<ref name=oipnp /> Revolutionary intrigues also continued throughout the period, accompanied by constant rumors that one faction or another was being supported by one of the banana companies.<ref name=oipnp />
The development of the banana industry contributed to the beginnings of organized labor movements in Honduras and to the first major strikes in the nation's history.<ref name=oipnp /> The first of these occurred in 1917 against the [[Cuyamel Fruit Company]].<ref name=oipnp /> The strike was suppressed by the Honduran military,<ref name=oipnp /> but the following year additional labor disturbances occurred at the [[Standard Fruit Company]]'s holding in La Ceiba.<ref name=oipnp /> In 1920, a general strike hit the Caribbean coast.<ref name=oipnp /> In response, a United States warship was sent to the area, and the Honduran government began arresting leaders.<ref name=oipnp /> When Standard Fruit offered a new wage—equivalent to US$1.75 per day—the strike ultimately collapsed.<ref name=oipnp /> Labor troubles in the banana trade however were far from over.<ref name=oipnp />
====The fruit companies' activity====
{{Main|Banana production in Honduras}}
[[File:La ceiba.jpg|thumb|Train station in [[La Ceiba]] during the 1920's. The locomotives were one of the main means of transportation in Honduras during the 20th century.]]
The Liberal government opted to expand production in mining and agriculture, and in 1876 began granting substantial grants of land and tax exemptions to foreign concerns as well as to local businesses. Mining was particularly important, and the new policies coincided with the growth of banana [[export]]s, which began in the Bay Islands in the 1870s and was pursued on the mainland by small and middling farmers in the 1880s. Liberal concessions allowed U.S.-based concerns to enter the Honduran market, first as shipping companies, then as railroad and banana producing enterprises. The U.S. companies created very large [[Banana production in Honduras|plantations]] worked by labor that flooded into the region from the densely settled Pacific coast, other Central American countries, and thanks to the company's policies favoring English speaking people, from the [[English-speaking Caribbean]].<ref>{{cite book | first=Glen | last=Chambers | title=Race, Nation and West Indian Immigration to Honduras, 1890–1940 | location=Baton Rouge | publisher=Louisiana State University Press | year=2010}}</ref> The result was an [[enclave economy]] centered on the settlements and activities of the three major companies, Cuyamel Fruit Company, [[Standard Fruit Company|Standard Fruit]] and particularly [[United Fruit Company|United Fruit]] after it absorbed Cuyamel in 1930.
In 1899, Vaccaro Brothers and Company (later known as [[Standard Fruit Company|Standard Fruit]]), a New Orleans-based fruit corporation, came to Honduras in 1899 to buy coconuts, oranges and bananas on [[Roatán]].<ref name="oipnp" /> After successfully selling the fruit in New Orleans,<ref name="oipnp" /> the company moved to the mainland of Honduras.<ref name="oipnp" /> In 1901, Vaccaro Brothers established offices in [[La Ceiba]] and Salado and eventually controlled the banana industry between [[Boca Cerrada]] and [[Balfate]] (an area of about 80 kilometers of coastline).<ref name="oanfavoal" /> In 1900, American businessman [[Samuel Zemurray]] and [[United Fruit Company|United Fruit]] came to Honduras to purchase banana plantations.<ref name="oipnp" /> In 1905,<ref name="oanfavoal" /> Zemurray started buying his own plantations and in 1910, after purchasing {{convert|5000|acre|km2}} of plantation land in Honduras,<ref name="oqqvoonq">{{Cite web|url=http://www.unitedfruit.org/zemurray.htm|title=United Fruit Company - Samuel Zemurray|website=www.unitedfruit.org}}</ref> formed his own company, the [[Cuyamel Fruit Company]].<ref name="oqqvoonq" /> The two companies' wealth and powerful connections allowed them to gain extraordinary influence in the Honduran government.<ref name="oipnp" />
Rivalries between the companies, however, escalated in 1910, when the [[United Fruit Company|United Fruit]] came to Honduras to set up operations;<ref name="oipnp" /> the company had already been a local producer of bananas in Honduras.<ref name="oipnp" /> By 1912, United Fruit had two concessions it had purchased with government approval.<ref name="oipnp" /> One was to build a railroad from Tela to Progreso in the Sula Valley,<ref name="oipnp" /> and the other was to build a railroad from Trujillo to the city of Juticalpa in Olancho.<ref name="oipnp" /> In 1913, United Fruit established the Tela Railroad Company and shortly thereafter a similar subsidiary, the Trujillo Railroad Company;<ref name="oipnp" /> these two railroads managed the concessions which the Honduran government granted them.<ref name="oipnp" /> Through these two railroad companies, United Fruit dominated the banana trade in Honduras.<ref name="oipnp" />
[[File:Agriculture and trade of Honduras (IA agriculturetrade33coyn).pdf|thumb|Agriculture and trade of Honduras, a manual published in the early XX century.]]
An 1899 census showed that northern Honduras had been exporting bananas for several years and that over 1,000 people in the region between Puerto Cortes and La Ceiba (and inland as far as San Pedro Sula) were tending bananas, most of them small holders.<ref>Soluri, ''Banana Culture: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States'' (Austin: University of Texas Press: 2005)</ref> The fruit companies received very large concessions of land, often forcing small holders who had been growing and exporting bananas on their land out of business. In addition, they brought in many workers from Jamaica and Belize, both to work on the plantations, but also as lower managers and skilled workers. The companies often favored the West Indian workers because they spoke English and were sometimes better educated than their Honduran counterparts. This perception of foreign occupation, coupled with a growing race-prejudice against the African-descended West Indians, led to considerable tension, as the arrival of the West Indians drove demographic change in the region.<ref>{{cite book | first=Glen | last=Chambers | title=Race Nation and West Indian Immigration to Honduras, 1890–1940 | location=Baton Rouge | publisher=Louisiana State University Press | year=2010}}</ref>
The connection between the wealth of the banana trade and the influence of outsiders, particularly North Americans, led [[O. Henry]], the American writer who took temporary refuge in Honduras in 1896–97, to coin the term "[[banana republic]]" to describe a fictional nation he modeled on Honduras.<ref>{{cite news|title=Where did banana republics get their name?|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/11/economist-explains-16|access-date=22 February 2016|work=The Economist|date=21 November 2013}}</ref> By 1912, three companies dominated the banana trade in Honduras:<ref name="oanfavoal">{{Cite web |url=http://laceiba.honduras.com/banana-trade/banana-history.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=1 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809120252/http://laceiba.honduras.com/banana-trade/banana-history.html |archive-date=9 August 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Samuel Zemurray]]'s [[Cuyamel Fruit Company]], Vaccaro Brothers and Company and the [[United Fruit Company]];<ref name="oanfavoal" /> all of which tended to be vertically integrated, owning their own lands and railroad companies and ship lines such as United's "Great White Fleet". Through land subsidies granted to the railroads, they soon came to control vast tracts of the best land along the Caribbean coast. Coastal cities such as [[La Ceiba]], [[Tela]], and Trujillo and towns further inland such as [[El Progreso]] and La Lima became virtual company towns.<ref name="oipnp" />
For the next twenty years, the U.S. government was involved in quelling Central American disputes, insurrections, and revolutions, whether supported by neighboring governments or by United States companies.<ref name="oipnp" /> As part of the so-called [[Banana Wars]] all around the Caribbean, Honduras saw the insertion of [[U.S. Army|American troops]] in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.yachana.org/teaching//resources/interventions.html|title=History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America|website=www.yachana.org}}</ref> For instance, in 1917 the Cuyamel Fruit Company extended its rail lines into disputed Guatemalan territory.<ref name="oipnp" />
====Renewed instability (1919–1924)====
[[File:El General Luis Bogran.jpg|thumb|General Luis Bogran.]]
In 1919, it became obvious that [[Francisco Bertrand]] would refuse to allow an open election to choose his successor.<ref name="ipavapnp">{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/17.htm|title = Honduras - the Threat of Renewed Instability, 1919-24}}</ref> This course of action was opposed by the United States and had little popular support in Honduras.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The local military commander and governor of Tegucigalpa, General [[Rafael López Gutiérrez]], took the lead in organizing PLH opposition to Bertrand.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> López Gutiérrez also solicited support from the liberal government of Guatemala and even from the conservative regime in Nicaragua.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Bertrand, in turn, sought support from El Salvador.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
Determined to avoid an international conflict, the United States government, after some hesitation, offered to meditate the dispute, hinting to the Honduran president that if he refused the offer, open intervention might follow.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The United States landed US Marines on 11 September 1919.<ref name="Umpenhour">{{cite book |last=Umpenhour|first=Charles Merlin | title = Freedom, a Fading Illusion|year=2005| publisher = BookMakers Ink| isbn= 9780972678957|page=92}}</ref> Bertrand promptly resigned and left the country.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The United States ambassador helped install an interim government headed by [[Francisco Bográn]], who promised to hold free elections. General López Gutiérrez, who now controlled the military, made it clear that he was determined to be the next president. After considerable negotiation and some confusion, a formula was worked out under which elections were held. López Gutiérrez won easily in a manipulated election, and in October 1920 he assumed the presidency.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
[[File:Tela Rail Road company Honduras 2019.jpg|left|thumb|[[Tela]]'s railroad company building, built in 1919.]]
During Bográn's brief time in office, he had agreed to a United States proposal to invite a United States financial adviser to Honduras.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> [[Arthur N Young|Arthur N. Young]] of the Department of State was selected for this task and began work in Honduras in August 1920, continuing to August 1921.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> While there, Young compiled extensive data and made numerous recommendations, even persuading the Hondurans to hire a New York police lieutenant to reorganize their police forces.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Young's investigations clearly demonstrated the desperate need for major financial reforms in Honduras, whose always precarious budgetary situation was considerably worsened by the renewal of revolutionary activities.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
In 1919, for example, the military had spent more than double the amount budgeted for them, accounting for over 57 percent of all federal expenditures.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Young's recommendations for reducing the military budget, however, found little favor with the new López Gutiérrez administration,<ref name="ipavapnp" /> and the government's financial condition remained a major problem.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The purpose was to modernize the Honduran army, which still possessed technology from the late-19th century. If anything, continued uprisings against the government and the threat of a renewed Central America conflict made the situation even worse.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> From 1919 to 1924, the Honduran government expended US$7.2 million beyond the amount covered by the regular budgets for military operations.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
====Coups====
[[File:Esquina de la plaza de Amapala.jpg|thumb|Port of Amapala.]]
From 1920 through 1923, seventeen uprisings or attempted coups in Honduras contributed to growing United States concern over political instability in Central America.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> In August 1922, the presidents of Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador met on the [[USS Tacoma (CL-20)|USS Tacoma]] in the [[Gulf of Fonseca]].<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Under the watchful eye of the United States ambassadors to their nations, the presidents pledged to prevent their territories from being used to promote revolutions against their neighbors and issued a call for a general meeting of Central American states in Washington at the end of the year.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
The Washington conference concluded in February with the adoption of the General Treaty of Peace and Amity of 1923, which had eleven supplemental conventions.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The treaty in many ways followed the provisions of the 1907 treaty.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The Central American court was reorganized, reducing the influence of the various governments over its membership.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The clause providing for withholding recognition of revolutionary governments was expanded to preclude recognition of any revolutionary leader, his relatives, or anyone who had been in power six months before or after such an uprising unless the individual's claim to power had been ratified by free elections.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The governments renewed their pledges to refrain from aiding revolutionary movements against their neighbors and to seek peaceful resolution for all outstanding disputes.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
The supplemental conventions covered everything from the promotion of agriculture to armament limitation. One, which remained unratified, provided for [[free trade]] among all of the states except [[Costa Rica]].<ref name="ipavapnp" /> The arms limitation agreement set a ceiling on the size of each nation's military forces (2,500 men in the case of Honduras) and included a United States-sponsored pledge to seek foreign assistance in establishing more professional armed forces.<ref name="ipavapnp" />[[File:Fachada del antiguo palacio presidencial de Honduras.jpg|thumb|Old presidential palace of Honduras.]]The October 1923 Honduran presidential elections and subsequent political and military conflicts provided the first real tests of these new treaty arrangements.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Under heavy pressure from Washington, López Gutiérrez allowed an unusually open campaign and election. The long-fragmented conservatives reunited as the National Party of Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduras—PNH),<ref name="ipavapnp" /> which ran as its candidate General [[Tiburcio Carías Andino]],<ref name="ipavapnp" /> the governor of the department of Cortés.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
The liberal PLH was unable to unite around a single candidate and split into two dissident groups, one supporting former president [[Policarpo Bonilla]],<ref name="ipavapnp" /> the other advancing the candidacy of [[Juan Angel Arias Boquin|Juan Angel Arias]]. As a result, no candidate secured a majority.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Carías received the greatest number of votes, with Bonilla second and Arias a distant third.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Under the terms of the Honduran constitution, this stalemate left the final choice of president up to the legislature, but that body was unable to obtain a [[quorum]] and reach a decision.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> In January 1924, López Gutiérrez announced his intention to remain in office until new elections could be held, but he repeatedly refused to specify a date for the elections.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Carías, reportedly with the support of United Fruit,<ref name="ipavapnp" /> declared himself president, and an armed conflict broke out.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> In February the United States, warning that recognition would be withheld from anyone coming to power by revolutionary means, suspended relations with the López Gutiérrez government for its failure to hold elections.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
Conditions rapidly deteriorated in the early months of 1924.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> On 28 February, a pitched battle took place in La Ceiba between government troops and rebels.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
[[File:Second Honduran civil war 1924.jpg|thumb|221x221px|Battle of Teguciglapa during the Second Honduran civil war.]]
Even the presence of the [[USS Denver (CL-16)|USS Denver]] and the landing of a force of [[United States Marines]] were unable to prevent widespread looting and arson resulting in over US$2 million in property damage.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Fifty people, including a United States citizen, were killed in the fighting.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> In the weeks that followed, additional vessels from the United States Navy Special Service Squadron were concentrated in Honduran waters, and landing parties put ashore to protect United States interests.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> One force of marines and sailors was dispatched inland to Tegucigalpa to provide additional protection for the United States legation.<ref name="ipavapnp" /> Shortly before the arrival of the force, López Gutiérrez died, and what authority remained with the central government was being exercised by his cabinet. General Carías and a variety of other rebel leaders controlled most of the countryside but failed to coordinate their activities effectively enough to seize the capital.<ref name="ipavapnp" />
In an effort to end the fighting, the United States government dispatched [[Sumner Welles]] to the port of [[Amapala]];<ref name=ipavapnp /> he had instructions to try to produce a settlement that would bring to power a government eligible for recognition under the terms of the 1923 treaty.<ref name=ipavapnp /> Negotiations, which were once again held on board a United States cruiser, lasted from 23 to 28 April.<ref name=ipavapnp /> An agreement was worked out that provided for an interim presidency headed by General [[Vicente Tosta]], who agreed to appoint a cabinet representing all political factions and to convene a Constituent Assembly within ninety days to restore constitutional order.<ref name=ipavapnp /> Presidential elections were to be held as soon as possible, and Tosta promised to refrain from running himself.<ref name=ipavapnp /> Once in office, the new president showed signs of reneging on some of his pledges, especially those related to a bipartisan cabinet.<ref name=ipavapnp /> Under heavy pressure from the United States delegation, however, he ultimately complied with the provisions of the peace agreement.<ref name=ipavapnp />
Keeping the 1924 elections on track proved difficult.<ref name=ipavapnp /> To put pressure on Tosta to conduct a fair election, the United States continued an embargo on arms to Honduras and barred the government from access to loans—including a requested US$75,000 from the Banco Atlántida.<ref name=ipavapnp /> Furthermore, the United States persuaded El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua to join in declaring that under the 1923 treaty provision, no leader of the recent revolution would be recognized as president for the coming term.<ref name=ipavapnp /> These pressures ultimately helped persuade Carías to withdraw his candidacy and also helped ensure the defeat of an uprising led by General [[Gregorio Ferrera]] ( great-grandfather of American Actress [[America Ferrera]]) of the PNH.<ref name=ipavapnp /> The PNH nominated [[Miguel Paz Barahona]] (1925–29), a civilian, as president.<ref name=ipavapnp /> The PLH, after some debate, refused to nominate a candidate, and on 28 December Paz Barahona won virtual unanimous election.<ref name=ipavapnp />
====Restoration of order (1925–1931)====
[[File:Palacio Telecomunicaciones Teguciglapa.jpg|thumb|Telecommunications Palace of Teguciglapa. One of the examples of the neoclassical architecture in Honduras at this time]]
Despite another minor uprising led by General Ferrera in 1925, Paz Barahona's administration was, by Honduran standards, rather tranquil. The banana companies continued to expand, the government's budgetary situation improved, and there was even an increase in labor organizing.<ref name=honordarq>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/18.htm|title = Honduras - the Restoration of Order, 1925-31}}</ref> On the international front, the Honduran government, after years of negotiations, finally concluded an agreement with the British bondholders to liquidate most of the immense national debt.<ref name=honordarq /> The bonds were to be redeemed at 20 percent of face value over a thirty-year period.<ref name=honordarq /> Back interest was forgiven, and new interest accrued only over the last fifteen years of this arrangement.<ref name=honordarq /> Under the terms of this agreement, Honduras, at last, seemed on the road to fiscal solvency.<ref name=honordarq />
[[File:Honduras - Tegucigalpa - NARA - 68154818.jpg|thumb|Honduran army in 1926.|left]]Fears of disturbances increased again in 1928 as the scheduled presidential elections approached.<ref name=honordarq /> The ruling PNH nominated General Carías while the PLH, united again following the death of Policarpo Bonilla in 1926, nominated [[Vicente Mejía Colindres]].<ref name=honordarq /> To the surprise of most observers, both the campaign and the election were conducted with a minimum of violence and intimidation.<ref name=honordarq /> Mejía Colindres won a decisive victory—obtaining 62,000 votes to 47,000 for Carías. Even more surprising was Carías's public acceptance of defeat and his urging of his supporters to accept the new government.<ref name=honordarq />
Mejía Colindres took office in 1929 with high hopes for his administration and his nation.<ref name=honordarq /> Honduras seemed on the road to political and economic progress.<ref name=honordarq /> Banana exports, then accounting for 80 percent of all exports, continued to expand.<ref name=honordarq /> By 1930 Honduras had become the world's leading producer of the fruit, accounting for one-third of the world's supply of bananas.<ref name=honordarq /> United Fruit had come increasingly to dominate the trade, and in 1929 it bought out the Cuyamel Fruit Company, one of its two principal remaining rivals.<ref name=honordarq /> Because conflicts between these companies had frequently led to support for rival groups in Honduran politics, had produced a border controversy with Guatemala, and may have even contributed to revolutionary disturbances, this merger seemed to promise greater domestic tranquility.<ref name=honordarq /> The prospect for tranquility was further advanced in 1931 when Ferrera and his insurgents<ref name=honferrea>{{cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741562,00.html?promoid=googlep | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130105024016/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741562,00.html?promoid=googlep | url-status=dead | archive-date=5 January 2013 | work=Time | title=CARIBBEAN: Alarums | date=4 May 1931}}</ref> were killed,<ref name=honordarq /> while leading one last unsuccessful effort to overthrow the government,<ref name=honordarq /> after government troops discovered their hiding place in Chamelecon.<ref name=honferrea />
Many of Mejía Colindres's hopes, however, were dashed with the onset of the Great Depression.<ref name=honordarq /> Banana exports peaked in 1930, then declined rapidly.<ref name=honordarq /> Thousands of workers were laid off, and the wages of those remaining on the job were reduced, as were the prices paid to independent banana producers by the giant fruit companies.<ref name=honordarq /> Strikes and other labor disturbances began to break out in response to these conditions, but most were quickly suppressed with the aid of government troops.<ref name=honordarq /> As the depression deepened, the government's financial situation deteriorated;<ref name=honordarq /> in 1931 Mejía Colindres was forced to borrow US$250,000 from the fruit companies to ensure that the army would continue to be paid.<ref name=honordarq />
===Tiburcio Carías Andino (1932–1949)===
[[File:Dictador General Tiburcio Carias Andino.jpg|thumb|Carias ruled the country for more than 16 years, his government was characterized by strong repression, and a rapid modernization of the army.]]
Despite growing unrest and severe economic strains, the 1932 presidential elections in Honduras were relatively peaceful and fair.<ref name=richca>{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/honduras/19.htm|title = Honduras - the Era of Tiburcio Carías Andino, 1932-54}}</ref> The [[peaceful transition of power]] was surprising because the onset of the depression had led to the overthrow of governments elsewhere throughout Latin America,<ref name=richca /> in nations with much stronger democratic traditions than those of Honduras.<ref name=richca /> After United Fruit bought out Cuyamel, [[Sam Zemurray]], a strong supporter of the Liberal Party, left the country and the Liberals were short on cash by the 1932 general election.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch17-2.htm|title=Central America in the 1930s|website=www.fsmitha.com}}</ref> Mejía Colindres, however, resisted pressure from his own party to manipulate the results to favor the PLH candidate, {{ILL|Angel Zúñiga Huete|es|José Ángel Zúñiga Huete}}.<ref name=richca /> As a result, the PNH candidate, Carías, won the election by a margin of some 20,000 votes.<ref name=richca /> On 16 November 1932, Carías took office, beginning what was to be the longest period of continuous time in power by any individual in Honduran history.<ref name=richca />
Shortly before Carías's inauguration, dissident liberals, despite the opposition of Mejía Colindres,<ref name=richca /> had risen in revolt.<ref name=richca /> Carías had taken command of the government forces, obtained arms from El Salvador, and crushed the uprising in short order.<ref name=richca /> Most of Carías's first term in office was devoted to efforts to avoid financial collapse, improve the military, engage in a limited program of road building, and lay the foundations for prolonging his own hold on power.<ref name=richca />
The economy remained extremely bad throughout the 1930s.<ref name=richca /> In addition to the dramatic drop in banana exports caused by the depression,<ref name=richca /> the fruit industry was further threatened by the outbreak in 1935 of epidemics of Panama disease (a debilitating fungus) and sigatoka (leaf blight) in the banana-producing areas.<ref name=richca /> Within a year, most of the country's production was threatened. Large areas, including most of those around Trujillo, were abandoned, and thousands of Hondurans were thrown out of work.<ref name=richca /> By 1937 a means of controlling the disease had been found, but many of the affected areas remained out of production because a significant share of the market formerly held by Honduras had shifted to other nations.<ref name=richca />
Carías had made efforts to improve the military even before he became president.<ref name=richca /> Once in office, both his capacity and his motivation to continue and to expand such improvements increased. He gave special attention to the fledgling air force, founding the Military Aviation School in 1934 and arranging for a United States colonel to serve as its commandant.<ref name=richca />
As months passed, Carías moved slowly but steadily to strengthen his hold on power.<ref name=richca /> He gained the support of the banana companies through opposition to strikes and other labor disturbances.<ref name=richca /> He strengthened his position with domestic and foreign financial circles through conservative economic policies. Even in the height of the depression, he continued to make regular payments on the Honduran debt,<ref name=richca /> adhering strictly to the terms of the arrangement with the British bondholders and also satisfying other creditors.<ref name=richca /> Two small loans were paid off completely in 1935.<ref name=richca />
[[File:Fuerzas Navales de Honduras.jpg|thumb|Honduran naval force in the 1930's, one of the main goals of the government was to obtain a great development in the country and modernizing completely the army.]]
Political controls were instituted slowly under Carías.<ref name=richca /> The [[Communist Party of Honduras]] (Partido Comunista de Honduras—PCH) was outlawed,<ref name=richca /> but the PLH continued to function,<ref name=richca /> and even the leaders of a small uprising in 1935 were later offered free air transportation should they wish to return to Honduras from their exile abroad.<ref name=richca /> At the end of 1935, however, stressing the need for peace and internal order, Carías began to crack down on the opposition press and political activities.<ref name=richca /> Meanwhile, the PNH, at the president's direction, began a propaganda campaign stressing that only keeping Carías in office could give the nation continued peace and order.<ref name=richca /> The constitution, however, prohibited immediate reelection of presidents.<ref name=richca />
To extend his term of office Carías called a constituent assembly to write a new constitution and select the individual to serve for the first presidential term under that document.<ref name=richca /> Except for the president's desire to perpetuate himself in office,<ref name=richca /> there seemed little reason to alter the nation's basic charter.<ref name=richca /> Earlier constituent assemblies had written thirteen constitutions (only ten of which had entered into force), and the latest had been adopted in 1924.<ref name=richca /> The handpicked [[Honduran Constituent Assembly election, 1936|Constituent Assembly]] of 1936 incorporated thirty of the articles of the 1924 document into the 1936 constitution.<ref name=richca />
The major changes were the elimination of the prohibition on immediate reelection of a president and vice president and lengthening the presidential term from four years to six.<ref name=richca /> Other changes included restoration of the death penalty,<ref name=richca /> reductions in the powers of the legislature, and denial of citizenship to women, and therefore also of the right to vote.<ref name=richca /> Finally, the new constitution included an article specifying that the incumbent president and vice president would remain in office until 1943.<ref name=richca /> But Carías, by then a virtual dictator, wanted even more,<ref name=richca /> so in 1939 the legislature,<ref name=richca /> now completely controlled by the PNH,<ref name=richca /> extended his term in office by another six years (to 1949).<ref name=richca />
The PLH and other opponents of the government reacted to these changes by attempting to overthrow Carías.<ref name=richca /> Numerous coup attempts in 1936 and 1937,<ref name=richca /> succeeded only in further weakening the PNH's opponents.<ref name=richca /> By the end of the 1930s, the PNH was the only organized functioning political party in the nation.<ref name=richca /> Numerous opposition leaders had been imprisoned,<ref name=richca /> and some had reportedly been chained and put to work in the streets of Tegucigalpa.<ref name=richca /> Others, including the leader of the PLH, Zúñiga Huete, had fled into exile.<ref name=richca />
During his presidency, Carías cultivated close relations with his fellow Central American dictators,<ref name=richca /> generals [[Jorge Ubico]] in Guatemala, [[Maximiliano Hernández Martínez]] in El Salvador, and [[Anastasio Somoza García]] in Nicaragua.<ref name=richca /> Relations were particularly close with Ubico,<ref name=richca /> who helped Carías reorganize his secret police and also captured and shot the leader of a Honduran uprising who had made the mistake of crossing into Guatemalan territory.<ref name=richca /> Relations with Nicaragua were somewhat more strained as a result of the continuing border dispute,<ref name=richca /> but Carías and Somoza managed to keep this dispute under control throughout the 1930s and 1940s.<ref name=richca />
The value of these ties became somewhat questionable in 1944 when popular revolts in Guatemala and El Salvador deposed Ubico and Hernández Martínez.<ref name="richca" /> For a time, it seemed as if revolutionary contagion might spread to Honduras as well.<ref name="richca" /> A plot, involving some military officers as well as opposition civilians, had already been discovered and crushed in late 1943.<ref name="richca" /> In May 1944, a group of women began demonstrating outside of the Presidential Palace in Tegucigalpa, demanding the release of political prisoners.<ref name="richca" />
Despite strong government measures,<ref name="richca" /> tension continued to grow,<ref name="richca" /> and Carías was ultimately forced to release some prisoners.<ref name="richca" /> This gesture failed to satisfy the opposition,<ref name="richca" /> and antigovernment demonstrations continued to spread.<ref name="richca" /> In July several demonstrators were killed by troops in San Pedro Sula.<ref name="richca" /> In October a group of exiles invaded Honduras from El Salvador but were unsuccessful in their efforts to topple the government.<ref name="richca" /> The military remained loyal, and Carías continued in office.<ref name="richca" />
==== Second world war ====
{{main| Honduras in World War II}}
[[File:Contessa SWPA.png|thumb|The [[SS Contessa]], a Honduran ship that participated in the [[Operation Torch]] in the north african campaign in the Second World War.]]
Honduras maintained diplomatic relations with nations that belonged to the axis until 1941 when it declared war on the [[Empire of Japan]] on 8 December 1941 after the Japanese attack on [[Pearl Harbor]], which then spread to [[Nazi Germany]] and the [[Kingdom of Italy]] on 12 December of the same year.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Urtecho-Osorto|first1=Oscar Rolando|last2=Reyes-Flores|first2=Luis Gerardo|last3=Landa-Blanco|first3=Miguel|last4=Abate-Flores|first4=Cristhian|last5=Ávila|first5=Julio César|date=2019-12-20|title=Factores asociados a la elección de la carrera policial en agentes de escala básica de la Policía Nacional de Honduras|journal=Revista Logos, Ciencia & Tecnología|volume=12|issue=1|doi=10.22335/rlct.v12i1.1096|issn=2145-549X|doi-access=free}}</ref> Several Honduran merchant ships were sunk in the Caribbean by German submarines, which had already been sighted in the [[Gulf of Fonseca]] and the [[Caratasca Lagoon|Caratasca lagoon]], therefore air patrols began in 1942.
[[File:Honduran planes during world war II.png|thumb|Honduran NA-16 planes patrolling the coaststo avoid gemran U-boats in 1942.]]
This was thanks to the modernization of the Honduran army and the foundation of the [[Honduran Air Force]]. The aircraft used for this operation were the [[North American NA-16]], [[Vought F4U Corsair|Chance Vought F4U Corsair]], and the [[Boeing Model 40]] and [[Boeing Model 95|Model 95]] modified to drop bombs. The first sighting of a German [[U-boat]] by the air force occurred on 24 July 1942 and was attacked by planes with 60-pound bombs, being the first and possible only official record of a military confrontation between Honduras and Nazi Germany. Many of the raw materials produced in Honduras were sent to the North American country to bring supplies to soldiers in the [[Pacific War]] against the Japanese. the [[North African campaign|North African]] theater, and later with its entry into the European theater in 1944 after the [[Normandy landings|D-Day landing]].
==== End of Caria's regime ====
Anxious to curb further disorder in the region,<ref name=richca /> the United States began to urge Carías to step aside and allow free elections when his term of office expired.<ref name=richca /> Carías, by then in his early seventies, ultimately yielded and announced October 1948 elections,<ref name=richca /> in which he would not run.<ref name=richca /> He continued, however, to find ways to use his power.<ref name=richca /> The PNH nominated Carías's choice for president – [[Juan Manuel Gálvez]],<ref name=richca /> who had been minister of war since 1933.<ref name=richca /> Exiled opposition figures were allowed to return to Honduras,<ref name=richca /> and the PLH, trying to overcome years of inactivity and division,<ref name=richca /> nominated Zúñiga Huete, the same individual whom Carías had defeated in 1932.<ref name=richca /> The PLH rapidly became convinced that it had no chance to win and, charging the government with manipulation of the electoral process,<ref name=richca /> boycotted the elections.<ref name=richca /> This act gave Gálvez a virtually unopposed victory, and in January 1949, he assumed the presidency.<ref name=richca />
Evaluating the Carías presidency is a difficult task.<ref name=richca /> His time in office provided the nation with a badly needed period of relative peace and order. The country's fiscal situation improved steadily,<ref name=richca /> education improved slightly,<ref name=richca /> the road network expanded,<ref name=richca /> and the armed forces were modernized.<ref name=richca /> At the same time, nascent democratic institutions withered,<ref name=richca /> opposition and labor activities were suppressed,<ref name=richca /> and national interests at times were sacrificed to benefit supporters and relatives of Carías or major foreign interests.<ref name=richca />
===New Reform (1949–1954)===
[[File:Congreso nacional de Honduras.jpg|thumb|Honduran National Congress, built during the 1950s]]
Once in office Gálvez showed more independence than expected.<ref name=richca /> He continued and expanded some policies of the Carías administration, such as road building and development of coffee exports.<ref name=richca /> By 1953 nearly one-quarter of the government budget was allocated to road construction.<ref name=richca /> Gálvez also continued most of the prior administration's fiscal policies,<ref name=richca /> reducing external debt and paying off the last of the British bonds.<ref name=richca /> The fruit companies continued to receive favorable treatment at the hands of the Gálvez administration;<ref name=richca /> for example, United Fruit received a highly favorable twenty-five-year contract in 1949.<ref name=richca />
Galvez however did institute some notable innovations.<ref name=richca /> Education got more attention and a larger share of the national budget.<ref name=richca /> Congress passed an income tax law, although enforcement was sporadic at best.<ref name=richca /> A considerable degree of press freedom was restored,<ref name=richca /> the PLH and other groups were allowed to organize,<ref name=richca /> and some worker organization was permitted.<ref name=richca /> Labor also benefited from legislation during this period.{{clarify|date=August 2017}} Congress passed, and the president signed, legislation establishing the [[eight-hour day|eight-hour workday]], paid holidays for workers,<ref name=richca /> limited employer responsibility for work-related injuries,<ref name=richca /> and regulations over the employment of women and children.<ref name=richca />
===1955–1979===
After the general strike in 1954, young military reformists staged a coup in October 1955 that installed a provisional junta. [[Capital punishment]] was abolished in 1956, though Honduras hadn't had an execution since 1940. Constituent assembly elections in 1957 appointed [[Ramón Villeda Morales|Ramón Villeda]] as president, and the constituent assembly itself became a [[Congress of Honduras|national Congress]] with a 6-year term. The [[Liberal Party of Honduras]] (PLH) held power in 1957–63. The military began to become a professional institution independent of politics, with the newly created military academy graduating its first class in 1960. In October 1963, conservative military officers preempted constitutional elections and deposed [[Ramón Villeda Morales]] in a bloody coup. These officers exiled PLH members and governed under General [[Oswaldo López Arellano|Oswaldo López]] until 1970.
[[File:Football war Honduras & el Salvador.jpg|thumb|Honduran soldiers during the [[Football War]].]]
In July 1969, [[El Salvador]] invaded Honduras in the short [[Football War]]. Tensions in the aftermath of the conflict remain.
A civilian president for the PNH, [[Ramón Ernesto Cruz Uclés|Ramón Ernesto Cruz]], took power briefly in 1970 until, in December 1972, López staged another coup. This time he adopted more progressive policies, including [[land reform]].
López' successors continued armed forces modernization, building army and security forces, concentrating on Honduran air force superiority over its neighbors. During the governments of General [[Juan Alberto Melgar Castro]] (1975–78) and General [[Policarpo Paz García]] (1978–82), Honduras built most of its physical infrastructure and electricity and terrestrial telecommunications systems, both state monopolies. The country experienced economic growth during this period, with greater international demand for its products and increased availability of foreign commercial capital.
===Constituent assembly (1980)===
In 1982, the country returned to civilian rule. A constituent assembly was popularly elected in April 1980 and general elections were held in November 1981. A new constitution was approved in 1982 and the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] government of [[Roberto Suazo Córdova|Roberto Suazo]] assumed power.
===1980s===
[[File:F5e-fah.gif|left|thumb|In 1986 Honduras bombed two Nicaraguan towns.]]
[[Roberto Suazo Córdova]] won the elections on an ambitious program of economic and social development to tackle the country's recession. During this time, Honduras also assisted the [[Contras|contra]] guerillas.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/politics/cables-show-central-negroponte-role-in-80s-covert-war-against.html|title=Cables Show Central Negroponte Role in 80's Covert War Against Nicaragua|first=Scott|last=Shane|date=13 April 2005|via=[[NYTimes.com]]}}</ref>
President Suazo launched ambitious social and economic development projects sponsored by American development aid. Honduras became host to the largest [[Peace Corps]] mission in the world, and nongovernmental and international voluntary agencies proliferated.<ref name="DOS-Honduras">{{cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1922.htm|title=Background Note: Honduras|publisher=United States Department of State}}</ref>
From 1972 to 1983, Honduras was governed by military juntas.
[[File:82nd Airborne troops jump from C-141Bs in 1988.JPEG|thumb|American troops arriving in Honduras in 1988 during Operation Golden Pheasant.]]
Though spared the bloody civil wars wracking its neighbors, the Honduran army quietly waged a campaign against [[Marxist–Leninist]] rebels such as the [[People's Liberation Movement - Cinchoneros|Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement]], notorious for kidnappings and bombings,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/exgi_0001_0001_0/exgi_0001_0001_0_00044.html|title=Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement|access-date=5 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515130507/http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/exgi_0001_0001_0/exgi_0001_0001_0_00044.html|archive-date=15 May 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> and many non-militants. The operation included a campaign of extrajudicial killings by government units, most notably the CIA-trained [[Battalion 3-16 (Honduras)|Battalion 3-16]].<ref>[http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-negroponte3a,0,3966794.story??track=sto-relcon "A survivor tells her story"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930040920/http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-negroponte3a,0,3966794.story?%3Ftrack=sto-relcon |date=30 September 2007 }} ''baltimoresun.com'', 15 June 1995, retrieved 8 January 2007.</ref> Numerous trade unionists, academics, farmers and students disappeared. Declassified documents show that U.S. Ambassador [[John Negroponte]] personally intervened to prevent possible disclosures of these crimes, in order to avoid "creating human rights problems in Honduras". The U.S. established a continuing military presence in Honduras to support the [[Contra (guerrillas)|Contra]] guerillas fighting the [[Sandinista]] [[Nicaragua]]n government, and to support the fight against leftist guerrillas in El Salvador and Guatemala.They also developed an air strip and a modern port in Honduras. U.S. military assistance to Honduras increased from $4 million in 1981 to $77.4 million in 1984.<ref>Alexander Main, Passage en force au Honduras, Le Monde, 2018</ref>
[[Roberto Suazo Córdova|President Suazo]], relying on U.S. support, created ambitious social and economic development projects to help with a severe economic recession and with the perceived threat of regional instability.
[[File:Tren Hondureño en 1984.jpg|thumb|Honduran train in the north coast during the 80s. ]]
As the November 1985 election approached, the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] could not settle on a presidential candidate and interpreted election law as permitting multiple candidates from any one party. The PLH claimed victory when its presidential candidates collectively outpolled the [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] candidate, [[Rafael Leonardo Callejas]], who received 42% of the total vote. [[José Azcona del Hoyo|José Azcona]], the candidate receiving the most votes (27%) among the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]], assumed the presidency in January 1986. With strong endorsement and support from the Honduran military, the Suazo administration ushered in the first peaceful transfer of power between civilian presidents in more than 30 years. In 1989 he oversaw the dismantling of Contras which were based in Honduras.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/07/world/with-contras-fate-at-stake-honduran-is-man-in-middle-at-talks.html "With Contras' Fate at Stake, Honduran Is Man in Middle at Talks"] ''NY Times'', 7 August 1990, retrieved 5 November 2009.</ref>
In 1988, in [[Operation Golden Pheasant]], US forces were deployed to Honduras in response to Nicaraguan attacks on Contra supply caches in Honduras.
===1990s===
In January 1990, [[Rafael Leonardo Callejas]] won the presidential election and took office, concentrating on economic reform and reducing the deficit. He began a movement to place the military under [[civilian control of the military|civilian control]] and laid the groundwork for the creation of the public prosecution service.
In 1993, [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] candidate [[Carlos Roberto Reina]] was elected with 56% of the vote against [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] contender [[Oswaldo Ramos Soto]]. He won on a platform calling for "moral revolution" and made active efforts to prosecute corruption and pursue those responsible for alleged human rights abuses in the 1980s. The Reina administration successfully increased civilian control over the armed forces and transferred the national police from military to civilian authority. In 1996, Reina named his own defense minister, breaking the precedent of accepting the nominee of the armed forces leadership.
His administration substantially increased Central Bank net international reserves, reduced [[inflation]] to 12.8% a year, restored a better pace of economic growth (about 5% in 1997), and held down spending to achieve a 1.1% non-financial public sector deficit in 1997.
The [[Liberal Party of Honduras]] (PLH)'s [[Carlos Roberto Flores]] took office 27 January 1998 as Honduras' fifth democratically elected president since free elections were restored in 1981, with a 10% margin over his main opponent, [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] nominee [[Nora Gúnera de Melgar]], widow of former leader [[Juan Alberto Melgar Castro|Juan Alberto Melgar]]). Flores inaugurated [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) programs of reform and modernization of the Honduran government and economy, with emphasis on maintaining the country's fiscal health and improving international competitiveness.
In October 1998, [[Hurricane Mitch]] devastated Honduras, leaving more than 5,000 people dead and 1.5 million displaced. Damages totaled nearly $3 billion. International donors came forward to assist in rebuilding infrastructure, donating [[US$]]1400 million in 2000.
==Honduras in the twenty-first century==
===2000s===
[[File:2009 Honduras political crisis 5.jpg|thumb|After the 2009 coup d'état, the military presence in the streets began to be more common.]]
In November 2001, the National Party won presidential and parliamentary elections. The [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] gained 61 seats in Congress and the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] won 55. The [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] candidate Rafael Pineda was defeated by the [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] candidate [[Ricardo Maduro]], who took office in January 2002. Maduro administration emphasized stopping ''mara'' growth, especially [[18th Street gang|Mara 18]] and [[Mara Salvatrucha]].
On 27 November 2005, the [[Liberal Party of Honduras|PLH]] candidate [[Manuel Zelaya]] beat the [[National Party of Honduras|PNH]] candidate and current Head of Congress [[Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo]], and became the new president on 27 January 2006.
[[Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales]] of the [[Liberal Party of Honduras]] won 27 November 2005 presidential elections with less than a 4% margin of victory, the smallest margin ever in Honduran electoral history. Zelaya's campaign theme was "citizen power," and he vowed to increase transparency and combat narcotrafficking while maintaining macroeconomic stability. The Liberal Party won 62 of the 128 congressional seats, just short of an absolute majority.
In 2009 Zelaya caused controversy with his call to have [[Honduran constitutional referendum, 2009|a constitutional referendum]] in June to decide about convening a Constitutional National Assembly to formulate a new constitution.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.laprensahn.com/Pa%C3%ADs/Ediciones/2009/06/11/Noticias/Sigue-rechazo-a-la-cuarta-urna|title=Sigue rechazo a la cuarta urna|date=10 June 2009|website=La Prensha.hn_APERTURA|publisher=OPSA|language=es|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625170850/http://www.laprensahn.com/Pa%C3%ADs/Ediciones/2009/06/11/Noticias/Sigue-rechazo-a-la-cuarta-urna|archive-date=25 June 2009|access-date=11 June 2016}}</ref> The constitution explicitly bars changes to some of its clauses, including the term limit, and the move precipitated a [[2009 Honduran constitutional crisis|Constitutional Crisis]].
An injunction against holding the referendum was issued by the Honduran Supreme Court.<ref name="herald1">{{cite web|url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1117277.html|title=Honduran leader pushes ahead with divisive vote|newspaper=Miami Herald}}{{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic|fix-attempted=yes}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref name=Cuevas1>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ilB4EYZ3kF-s2I4kUt5k-8AT6_yAD992FJTO2|title=Honduras heads toward crisis over referendum|last1=Freddy|first1=Cuevas|last2=Rueda|first2=Jorge|last3=Rodriguez|first3=Carlos|last4=Lederer|first4=Edith M.|date=26 June 2009|website=Google|publisher=The Associated Press|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090705062927/https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ilB4EYZ3kF-s2I4kUt5k-8AT6_yAD992FJTO2 |archive-date=5 July 2009|access-date=26 June 2009}}</ref>
Zelaya rejected the ruling and sacked [[Romeo Vásquez Velásquez]], the head of [[Military of Honduras|Honduras's armed forces]]. Vásquez had refused to help with the referendum because he did not want to violate the law. The sacking was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court as well as by Congress and Vásquez was reinstated. The President then further defied the Supreme Court by pressing ahead with the vote, which the Court had deemed "illegal".<ref name=Cuevas1/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8120161.stm|title=Honduran leader defies top court|website=BBC News|publisher=BBC|date=26 June 2009|access-date=5 January 2010}}</ref> The military had confiscated the ballots and polls in a military base in Tegucigalpa. On 27 June, a day before the election, Zelaya followed by a big group of supporters entered the base and ordered, as Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces, for the ballots and polls to be returned to him. Congress saw this as an abuse of power and ordered his capture.
On 28 June 2009, the military [[2009 Honduran political crisis|removed]] Zelaya from office and deported him to Costa Rica, a neutral country. [[Elvin Santos]], the vice-president during the start of Zelaya's term, had resigned in order to run for president in the coming elections, and by a presidential line of succession the head of Congress, [[Roberto Micheletti]], was appointed president. However, due to the stance taken by the United Nations and the Organization of American States on the use of military force to depose a president, most countries in the region and in the world continued to recognize Zelaya as the President of Honduras and denounced the actions as an assault on democracy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-28-voa22.cfm|title=Honduran President Ousted by Military|last=Bowman|first=Michael|date=28 June 2009|website=VOANews.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090717061715/http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-28-voa22.cfm|archive-date=17 July 2009|access-date=11 June 2016}}</ref>
Honduras continued to be ruled by Micheletti's administration under strong foreign pressure. On 29 November, democratic [[Honduran general election, 2009|general elections]] were held, with former Congressional president and 2005 nominee, [[Pepe Lobo]] as victor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://consulta.tse.hn:2185/Estadistica.aspx |title=Elecciones Generales "Estadisticas 2009" |date=29 November 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101119075729/http://consulta.tse.hn:2185/Estadistica.aspx |archive-date=19 November 2010 }}</ref>
===2010s===
[[File:Comayagüela desde EL parque Juan. A Laínez.jpg|thumb|City of Comayagüela in the 2010s]]
Inaugurated on 27 January 2010, [[Porfirio Lobo Sosa|Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa]] and his administration focused throughout the first year for foreign recognition of presidential legitimacy and Honduras's reinstitution in the [[Organization of American States|OAS]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/27/honduras.president/index.html|title=New Honduran president takes office - CNN.com|website=www.cnn.com}}</ref>
After the presidential period of Lobo Sosa, [[Juan Orlando Hernandez|Juan Orlando <span dir="ltr" lang="spanish">Hernández</span>]] defeated [[Xiomara Castro]], wife of ousted former president Manuel Zelaya, in the general [[2013 Honduran general election|elections]] in 2013.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25346676|title = Honduras: Juan Orlando Hernandez confirmed as president|work = BBC News|date = 12 December 2013}}</ref> During the first years of his presidency the economic growth helped to improve the infrastructure of the main cities. However, unemployment and social unrest increased during his first term. He opened the possibility of changing the constitution, enraging a considerable part of the population. In 2015, the supreme court of Honduras removed a single-term limit for the country’s presidency.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/24/honduran-judges-throw-out-single-term-limit-on-presidency|title = Honduran judges throw out single-term limit on presidency|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 24 April 2015}}</ref> President Juan Orlando Hernández was reelected in 2017, winning the [[2017 Honduran general election|election]] through an alleged electoral fraud that produced constant protests and violence in the streets.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/22/us-recognizes-re-election-of-honduras-president-despite-calls-for-a-new-vote|title = US recognizes re-election of Honduras president despite fraud allegations|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 22 December 2017}}</ref> In 2019, Juan Orlando Hernández's younger brother Juan Antonio "Tony" Hernández was brought to trial in New York for drug trafficking. He was convicted of all four charges against him, including drug trafficking and lying to authorities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/tony-hernandez-conviction-honduras/|title = Will Tony Hernández Conviction Upend Narco-Politics in Honduras?|date = 18 October 2019}}</ref>
=== 2020s ===
In September 2020, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández announced that Honduras will relocate its embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Honduras became the third country in the world after the United States and Guatemala to establish embassies to Israel in Jerusalem.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/21/honduras-to-move-its-israel-embassy-to-jerusalem-by-end-of-year|title = Honduras to move its Israel embassy to Jerusalem by end of year}}</ref>
In January 2021, Honduras changed the country's constitution to make it almost impossible to legalize abortion in the future. Before that, Honduras was already one of few countries with a complete ban on abortion. The constitutional reform was supported by Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández's ruling [[National Party (Honduras)|National Party]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/31/americas/honduras-abortion-ban-ratified-intl/index.html|title=How lawmakers made it nearly impossible to legalize abortion in Honduras|first=Tatiana|last=Arias|website=CNN}}</ref>
On 28 November 2021, the former first lady [[Xiomara Castro]], leftist presidential candidate of opposition [[Liberty and Refoundation |Liberty and Refoundation Party]], won 53% of the votes in the [[2021 Honduran general election|presidential election]] to become the first female president of Honduras.<ref>{{cite news |title=Honduras elected its first female president, Xiomara Castro |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/honduras-elected-first-female-president-xiomara-castro-rcna7218 |work=NBC News |date=1 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref> On 27 January 2022, Xiomara Castro was sworn in as Honduras' president. Her husband, Manuel Zelaya, hold the same office from 2006 until 2009.<ref>{{cite news |title=Xiomara Castro: Honduras' first female president sworn in |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-60155634 |work=BBC News |date=27 January 2022}}</ref>
In April 2022, former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who served two terms between 2014 and January 2022, was extradited to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. Hernandez denied the accusations.<ref>{{cite news |title=Juan Orlando Hernández: Honduran ex-leader extradited to US |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-61174692 |work=BBC News |date=21 April 2022}}</ref>
==See also==
*[[List of presidents of Honduras]]
*[[Politics of Honduras]]
*[[Hondurans]]
'''General:'''
*[[History of the Americas]]
*[[History of Central America]]
*[[History of Latin America]]
*[[History of North America]]
*[[Spanish colonization of the Americas]]
* {{portal-inline|Honduras}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
;Attribution
{{Refbegin}}
{{StateDept}}
{{Refend}}
==Further reading==
* Carvajal, Roger A. "Violence in Honduras: an analysis of the failure in public security and the states response to criminality" (Naval Postgraduate School, 2014) [https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a607085.pdf online]
* Euraque, Darío A. ''Reinterpreting the Banana Republic: region and state in Honduras, 1870-1972'' (U of North Carolina Press, 1996).
* Humphreys, Robert Arthur. ''The diplomatic history of British Honduras, 1638-1901'' (Oxford UP, 1961). [https://archive.org/details/diplomatichistor0000unse_q0k2 online]
* {{cite book |title=Geography |volume=3 |series=[[English Cyclopaedia]] |editor= Knight, Charles |location=London |year=1866 |publisher=Bradbury, Evans, & Co. |chapter-url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433000064802?urlappend=%3Bseq=119 |chapter=Republic of Honduras |hdl=2027/nyp.33433000064802?urlappend=%3Bseq=119 }}
* Leonard, Thomas M. ''The history of Honduras'' (ABC-CLIO, 2011) [https://www.amazon.com/History-Honduras-Greenwood-Histories-Nations/dp/031336303X/ excerpt]; a standard scholarly history with long bibliography
* Merrill, Tim L. ''In Honduras: A Country Study'' (3rd ed. US Library of Congress, 1995).
* Moody, Jason M. "Crisis in Honduras: the search for answers to the removal of president Manuel Zelaya" (Naval Postgraduate School, 2013) [https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a589706.pdf online]
* Reichman, Daniel R. ''The Broken Village: Coffee, Migration, and Globalization in Honduras'' (2011) [https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Village-Migration-Globalization-Honduras/dp/0801477298/ excerpt]
* Ruhl, J. Mark. "Trouble in Central America: Honduras Unravels." ''Journal of Democracy'' 21.2 (2010): 93-107.
* Schulz, Donald E. and Deborah Sundloff Schulz. ''The United States, Honduras, And The Crisis In Central America'' (1984) [https://www.amazon.com/United-States-Honduras-Central-America/dp/0367319047/ excerpt]
* Soluri, John. ''Banana cultures: Agriculture, consumption, and environmental change in Honduras and the United States'' (U of Texas Press, 2005). [https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/131101 PhD dissertation version]
==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}
{{Honduras topics}}
{{Honduras year nav}}
{{History of North America}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:History of Honduras}}
[[Category:History of Honduras| ]]' |
