Description

Colonialism and Resistance in Belize: Essays in Historical Sociology
Author: O. Nigel Bolland

Paperback: 238 pages
Fifth Revised Edition: Sept 2009 (First published 1988)
Size: 6.5″ x 9″
ISBN: 978-968-623-304-9

The social history of Belize is marked by conflict: between British settlers and the Maya, between masters and slaves, between capitalists and workers, between the colonial administration and the Belizean people. Belize shares many features with other parts of the Caribbean and Central America, including a long history of colonialism and slavery, a dependent economy in which the ownership of land is highly concentrated, and a population which is largely poor. 

In this collection of essays, written over a period of several years, Professor Bolland focuses on some of the most important topics in the history of the people of Belize, during three centuries of colonialism. Part one examines the early British settlement, the nature of slavery in Belize, and the development of Creole culture in the nineteenth century. Part two is concerned with relations between the Maya and the British in the nineteenth century. Part three looks at systems of labour control after emancipation and discusses the origins of modern politics in the labour movement in the 1930s and 1940s. Part four turns to some contemporary issues of ethnicity and politics. 

The social perspective of this highly qualified scholar illuminates the historical origins and colonial legacies of present-day Belize, both for their distinctiveness and for what they share with other parts of the region. This revised collection of essays, in the words of Professor Verne Shepherd, “will now take its place on the shelves of scholars of Caribbean history.”