Part I
Sometime, in the future, the people of Belize will be asked to decide in a referendum whether or not we should take the “Compromis” to the International Court of Justice. Before we do, it might be helpful if we reviewed all the pertinent events in the history of our country and, all the factors which relate to the Guatemalan claim of our land.
Our history began when English and Scottish sailors (buccaneers) landed at the mouth of the Belize River in 1638. They were the first to do so and, might have claimed the land in the name of their sovereign, except for the fact that this land, our land, by an accident of history was from 1494, a part of the Spanish Main. This is how it came about.
Long before our forebears came to this part of the world, Christopher Columbus encountered land in his westward voyage from Spain with the objective of reaching India. Theoretically, if you travel westward from a given point in Europe in a certain latitudinal direction, you will eventually arrive at your starting point, encountering all the land areas that you would if you were to travel eastward in the same latitude. He was right in theory but, he would have had to carry his ships across thousands of miles of land, including mountainous terrain.
On his first voyage, Columbus encountered land in North America which he thought was the Indies and claimed it in the name of the Spanish sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella. There were people living on the lands which he “discovered” on his voyages but, they were “savages” and, had no rights. All these lands became the property of Spain as soon as Columbus claimed them. That was the rule. The countries of the Christian world in Europe and Asia were entitled to claim any lands in the pagan world which had not already been claimed by one of their number. Unless a claim was challenged by another Christian country, the ownership was settled.
Then, the conquistadores who accompanied Columbus on his succeeding voyages, discovered that the Aztecs had ornaments of gold, which appeared to be plentiful in their land and, not highly valued as it was in Spain. This discovery spelled doom for the natives, as successive boatloads of adventurers came to seek their fortunes.
Of great significant to the history of Belize is that voyages of discovery to the New World became the grand quest for the explorers of other nations. Portugal entered the discovery business with a will and, soon the question of ownership of lands in the New World became a matter for dispute between the two great maritime nations – Spain and Portugal.
It was a time when most of the Great Powers of Europe and Asia were Catholic, and their rulers regarded the Pope as both spiritual and temporal leader. The disputants (Spain and Portugal) appealed to Pope Alexander VI to act as arbiter. It is reported that the Pontiff drew a line on a map of the Western Hemisphere from north to south and, prevailed on the monarchs of the two countries to agree, in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), that all the lands of which claims had not been settled, west of the line belonged to Spain and, those east of the line belonged to Portugal. Thus, the settlement of Belize, being west of the line, became a part of the Spanish dominions.
There was no doubt that the land settled by our forebears belonged to Spain because, it was conceded as such by Great Britain in the Godolphin Treaty of 1670. Consequently, the mother country had to enter into agreements with Spain to allow the settlers to cut logwood within certain boundaries, from time to time.
In the Treaty of Paris in 1763, it was agreed between Spain and Britain that the settlers could exploit the logwood trees in the Bay of Honduras.
In the Treaty of Versailles in 1783, it was agreed that the settlers could do the same in the areas between the Hondo and Belize River. The area was extended southward to the Sibun River by the Convention of London between the parties of the previous agreements on 14th July 1786. No other agreements in respect of the Belize settlement were concluded between these Great Powers.
Two significant events took place which altered the relationship between Spain and Britain in relation to the Belize settlement, which led to a request of the settlers for and, the declaration by Great Britain’s in 1860 that their land should be the Crown Colony of British Honduras. The significant events were, firstly, the Battle of St. George’s Caye, when the Belize settlers repulsed an attempt by the Captain Generalship of Yucatán to take possession of the land de facto which was theirs de jure. Secondly, the declaration of independence from Spain in 1821 by a group of countries formerly a part of the Spanish Captain Generalship administered in Guatemala. These events put an end to the sovereignty of Spain in this part of the world.
Also of significance is the fact that Guatemala declared itself a Republic in 1829. We shall not concern ourselves about the other members of the Federation, for the moment.
It is not proposed to write our history after 1798. We all know for a fact that our country grew and developed, extending our boundary southward from the Sibun to the Sarstoon River. All this time our country was administered by Great Britain, and we enjoyed undisturbed possession of it up to our Independence in 1981.
Many years after the 1859 treaty, Guatemala repudiated it on the ground that one of the conditions set forth in Article 7 (of the treaty), which imposed an obligation on Britain to take a certain action had not been met. The British response was that the treaty was to establish a boundary and, a boundary was established. The Guatemalans persisted. They said the treaty was one of cession because, in accord with the doctrine of “uti possidetis,” British Honduras belonged to Guatemalans, as the successors of Spain. Thus began the Guatemalan claim to our country, which persists up to the present.
I suggest you read Article 7 of the Treaty of 1859 and you will see that there was not a clear obligation on the part of the British to take any action and that in any case Article 7 was a minor part of the Treaty of 1859 and the non-performance of a promise contained in it would be insufficient grounds to repudiate a treaty.
Belize has been a sovereign nation since 21st September, 1981. British Honduras, which was claimed by Guatemala, no longer exists. Things have changed. Guatemala no longer claims our country in pursuance of the doctrine of “uti possidetis,” but, they consider that they are an aggrieved party and their cause should be adjudged by an impartial arbiter. It might be in the interests of both parties if the matter were resolved by an international tribunal. This last is the position of a number of countries which have come to be known, justifiably, as Friends of Belize.