Belize, formerly called British Honduras, is a thinly populated Atlantic rainforest, bordering Mexico in the northwest and Guatemala in the west. In the colonial era, the Spanish and the British had dispute over the land, however British had the upper hand. Since 1798, British made Belize their colony though Spain and Guatemala did not accept it and because of ill-defined borders, Guatemala attempted to annex Belize. In 1840, the English Law was declared to be valid in Belize. It gained strategic importance because of the possibility of canal through the isthmus. In 1850, Britain and US signed a treaty according to which Britain agreed not to colonize any more of the Central American land. In 1854, Belize was granted a constitution, which brought about the establishment of Legislative Assembly. It was granted the status of colony in 1862 and from 1862 to 1884, it was administered from Jamaica. In 1871, it was declared a Crown Colony. As Belize moved towards independence, the tension between Britain and Guatemala grew because Guatemala had long been claiming the territory as part of its inheritance from Spain. In 1964, it gained complete internal self-governance and in 1981 Belize achieved independence. Guatemala threatened war against Belize. However, relations improved and Guatemala officially accepted Belize?s independence and sovereignty in September 1991. The poorly defined border between Guatemala and Belize continued to create tension. In 2000, under the sponsorship of the Organization of the American States, Belize and Guatemala began negotiations to end their territorial dispute, and in 2002 they reached agreement on a draft settlement, which must be approved by national referendums. Sources: http://www.belizenet.com/history/toc.html http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/belize_history.asp Map source: http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/travel/dg/maps/d6/750x750_belize_m.gif