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Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea. Its capital and largest city is Tegucigalpa.
Honduras was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, before Spanish colonization in the 16th century. The Spanish introduced Catholicism and the Spanish language, along with numerous customs that have blended with the indigenous culture. Honduras became independent in 1821 and has since been a republic, although it has consistently endured much social strife and political instability, and remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. In 1960, the northern part of what was the Mosquito Coast was transferred from Nicaragua to Honduras by the International Court of Justice.
The economy is primarily agricultural, making it vulnerable to natural disasters such as Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Honduras has a Human Development Index of 0.624, ranking 138th in the world. In 2022, according to the National Institute of Statistics of Honduras, 73% of the country's population lived in poverty, and 53% lived in extreme poverty. The lower class is primarily agriculturally based while wealth is concentrated in the urban centers. The country is one of the most economically unequal in Latin America. Honduran society is predominantly Mestizo; however, there are also significant Indigenous, Black, and White communities.
In the early 20th century, Honduras was dominated by transnational agricultural companies, whose interests were protected militarily by the United States. The term "banana republic" was originally coined to describe Honduras's politically unstable, corporate-dominated democracy. The civilian government was overthrown in a 1963 military coup, and the nation returned to civilian rule in 1979. The United States re-established its military presence in Honduras in the 1980s, using Honduras as a base of operations to oppose the Nicaraguan government in the Contra war.
A 2009 military coup toppled the government of Manuel Zelaya, and controversy arose from claims of electoral fraud in the subsequent 2013 and 2017 presidential elections. In 2021 Xiomara Castro was elected to the presidency, returning the left to power for the first time since the 2009 coup. Nasry Asfura won the 2025 election amid claims of fraud and electoral interference by the United States.
Honduras spans about 112,492 km2 (43,433 sq mi) and has a population exceeding 10 million. Its northern portions are part of the western Caribbean zone, as reflected in the area's demographics and culture. Honduras is known for its rich natural resources, including minerals, coffee, tropical fruit, and sugar cane, as well as for its growing textiles industry, which serves the international market.
The literal meaning of the Spanish term honduras is 'depths'. The name could refer either to the bay of Trujillo as an anchorage, fondura in the Leonese dialect of Spain, or to Christopher Columbus's alleged quote that "Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de esas honduras" ("Thank God we have departed from those depths").
It was not until the end of the 16th century that Honduras was used for the whole province. Prior to 1580, Honduras referred to only the eastern part of the province, and Higueras referred to the western part. Another early name is Guaymuras, revived as the name for the political dialogue in 2009 that took place in Honduras as opposed to Costa Rica.
Hondurans are often referred to as either the masculine catracho or the feminine catracha in Spanish.
In the pre-Columbian era, the territory was split between two large and diverse cultural regions: Mesoamerica in the west and the Isthmo-Colombian area in the east. Each complex had a "core area" within Honduras (the far west for Mesoamerica, and La Mosquitia for the Isthmo-Colombian area). The intervening area was one of gradual transition, with influences ebbing and flowing over time. For instance, Mesoamerican influences expanded at the time of the preclassic Olmec culture, and later again at the time of the postclassic Toltec culture. On the other hand, Isthmo-Colombian influences intensifed during the classic period.
In the extreme west, Maya civilization flourished for hundreds of years. The dominant, best known, and best studied state was in Copán, which was located in a mainly non-Maya area, or on the frontier between Maya and non-Maya areas. Copán declined with other Lowland centres during the conflagrations of the Terminal Classic in the 9th century. The Maya of this civilization survive in western Honduras as the Ch'orti', isolated from their Choltian linguistic peers to the west.
However, Copán represents only a fraction of Honduran pre-Columbian history, with remnants of other civilizations throughout the country. Archaeologists have studied sites such as Naco and La Sierra in the Naco Valley, Los Naranjos on Lake Yojoa, Yarumela in the Comayagua Valley, La Ceiba and Salitron Viejo (both now under the Cajón Dam reservoir), Selin Farm and Cuyamel in the Aguan valley, Cerro Palenque, Travesia, Curruste, Ticamaya, Despoloncal, and Playa de los Muertos in the lower Ulúa River valley, and many others.
In 2012, LiDAR scanning revealed that several previously unknown high density settlements existed in La Mosquitia, corresponding to the legend of "La Ciudad Blanca". Excavation and study has since improved knowledge of the region's history. It is estimated that these settlements reached their zenith from 500 to 1000 AD.
On his fourth and the final voyage to the New World in 1502, Columbus landed near the modern town of Trujillo, near Guaimoreto Lagoon, becoming the first European to visit the Bay Islands. On 30 July 1502, Columbus sent his brother Bartholomew to explore the islands, and Bartholomew encountered a Mayan trading vessel from Yucatán, carrying well-dressed Maya and a rich cargo. Bartholomew's men stole the cargo and kidnapped the ship's elderly captain to serve as an interpreter in the first recorded encounter between the Spanish and the Maya.
In March 1524, Gil González Dávila became the first Spaniard to enter Honduras as a conquistador. followed by Hernán Cortés, who had brought forces down from Mexico. Much of the conquest took place in the following two decades, first by groups loyal to Cristóbal de Olid, and then by those loyal to Francisco de Montejo but most particularly by those following Alvarado. In addition to Spanish resources, the conquerors relied heavily on armed forces from Mexico – Tlaxcalans and Mexica armies of thousands who remained garrisoned in the region.
Resistance to conquest was led in particular by Lempira. Many regions in the north of Honduras never fell to the Spanish, notably the Miskito Kingdom. After the Spanish conquest, Honduras became part of Spain's vast empire in the New World within the Kingdom of Guatemala. Trujillo and Gracias were the first city-capitals. The Spanish ruled the region for approximately three centuries.
Honduras was organized as a province of the Kingdom of Guatemala, and the capital was first at Trujillo on the Atlantic coast and later at Comayagua, and finally at Tegucigalpa in the central part of the country.
Silver mining was a key factor in the Spanish conquest and settlement of Honduras. Initially the mines were worked by local people through the encomienda system, but as disease and resistance made this option less available, slaves from other parts of Central America were brought in. When local slave trading stopped at the end of the 16th century, African slaves, mostly from Angola, were imported. After about 1650, very few slaves or other outside workers arrived in Honduras.
Although the Spanish conquered the southern or Pacific portion of Honduras fairly quickly, they were less successful on the northern (Atlantic) side. They managed to found a few towns along the coast—at Puerto Caballos and Trujillo in particular—but failed to conquer the eastern portion of the region and many pockets of independent indigenous people as well. The Miskito Kingdom in the northeast was particularly effective at resisting conquest, which found support from northern European privateers, pirates and especially the British formerly English colony of Jamaica, which placed much of the area under its protection after 1740.
Honduras gained independence from Spain in 1821 and was a part of the First Mexican Empire until 1823, when it became part of the United Provinces of Central America. It has been an independent republic and has held regular elections since 1838. In the 1840s and 1850s Honduras participated in several failed attempts at Central American unity, such as the Confederation of Central America (1842–1845), the covenant of Guatemala (1842), the Diet of Sonsonate (1846), the Diet of Nacaome (1847) and National Representation in Central America (1849–1852). Although Honduras eventually adopted the name Republic of Honduras, the unionist ideal never waned, and Honduras was one of the Central American countries that pushed hardest for a policy of regional unity.
Policies favoring international trade and investment began in the 1870s. Foreign interests became involved, first in shipping from the north coast, especially tropical fruit and most notably bananas, and then in building railroads. Comayagua was the capital until 1880, when the capital moved to Tegucigalpa. In 1888, a projected railroad line from the Caribbean coast to Tegucigalpa ran out of money when it reached San Pedro Sula. As a result, San Pedro grew into the nation's primary industrial center and second-largest city. Since independence, nearly 300 small internal rebellions and civil wars have occurred, including some changes of régime.
In the late 19th century, Honduras granted land and substantial exemptions to several US-based fruit and infrastructure companies in return for developing the country's northern regions. Thousands of workers came to the north coast as a result to work in banana plantations and other businesses that grew up around the export industry. Banana-exporting companies, dominated until 1930 by the Cuyamel Fruit Company, as well as the United Fruit Company, and Standard Fruit Company, built an enclave economy in northern Honduras, controlling infrastructure and creating self-sufficient, tax-exempt sectors that contributed relatively little to economic growth. American troops landed in Honduras in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925.
American writer O. Henry coined the term "banana republic" in his 1904 novel Cabbages and Kings to describe a fictional country, Anchuria, that was inspired by his experiences in Honduras, where he had lived for six months. In The Admiral, one of the interlinking stories from which he composed the novel, O. Henry refers to Anchuria as a "small maritime banana republic"; naturally, the fruit was the entire basis of its economy. According to a literary analyst writing for The Economist, "his phrase neatly conjures up the image of a tropical, agrarian country. But its real meaning is sharper: it refers to the fruit companies from the United States that came to exert extraordinary influence over the politics of Honduras and its neighbors." In addition to drawing Central American workers north, the fruit companies encouraged immigration of workers from the English-speaking Caribbean, notably Jamaica and Belize, which introduced an African-descended, English-speaking and largely Protestant population into the country, although many of these workers left following changes to immigration law in 1939.
Constitutional crises in the 1940s led to reforms in the 1950s. One reform gave workers permission to organize, and a 1954 general strike paralyzed the northern part of the country for more than two months, but led to reforms. A 1963 military coup unseated democratically elected President Ramón Villeda Morales. In 1960, the northern part of what was the Mosquito Coast was transferred from Nicaragua to Honduras by the International Court of Justice.
In 1969, Honduras and El Salvador fought what became known as the Football War. Border tensions led to acrimony between the two countries after Honduran President Oswaldo López Arellano blamed the deteriorating economy on immigrants from El Salvador. The relationship reached a low when El Salvador met Honduras for a three-round football elimination match preliminary to the World Cup. On 14 July the Salvadoran army invaded Honduras. The Organization of American States negotiated a cease-fire which took effect on 20 July and brought about a withdrawal of Salvadoran troops in early August. Contributing factors to the conflict were a boundary dispute and the presence of thousands of Salvadorans living in Honduras illegally. After the week-long war, as many as 130,000 Salvadoran immigrants were expelled.
Hurricane Fifi caused severe damage when it skimmed the northern coast on 18 and 19 September 1974. Following Fifi, Presidents Melgar Castro and Policarpo Paz García largely built the current physical infrastructure and telecommunications system of Honduras. In 1979, the country returned to civilian rule. A constituent assembly was popularly elected in April 1980 to write a new constitution, and general elections were held in November 1981. The constitution was approved in 1982 and the PLH government of Roberto Suazo won the election with a promise to carry out an ambitious program of economic and social development to tackle an economic recession. He launched ambitious social and economic development projects sponsored by American development aid. Honduras became host to the largest Peace Corps mission in the world, and nongovernmental and international voluntary agencies proliferated. The Peace Corps withdrew its volunteers in 2012, citing safety concerns.
During the early 1980s, the United States established a continuing military presence in Honduras to support El Salvador, the Contra guerrillas fighting the Nicaraguan government, and also develop an airstrip and modern port in Honduras. Though spared the bloody civil wars wracking its neighbors, the Honduran Army quietly waged campaigns against Marxist–Leninist militias such as the Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement, notorious for kidnappings and bombings, and against many non-militants. The operation included a campaign of extrajudicial killings by government units, most notably the CIA-trained Battalion 316. Honduras was found internationally liable for a series of enforced disappearances during this time period, culminating in Velásquez Rodríguez v. Honduras.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Honduras”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.