Roatán
Location
Located near the
Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the largest barrier reef in the
Caribbean Sea (second largest worldwide after
Australia's
Great Barrier Reef), Roatán has become an important cruise ship,
scuba diving and eco-tourism destination in Honduras.
Tourism is its most important economic sector, though fishing is also an important source of income for islanders.
is located within 40 miles of
La Ceiba. The island is served by the
Juan Manuel Gálvez Roatán International Airport and the Galaxy Wave Ferry service twice a day.
History
The
pre-Columbian indigenous peoples of the Bay Islands are believed to have been related to either the
Paya, the
Maya, the
Lenca or the
Jicaque, which were the cultures present on the mainland.
Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage (1502–1504) came to the islands as he visited the neighbouring Bay Island of
Guanaja. Soon after the Spanish began raiding the islands for
slave labour. More devastating for Native American communities was exposure to
Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, such as
smallpox and
measles. No indigenous people survived the consequent epidemics.
Throughout European colonial times, the Bay of Honduras attracted an
array of individual settlers, pirates, traders and military forces.
Various economic activities were engaged in and political struggles
played out between the European powers, chiefly Britain and
Spain.
Roatán and the other islands were used as frequent resting points for
sea travellers. On several occasions, they were subject to military
occupation. In contesting with the Spanish for colonization of the
Caribbean, the English occupied the Bay Islands on and off between 1550
and 1700. During this time,
buccaneers
found the vacated, mostly unprotected islands a haven for safe harbour
and transport. English, French and Dutch pirates established settlements
on the islands. They frequently raided Spanish cargo vessels carrying
gold and other treasures from the New World to Spain.
In 1797, the British defeated the
Black Carib, who had been supported by the French, in a battle for control of the Windward Caribbean island of
St. Vincent.
Weary of their resistance to British plans for sugar plantations, the
British rounded up the St. Vincent Black Carib and deported them to
Roatán. The majority of Black Carib migrated to
Trujillo on mainland Honduras, but a portion remained to found the community of
Punta Gorda on the northern coast of Roatán. The Black Carib, whose ancestry includes
Arawak and
African Maroons, remained in Punta Gorda, becoming the Bay Island's first permanent post-Columbian settlers.
[citation needed] They also migrated from there to parts of the northern coast of
Central America, becoming the foundation of the modern-day
Garífuna culture.
The majority permanent population of Roatán originated from the
Cayman Islands near
Jamaica. They arrived in the 1830s shortly after Britain's
abolition
of slavery in 1838. The changes in labour force disrupted the economic
structure of Caymanian culture. Caymanians were largely a seafaring
culture and were familiar with the area from turtle fishing and other
activities. Former Caymanian slaveholders were among the first to settle
in the seaside locations throughout primarily western Roatán. Former
slaves also migrated from the Cayman Islands in larger number than
planters, during the late 1830s and 1840s. Altogether, the former
Caymanians became the largest cultural group on the island.
[1]
For a brief period in the 1850s, Britain declared the Bay Islands its
colony. Within a decade, the Crown ceded the territory formally back to
Honduras. British colonists were sent though, and asked
William Walker, a freebooter with a private army, to help end the crisis in 1860 by invading Honduras; he was captured upon landing in
Trujillo and executed there.
In the latter half of the 19th century, the island populations grew
steadily and established new settlements all over Roatán and the other
islands. Settlers came from all over the world and played a part in
shaping the cultural face of the island. Islanders started a fruit trade
industry which became profitable. By the 1870s it was purchased by
American interests, most notably the
New Orleans and Bay Islands Fruit Company. Later companies, the
Standard Fruit and
United Fruit Companies became the foundation for modern-day fruit companies, the industry which gave Honduras the sobriquet "
banana republic".
The 20th century saw continued population growth resulting in
increasing economic changes, and environmental challenges. A population
boom began with an influx of Spanish-speaking
Mestizo
migrants from the Honduran mainland and in the last decades, they
tripled the original resident population. Mestizo migrants settled
primarily in the urban areas of Coxen Hole and Barrio Los Fuertes (near
French Harbour). But in terms of population and economic influence, the
mainlander influx was dwarfed by the overwhelming tourist presence in
most recent years. Numerous American, Canadian, British, New Zealand,
Australian and South African settlers and entrepreneurs engaged chiefly
in the fishing industry, and later, provided the foundation for
attracting the tourist trade.
In 1998, Roatán suffered some damage from
Hurricane Mitch,
temporarily paralyzing most commercial activity. The storm also broke
the popular dive-wrecks "Aguila" and "Odyssey" into several pieces.
