MAYA TRADE LINKAGE

Guatemala and Belize have a common historical background: the Maya world. Before the existence of the territories known today as Belize and Guatemala, the Maya inhabited and traversed these lands, interchanging knowledge and new ideas, creating one of the most advanced empires known to man.

An archaeologist studying Maya nautical trade routes dubbed them the "Phoenicians of the New World." One scholar estimates that perhaps 4,000 Maya canoes were at sea at any one time at the height of their culture, trading such diverse products as wax, honey, salt, furs, feathers, jade, cotton, and slaves. (16) The Mayan civilization lived, flourished and declined long before the Europeans arrived in Belize. For some fifteen centuries B.C., the Mayan people thrived in the area from southern Mexico to Honduras, and Belize was the center of their trading system. (17)

During the Classic Period (A.D. 250 to 900) of the Maya civilization, the area of the Maya encompassed what is now southern Mexico, Western Honduras and El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize. Some of the most powerful centers of Maya occupation, according to recent archaeological evidence, were in Belize. Cuello in the Orange Walk district is the oldest known Maya community dating from 1200 B.C., while powerful centers included Lamanai, La Milpa (near present-day Gallon Jug), Xunantunich and Caracol, which once rivalled Tikal (Guatemala) in importance. (18)

Other sites in Belize served as important trading points including Ambergris Caye which was a strategic and fundamental trading post situated as it was facing the bays of Corozal and Chetumal and at a point where the sea meets the Rio Hondo and the New River. Ambergris Caye, was a trading center for goods coming from as far as Pachuca in central Mexico and from the highlands of Guatemala. (19)

All this attests to the dynamic role the Maya once played in the cultural and economic realities of those times. However the past 200 years have resulted in Belize and Guatemala suffering isolation, and economic deprivation because of the unsolved question of the legitimate title to Belize. Inspite of their common link, history shows that due to events and circumstances the link was lost and the relationship between these two countries became estranged and complex.