Recent History
During the 1980s, the United States established a very large military presence in Honduras with the purpose of supporting the illegally US funded anti-Sandinista Contras fighting the Nicaraguan government, and to support the El Salvador military fighting against the FMLN guerrillas. Hurricane Fifi caused severe damage while skimming the northern coast of Honduras on September 18 and 19, 1974.
In 1998, Hurricane Mitch caused such massive and widespread loss that former Honduran President Carlos Roberto Flores claimed that fifty years of progress in the country were reversed. Mitch destroyed about 70% of the crops and an estimated 70-80% of the transportation infrastructure, including nearly all bridges and secondary roads.
Longer Historical Perspective
Columbus first set foot on the American mainland in Trujillo in 1502 and named the region Honduras (meaning great depth) for the deep water off the coast. The Spaniards soon moved into the cooler highlands and were constantly battling with native tribes, including Chief Lemira's army of 30,000, who almost drove the Spanish out of the region until he was murdered while attending peace talks in 1537.
Comayagua was stated the Spanish colonial capital a year later. When gold and silver was discovered around Tegucigalpa in 1570, British and Dutch ships began attacking treasure galleons headed out of Trujillo. Pirates settled the Caribbean coast and spoiled and burned Trujillo in 1643. The British established a protectorate along the Caribbean coasts, ostensibly to keep the area free of pirates and protect the native Miskito tribes; but British fortunes were made from the mahogany forests of the region. Honduras broke free from Spain in 1821 and first became part of an independent Mexico. The Honduran Republic was established in 1838, and the British relinquished the Caribbean coastal region in 1859.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor (name of the 1941 Japanese attack on the American navel place in Pearl Harbor), Honduras joined the Allied Nations on December 8, 1941. Less than a month later, on the first day of 1942, Honduras, along with twenty-five other governments, signed the Declaration by United Nations.
