For thousands of years, indigenous peoples lived in Honduras. The greatest of them were the Mayans. However, the first European to reach Honduras was Christopher Columbus on 30 July 1502. Columbus later sailed as far south as Panama. The area became known as Honduras from the Spanish word for depths. The Spanish conquest of Honduras began in 1523. The native people resisted bitterly but by 1539 the Spanish were in control.
Ninety percent of Hondurans are mestizo (a mixture of Spanish and Indian), 6 percent are Indian, and more than 2 percent are of African descent. Of these many are Black Caribs, who are of both Indian and black stock. The country, which already had one of the lowest per capita incomes in Central America, was decimated in 1998 by Hurricane Mitch, probably its biggest natural disaster ever.
Having been the site of such a historic landing, the Honduran Caribbean coast was all but ignored by explorers for the next twenty years, who focused instead on Mexico, Panama and the Caribbean islands. Hernán Cortés' expedition into the Aztec heartland, however, revived interest in Central America. On September 15, 1821, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua declared independence from Spain, and shortly thereafter joined the newly formed Mexican Empire.
The banner of Honduras was embraced on February 16, 1866. The blue and white and the five stars speak of the United Provinces of Central America after they picked up their independence from Spain.
The flag of Honduras is based on the flag of the Federal Republic of Central America, which uses a pale shade of blue for the outer bands, and the federation's seal in the center. After the federation dissolved around 1838, Honduras kept the union's flag, adopting it as its own, adding the five stars in hopes the nations could be united again, and reflecting their shared history.
The banner of Honduras has contained three equivalent estimated flat groups, with blue on the top and base and white in the middle. On the center band are five stars, framing an H in the middle, two stacked together on the right and left, and one in the center. The blue stripes symbolize the waters bordering Honduras: the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The white symbolizes peace and flourishing while the five stars speak of the countries of the previous Federal Republic of Central America, which included El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala.
Ninety percent of Hondurans are mestizo (a mixture of Spanish and Indian), 6 percent are Indian, and more than 2 percent are of African descent. Of these many are Black Caribs, who are of both Indian and black stock. The country, which already had one of the lowest per capita incomes in Central America, was decimated in 1998 by Hurricane Mitch, probably its biggest natural disaster ever.
Having been the site of such a historic landing, the Honduran Caribbean coast was all but ignored by explorers for the next twenty years, who focused instead on Mexico, Panama and the Caribbean islands. Hernán Cortés' expedition into the Aztec heartland, however, revived interest in Central America. On September 15, 1821, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Nicaragua declared independence from Spain, and shortly thereafter joined the newly formed Mexican Empire.
The banner of Honduras was embraced on February 16, 1866. The blue and white and the five stars speak of the United Provinces of Central America after they picked up their independence from Spain.
The flag of Honduras is based on the flag of the Federal Republic of Central America, which uses a pale shade of blue for the outer bands, and the federation's seal in the center. After the federation dissolved around 1838, Honduras kept the union's flag, adopting it as its own, adding the five stars in hopes the nations could be united again, and reflecting their shared history.
The banner of Honduras has contained three equivalent estimated flat groups, with blue on the top and base and white in the middle. On the center band are five stars, framing an H in the middle, two stacked together on the right and left, and one in the center. The blue stripes symbolize the waters bordering Honduras: the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The white symbolizes peace and flourishing while the five stars speak of the countries of the previous Federal Republic of Central America, which included El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala.
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