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In the late classic period, it is estimated that between 400,000 and 1,000,000 people inhabited the area that is now Belize. [5] [2] People settled almost every part of the country worth cultivating, as well as the cay and coastal swamp regions. But in the 10th century, Maya society suffered a severe breakdown.
The indigenous people of Belize did not resist the British like they did the Spanish. In the 17th century, however, the British settlement became a formal British crown colony from 1862 through 1964, where they first achieved self government and later in 1981 became an independent country recognized globally with all its territory intact.
The Pre-Columbian Belize history is the period from initial indigenous presence, across millennia, to the first contacts with Europeans - the Pre-Columbian or before Columbus period - that occurred on the region of the Yucatán Peninsula that is present day Belize. Belize's history begins with the Palaeoindians.
Belize (/ b ɪ ˈ l iː z, b ɛ-/ ⓘ, bih-LEEZ, beh-; Belize Kriol English: Bileez) is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America.It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south.
The periodisation of the history of Belize is the division of Belizean, Maya, and Mesoamerican history into named blocks of time, spanning the arrival of Palaeoindians to the present time. The pre-Columbian era is most often periodised by Mayanists , who often employ four or five periods to discuss history prior to the arrival of Spaniards .
The first widespread ceramic tradition is thought to be Mamon, characterised by red-slipped or Juventud Red bowls, and commonly dated to 600 BC. [15] [16] [n 4] The earliest pre-Mamon ceramic traditions in Belize and surrounding Lowlands are most often dated to at least 1000 BC, though there is still much debate regarding details.
The traditional story of the English settlement of Belize is the most commonly given account in scholarly literature, though historians often qualify it, given the lack of primary sources. [ citation needed ] [ note 7 ] A variety of competing accounts have been proffered since the 18th century, none of which have gained widespread scholarly favour.
The onset of the Classic period in the Lowlands saw the completion of the fall and abandonment of El Mirador, which had begun in the Terminal Preclassic. [7] Having been the pre-eminent power across the central Lowlands during the Preclassic, its collapse is thought to have been felt across this sphere of influence, possibly leading to political, economic, or social distress in previously ...