Christopher Columbus first discovered Honduras in the 16th century, and his discovery soon led to the Spanish conquest of Honduras in 1520.The earliest known evidence of human history in Honduras dates back to its origins by people from North America, who used Central America as a bridge to move toward South America. While the major part of Honduras was under Spanish colonization, only parts offshore of the Caribbean Sea and the Bay Islands were less influenced by the Spanish colonization.Honduras is a developing country. Airports in Honduras are considered some of the most dangerous for landing due to uneven ground and high mountain ranges, except for the city of San Pedro Sula, where you can fly through easily. San Pedro Sula is also important industrially and commercially after the capital city of Tegucigalpa. San Pedro Sula is also famous because of the killings that happened at a prison in the city in 2004. The north coast of Honduras is considered home to many beautiful islands. Roatan Island is one such island on the north coast of Honduras that is surrounded by coral reefs. Honduras is also known to be the home of the Mayan culture. Honduras was the first country to ban smoking in even private spaces, and Honduras was also the first country in Central America to build a cinema.The official currency of Honduras, or Honduran money, is called the Honduran Lempira. The Honduran flag is also very interesting if we look at the concept of five stars on the Honduran flag. It represents a larger testament to the fact that the country identifies itself as a part of Central America as a whole and not just a country.If you want to read more interesting facts like these, do check out our other articles here at Kidadl about Haiti history facts and Ghana history facts to get some enriching information.Pre-Colonial PeriodHonduras is a beautiful but lesser-known country in Central America that Guatemala surrounds in the west, El-Salvador in the southwest, Nicaragua in the southeast, the Gulf of Fonseca in the south of the Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Honduras in the north of the Caribbean Sea. The land of Honduras is said to have been underpopulated during the pre-colonial period. It was divided into two pan-cultural regions: in the west, Mesoamerica, and in the east, the Isthmo-Colombian area.In the Mesoamerican part, the core area was referred to as the Sula Valley, and in the Isthmo-Colombian part, the core area was known as La Mosquitia. The Mayan civilization flourished here for hundreds of years on the extreme western Honduras side of the land, at Copan. When the Spanish conquered the area, it was mainly inhabited by indigenous tribes and native people who had great cultural and linguistic diversity. The ruins of other key towns, such as Tikal in Guatemala and Chichén Itzá in Mexico, as well as their famed writing system and the tremendous cultural impact that still exists among their descendants, demonstrate the reach of the ancient Mayan empire. By the time the Spanish empire stepped into Honduras, a major part of the civilization was already in ruins. After the Mayans, many other greater civilizations spread to many other parts of the land. Their languages show a connection to the Aztecs and Toltecs of Mexico, the Colombian Chibchas, and even the Southwest tribes. The Lencas, who spoke a language of unclear origin, lived in Honduras’ western-central region. The topography and lack of natural resources helped the region remain aloof for a long time from the colonial and international influence that its neighboring lands faced.Christopher Columbus arrived in the Bay Islands and on the mainland shore on July 30, 1502, on his fourth and last voyage to the Americas. Columbus set sail from the island of Guanaja, which he is claimed to have named Columbus, for the northern continental coast, where he ordered the first mass on the Honduran mainland at Punta Caxinas, now known as Puerto Castilla. However, there was little exploration or colonization by Europeans for the following two decades, until the 1520s, when Europeans finally started coming to the land and settling there. It is still considered to be one of the last Central American countries to be colonized by the Europeans. The land of Honduras was also referred to as Spanish Honduras to keep a distinction from British Honduras as it was the Spanish invaders who took the major part of the land as its colony.Flora And FaunaAccording to landmass in Central America, Honduras has a rich heritage of flora and fauna under its reserve and is the second-largest country with a land area of 43433 sq mi (112,492 sq km) just after Nicaragua in Central America and shares its borders with El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Republic of Nicaragua. The land has four distinct regions: the Pacific lowlands, the central highlands, the northern coastal plains and mountains, and the eastern Caribbean coast lowlands. The northern coast of Honduras, or Northern Honduras, is famous for its wide variety of coral flora and fauna.It is the only country in Central America that has large mountain ranges as long as 9,347 ft (2848.9 m) in height but has no active volcano present in any of the mountain ranges present in Honduras. Because of its diversified topography and climate, Honduras boasts a broad range of marine, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems, which have produced excellent circumstances for biodiversity to flourish in Honduras. Several islands are found adjacent to the country’s coast. In the rain forest sections, tropical trees, ferns, moss, and orchids flourish. The anteater, coyote, armadillo, deer, fox, pocket gopher, peccary, porcupine, puma, and monkeys come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Turtles and fish come in a wide variety of marine and freshwater species.The land also has many snake species crawling on the surface, like the coral snake, fer-de-lance, rattlesnake, horned viper, whip snake, and crocodile, caiman, and iguana are among the reptiles. The hummingbird, black robin, macaw, thrush, nightingale, quail, quetzal, wren, toucans, and a variety of other birds can be seen here. Many of its species are endemic, which simply means that they are only present in Honduras and nowhere else on Earth. The national bird of the country is the Scarlet Macaw. The national bird, the Scarlet Macaw, is a large creature with bright yellow, blue, and red lively colors all over its body. The national flower of Honduras is the orchid Rhyncholaelia digbyana, which replaced the flower rose as the national flower of Honduras in the year 1969. The Yucatan white-tailed deer is the national mammal and the wildlife national symbol of the country, officially established by the National Congress of Honduras in the year 1993.Poverty Reduction StrategiesHonduras is the second-largest country in Central America in terms of landmass, but it is also among the poorest countries in Central America, with a poverty rate of 52.6%. The two main factors that led to this widespread poverty in Honduras were low income and uneven wealth distribution. Certain poverty reduction strategies have been employed to tackle the situation in Honduras.As per the World Bank, the average income of a family in Honduras is as low as $3 per day. Violence is one of the major obstacles to combating poverty in Honduras. Honduras was ranked as the murder capital of the world in the year 2011 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Due to widespread poverty, the hygiene conditions in the country are also very bad, thus decreasing the overall health and life expectancy of the people of Honduras. Increasing political instability and corruption are other major reasons for poverty in Honduras. The Honduras Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) was formed to tackle the issue of poverty in the country. The Honduras Country Development Cooperation Strategy has three major objectives: boosting security for vulnerable communities in high-crime regions, lowering poverty in Honduras, and promoting government openness and accountability.Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala announced a strategy called ‘Alliance for Prosperity’ to curb mass migration out of their nations. According to the Alliance for Prosperity, economic growth is a potential solution to crime and poverty, both of which cause people to leave safer nations, such as the United States. The International Monetary Fund granted the country of Honduras $311 million in the year 2019. The money would be used to promote the government’s aim of economic stability and institutional change, according to the country of Honduras. Stabilizing the state electrical company, which has been battling with debt, is also part of the economic plan. Since 2018, the economy has been steady. In the years 2017–2019, GDP growth hovered at 3-5%, which is higher than the average in Central America. The International Monetary Fund, USAID, and other organizations have helped Honduras achieve its goals of economic transformation and poverty reduction in both urban and rural areas and have increased the life expectancy of the Honduran people.Water Supply And SanitationHonduras had to go through a decade of military coups and a military rule government until finally, in the year 1982. The country of Honduras established a free, elected, civilian-ruled Honduran government. Honduras’s maximum economy still depends on U.S. trade and remittances. Due to widespread poverty, the sanitation conditions in the capital city and the rural areas were poorly managed by the government of Honduras.Water supply and sanitation sector providers were caught in a negative cycle characterized by poor performance incentives, insufficient maintenance funding, and a low willingness among the people of Honduras to pay cost-recovery tariffs. All these conditions resulted in squandered financial resources and asset deterioration, which drew further political intervention and magnified the steady decline. Ineffective national and municipal policies, as well as a lack of openness, set the stage for this downward spiral. Local governments found it difficult to properly balance the competing requirements for affordability, extending service to poorer populations, and the sector’s financial sustainability since water was viewed as a politically sensitive subject. Finally, people now have little power to compel utilities to suit their wants and preferences.The government of Honduras requested technical assistance from the World Bank in the year 2004 through a public-private infrastructure advisory facility to prepare a national strategy for the modernization of the water and sanitation sectors, which included developing a policy and action plan to support the decentralization of local water supply and sanitation services. As a result, eight water and sanitation supply utilities, up from four in the year 2008, have achieved 100% cost recovery.Famous Honduran PeopleHonduras had to go through decades of colonization and military coup; it is considered to be one of the poorest countries in Central America. Honduras suffered from years of poverty and poor water and sanitation supply, and yet the people of Honduras stood strong, and many even became famous worldwide for their contributions to different fields of work.In the field of comedy, there is Carlos Mencia, who is a citizen of Honduras and is famous worldwide for his comedy skills. His sitcom, ‘Mind of Mencia’, on Comedy Central, is his most well-known role. In the field of football, there is David Suazo, who was born in the Banana Republic of Honduras and is a retired striker now. In the field of politics, there are Francisco Morazán and Manuel Zelaya. Francisco Morazán served as president of the Federal Republic of Central America. Manuel Zelaya is a Honduras-born politician who served as president. José Zúñiga is another famous Honduras-born personality who is famous in the field of acting. Satcha Pretto is another famous TV personality who is a Honduras-born citizen.Did You Know…Did you know that Honduras faced a bloody war with El Salvador because of the Salvadoran immigrants working in mills and big foreign companies in Honduras? When the economy came into trouble, the government blamed it on the immigrant influx, which led to the bloody war between the two. The war was referred to as the ‘Football War’ as there was some sort of world cup qualifying football game going on between the two countries.Christopher Columbus named the country Honduras (meaning ‘depths’) for the deep water present off the coast.Honduras proclaims independence from Spain in the year 1821 but continues to be a part of Mexico. Honduras became a member of the United Provinces of Central America in the year 1823, along with its border countries. Honduras obtained independence in the year 1840.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Honduras history facts, then why not take a look at Colombia history facts or Costa Rica history facts.
Christopher Columbus first discovered Honduras in the 16th century, and his discovery soon led to the Spanish conquest of Honduras in 1520.
