BELIZE, FLAG OF

national flag with horizontal stripes of red, dark blue, and red, incorporating on its wide middle stripe the national coat of arms. It typically has a width-to-length ratio of 3 to 5. In 1819 the colony then known as British Honduras obtained its coat of arms, subsequently slightly modified. The design featured a mahogany tree, hinting at the rich sylvan resources of the area, as well as a shield and two supporters. In the original design the supporters were of African background, but now one is a mestizo, the other a mulatto (or "Creole," as the term is defined in Belize). These men hold tools of the trade-an ax and the paddle used to send trees downriver for export. The shield is divided into three sections-a paddle and a maul crossed on a white background, a two-handed saw and an ax crossed on dark yellow, and a ship sailing over waves on blue. The Latin motto "Sub umbra floreo" ("I flourish in the shade") is a reference to the area's forests and its establishment as a colony under British protection. The Union Jack was part of the shield in the coat of arms officially granted in 1907, but it was later omitted. Believing that in the past the coat of arms had appeared on a white disk in the centre of a blue flag, nationalists established that flag for the People's United Party, which led the nation to independence. The arms were framed by a wreath bearing 50 leaves, a reminder of the year 1950, when the first opposition to British rule began. After local self-government was established in 1964, the flag unofficially flew over public buildings. Finally, on independence day (September 21, 1981), a revised national flag was officially hoisted. Red horizontal stripes were added at top and bottom for the opposition United Democratic Party so that the national flag would not be simply that of the People's United Party. Whitney Smith Government and social conditions The structure of government is based on the British parliamentary system, and the legal system is modeled on the common law of England. The 1981 constitution provides for universal suffrage for citizens at least 18 years of age and for a bicameral National Assembly composed of an elected House of Representatives with 29 members and an appointed Senate with 8 members. General elections to the House must be held within five years of the preceding election. The governor-general, a Belizean national who represents the British crown, normally appoints as prime minister the leader of the majority party in the House and an opposition leader from the minority party. The prime minister appoints the cabinet. Local government consists of the Belize City Council and six town boards with authority over most municipal affairs. Most villages have councils, and some Maya villages have an alcalde (mayor) with limited powers. A chief justice heads the Supreme Court, the nation's highest court, which is independent of the national government. About three-fifths of the population aged 14 and over is literate. Primary schooling is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 14. Most schools are government-subsidized denominational schools, chiefly Roman Catholic, and the Mennonites operate their own schools. About one-third of the secondary schools are run by the government, and the remainder are managed by the churches. Half of the primary-school graduates go on to secondary school, and only a tiny elite receive any higher education. The University College of Belize and an extramural department of the University of the West Indies in Belize City provide postsecondary education. The majority of Belizeans have access to government hospitals, clinics, and maternal, child-care, and dental facilities. As a result the people's health has improved. Infant mortality rates, in particular, have been reduced by improved water supplies, waste disposal systems, and disease control and vaccination programs. Malaria, however, remains a problem. Nurses are trained locally, but there remains a shortage of doctors and dentists, especially in the rural areas. A social security program was created in the 1980s to provide pensions for senior citizens and to extend assistance to pregnant, sick, disabled, and unemployed workers and to the survivors of deceased insured workers. History The following is a history of Belize focusing on events since European settlement. For further treatment, see Pre-Columbian civilizations: Meso-American civilization; Latin America, history of; and Central America. Maya Indians lived in the area now known as Belize for centuries before the arrival of Europeans, as manifested by more than a dozen major ruins such as La Milpa, Xunantunich, Altun Ha, and Caracol. The Spanish penetrated the area in the 16th and 17th centuries and tried to convert the Maya to Christianity, but with little success. British buccaneers and logwood cutters finally settled on the inhospitable coast in the mid-17th century. Spain regarded the British as interlopers in their territory. By treaties signed in 1763 and 1783, Spain granted to British subjects the privilege of exploiting logwood and, after 1786, the more valuable mahogany, within specified but poorly surveyed limits. Spain retained sovereignty over the area, which Britain called a settlement, as distinct from a formal colony. While formal government was not allowed by Spain, the British settlers conducted their affairs with a public meeting and elected magistrates. Superintendents, appointed by the British government after 1786, slowly established their executive authority at the expense of the settlers' oligarchy. In 1798 the British defeated the last attempt of Spain to remove them by force, and Belize became a colony in all but name. The superintendent was instructed by the British government to assume authority over the granting of land in 1817, and he assumed the power to appoint magistrates in 1832. In 1854 a constitution formally created a Legislative Assembly of 18 members elected by a limited franchise, and the next year the Laws in Force Act validated the settlers' land titles. Guatemala challenged the British occupation on the grounds that it had inherited Spanish interests in the area, and from time to time Mexico also asserted a claim to part of Belize. Great Britain and Guatemala appeared to have settled their differences in 1859 by a treaty that defined boundaries for Belize. The final article of the treaty, however, bound both parties to establish "the easiest communication" between Guatemala and Belize. When the communication route was not developed, Guatemala insisted that the entire treaty was thus invalidated and asserted a claim to possession of the whole territory. The dispute remains unsettled, but in 1991 Guatemala recognized Belize as an independent state. Britain proclaimed Belize to be the colony of British Honduras in 1862 and a crown colony in 1871, when the Legislative Assembly was abolished. British Honduras remained subordinate to Jamaica until 1884, when it acquired a separate colonial administration under an appointed governor. The British settlers, who called themselves Baymen, began importing African slaves in the early 18th century to cut logwood and then mahogany. Although the conditions and organization of labour in timber extraction were different from those on plantations, the system of slavery was cruel and oppressive. There were four slave revolts in Belize, and hundreds of slaves took advantage of the terrain and the freedom offered over the frontiers to escape. A flourishing transit trade with neighbouring Spanish Central America, established early in the 19th century, continued after the Spanish colonies attained independence in the 1820s, but plantations, which were forbidden by the treaties with Spain, were not developed. After emancipation in 1838, the former slaves remained tied to the logging operations by a system of wage advances and company stores that induced indebtedness and dependency. When the old economy, based on forest products and the transit trade, declined in the mid-19th century, these Creole freedmen remained impoverished. Beginning in the early 19th century, Garifuna immigrants settled on the southern coast of Belize. The Caste War in Yucatn between 1847 and 1853 resulted in several thousand Spanish-speaking refugees settling in northern Belize, while Maya communities were reestablished in the north and west. These immigrants introduced a variety of agricultural developments, including traditional subsistence farming and the beginning of sugar, banana, and citrus production. In the 1860s and '70s the owners of sugar estates sponsored the immigration of several hundred Chinese and East Indian labourers. In the late 19th century Mopan and Kekchi Maya, fleeing from oppression in Guatemala, established largely self-sufficient communities in southern and western Belize. By the early 20th century, the ethnic mixture of the area was established, but the economy was stagnant and crown colony government precluded any democratic participation. In the 1930s the economy was hit by the Great Depression, and Belize City was largely destroyed by a hurricane in 1931. A series of strikes and demonstrations by labourers and the unemployed gave rise to a trade union movement and to demands for democratization. The right to vote was reintroduced in 1936, but property, literacy, and gender qualifications severely limited the franchise. When the governor used his reserve powers to devalue the currency at the end of 1949, leaders of the trade union and the Creole middle class joined in a People's Committee to demand constitutional changes. The People's United Party (PUP) and its leader, George Price, emerged from the committee in 1950 and led the independence movement. Belize evolved through several stages of decolonization, from universal adult suffrage in 1954 to a new constitution and internal self-government in 1964, when Price, who had been called first minister, became premier. Unrelenting Guatemalan hostility, however, impeded independence. In the 1970s Belize took its case for self-determination to the international community, appealing to the United Nations and joining the Nonaligned Movement. Although the dispute between Guatemala and Great Britain remained unresolved, Belize became independent on September 21, 1981. Belize was admitted to the United Nations but has been denied membership in the Organization of American States because of a rule that bars admission to states involved in territorial disputes with another member. The British military presence was withdrawn in 1994, and border security became the sole responsibility of the 1,000-member Belize Defence Force, created in 1978. The United Democratic Party (UDP), formed in 1973 and led by Manuel Esquivel, won the general election in 1984, but in 1989 the PUP won the election and Price again became prime minister (as the office was now called). The UDP won a close election in 1993, and Esquivel again assumed leadership. In 1998, however, the PUP won by a landslide and its new leader, Said Musa, became prime minister. Although a democratic tradition is now well established in Belize, the nation struggles to develop under a dependent economy, and it has been pressured politically both by neighbours recovering from civil war and by the pervasive influence of the United States in the region. William J. Griffith O. Nigel Bolland