The Strange Bedfellows of Northern Belize: British Colonialists, Confederate Dreamers, Creole Loggers, and the Caste War Maya of the Late Nineteenth Century

by Eleanor Harrison-Buck & Brett A. Houk & Adam R. Kaeding & Brooke Bonorden

Abstract: Following the U.S. Civil War, groups of ex-Confederates arrived in Belize as clashes with Caste War Maya reached their peak, resulting in more frequent Maya raiding of British and Creole logging camps. Cross-examining ethnohistoric and archaeological data from Maya, ex-Confederate, Creole, and British sites in northern Belize, we aim to better understand the distinct identities and myriad relationships of these odd bedfellows. The colonizers (British and ex-Confederates) had divergent agendas, but each used limited supplies of Euro-American imports, namely guns and tobacco products, in the remote colonial frontier to form powerful economic dependencies with Maya and Creole groups.

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Keywords: Caste War, Maya, Nineteenth-century British Honduras, Ex-Confederates, Creole, Colonialism, Marcus Canul, Resistance, Formal/informal economies

Suggested APA Reference: Harrison-Buck, E., Houk, B. A., Kaeding, A. R., & Bonorden, B. (2018). The Strange Bedfellows of Northern Belize: British Colonialists, Confederate Dreamers, Creole Loggers, and the Caste War Maya of the Late Nineteenth Century. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 1-32. Retrieved on August 30, 2018 from: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/sasw/Research/Downloads/2018_IJHA_Harrison-Buck-et-al_Strange-Bedfellows.pdf