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.