Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T23:35:10.083Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Business as Usual: Mayas and Merchants on the Yucatán-Belize Border at the Onset of the Caste War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2020

Rajeshwari Dutt
Affiliation:
Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi
Get access

Summary

In explaining Anglo-Maya relations in Belize, the prevalent view is that British policies resulted from either expedience or the fear of Maya “savages,” since the British settlement did not have the power to defend against the rebels. Countering the assumption that the British policymakers acted out of fear or expediency, this chapter adds to the above conversation by positing that merchants played a crucial role in fostering a sympathetic attitude on the part of the British government in Belize during the initial years of Mexico’s Caste War. It posits that the Yucatán-Belize border area functioned both as a frontier and as a borderland and it is this peculiarity – together with the real material interests in allying with the rising merchant class – that explains the nature of British policies toward Maya groups during the Caste War. Far from being peripheral, the borderlands between Belize and Mexico became zones of imperial rivalry and negotiation, fostering alliances between the British and the Maya in the first years of the violent Caste War. An examination of the colonial archives also reveals how dynamics of frontiers and borderlands gave rise to interethnic solidarity.

Type
Chapter
Information
Empire on Edge
The British Struggle for Order in Belize during Yucatan's Caste War, 1847–1901
, pp. 23 - 50
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×