Creating “Belize”: The Mapping and Naming History of a Liminal Locale

@article{Restall2019CreatingT,
  title={Creating “Belize”: The Mapping and Naming History of a Liminal Locale},
  author={Matthew Restall},
  journal={Terrae Incognitae},
  year={2019},
  volume={51},
  pages={35 - 5}
}
The origins of the settlement in southwest Yucatan that subsequently became the British colony and then nation of Belize, along with the etymology of the toponym Belize, are poorly understood and clouded by colonialist mythology. Using cartographic, archival, and other textual sources, including some in Yucatec Mayan, this article offers a revisionist argument regarding initial British settlement in the region and proposes a new solution to the mystery of the name Belize. 
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12 Citations
Background Citations
1
Methods Citations
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12 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Empire on Edge
How does empire operate in frontiers and borderlands during times of conflict? Empire on Edge reveals how British officials attempted, during the second half of the nineteenth century, to understand…
Maya militia: the defense and government of colonial Ixil, Yucatan
To the westward of Telchac, 9 miles, is a lookout tower, and a rancho of a few huts, named Yxil in a grove of cocoanut [sic] trees.W.W. Gillpatrick, U.S.N., 18851 The road from the town of Ixil is ...
Index
  • Empire on Edge
  • 2020
Conclusion
  • Empire on Edge
  • 2020
Introduction
  • Empire on Edge
  • 2020
The Enemy Within: Hispanics and the Threat of Maya Raids, 1867–1880
  • Empire on Edge
  • 2020
Uneasy Alliances: British Officials and the Santa Cruz Maya during the Maximilian Years, 1863–1867
  • Empire on Edge
  • 2020
Business as Usual: Mayas and Merchants on the Yucatán-Belize Border at the Onset of the Caste War
  • Economics
    Empire on Edge
  • 2020
Ungoverned Passions: Mayas and Hispanic Refugees in Belize, 1853–1861
  • Political Science
    Empire on Edge
  • 2020
Costs of Protection: Securing Belizean Borders during Maximilian’s Empire in Mexico, 1864–1867
  • Empire on Edge
  • 2020
...
...

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With the colonization of the American continents in the early sixteenth century, cartography emerged as a visual medium through which diverse colonial actors asserted corporate identities. Given the…
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This wonderful collection of 76 essays explores the fascinating origin and meaning of the names of some of the towns, villages, cities, islands, mountains, and rivers that make up one of the world's…
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