British Honduras is a British Crown colony on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, from 1862 to 1964, then a self-governing colony, renamed Belize in June 1973, until September 1981, when it gains full independence as Belize.
British Honduras is the last continental possession of the United Kingdom in the Americas.
The colony grows out of the Treaty of Versailles (1783) between Britain and Spain, which gives the British rights to cut logwood between the Hondo and Belize rivers.
The Convention of London (1786) expands this concession to include the area between the Belize and Sibun rivers.
In 1862, the Settlement of Belize in the Bay of Honduras is declared a British colony called British Honduras, and the Crown's representative is elevated to a lieutenant governor, subordinate to the governor of Jamaica.
