Belizeball

Belizeball, officially the Dominion of Belize, Jamaica and Guyanaball, is a sovereign state and dictatorship in Central America with colonies located in the Caribbean, South America and southwest Europe. He is made up of four combined    countryballs and his territories are divided in 3; Mainland, Overseas States and Colonies. The mainland has a total area of 164,702.2 km2 (56,647.8 sq mi) and a population of 2,570,430 permanent inhabitants (1988 Belizean census), the overseas states have an area of 225,990 km2 (87,255.2 sq mi) and a population of 3,140,050 permanent inhabitants (1988 Belizean Census) and its colonies have a combined area of 13.305 km2 (5.13 sq mi) and a population of 31,050 permanent inhabitants. The total result is 5,741,530 people living in Belize’s territory.

Belizeball wishes to restore the old British Empire by proclaiming himself the “heir of the old Britannia” and colonizing old lands of its former empire like  and  Gibraltar, only controlling the trade of the latter along with Savoyball. He has been gaining population from people defecting Greater Britanniaball and has rescued families of British descent from the war in South Africa.

Early history (2000 BC-IX century)
The Maya lived in the area now known as  Belize for centuries before the arrival of  Europeans, as manifested by more than a dozen major ruins such as La Milpa, Xunantunich, Altun Ha, and Caracol. The Spanish penetrated the area in the 16th and 17th centuries and tried to convert the  Maya to  Christianity, but with little success. The Maya population had begun to decline long before the  Spaniards arrived, and the remaining  Maya lived in politically decentralized societies. Although the Maya did not have the resources to defeat the  Spaniards, they could not be decisively beaten.

British buccaneers and logwood cutters settled on the inhospitable coast in the mid-17th century. Spain regarded the British as interlopers in their territory. By treaties signed in 1763 and 1783, Spain granted  British subjects the privilege of exploiting logwood and, after 1786, the more valuable mahogany, though only within specified and poorly surveyed territories. Indeed, Spain retained sovereignty over the area, which  Britain called a settlement, as distinct from a formal colony. The Spanish also prohibited the settlers from establishing a formal government structure, so the  British conducted their affairs through public meetings and elected magistrates. However, superintendents, appointed by the British government after 1786, slowly established their executive authority at the expense of the settlers’ oligarchy. In 1798 the British overcame  Spain’s final attempt to remove them by force, and  Belize became a colony in all but name. The British government instructed the superintendent to assume authority over the granting of land in 1817, and he assumed the power to appoint magistrates in 1832. In 1854 a constitution formally created a Legislative Assembly of 18 members, who were elected by a limited franchise, and the next year the Laws in Force Act validated the settlers’ land titles.

Tale of a butthurt Guatemaltecuck (IX century-1950)
Guatemala challenged the British occupation on the grounds that it had inherited Spanish interests in the area, and from time to time  Mexico also asserted a claim to part of  Belize. Great Britain and Guatemala appeared to have settled their differences in 1859 by a treaty that defined boundaries for  Belize. The final article of the treaty, however, bound both parties to establish “the easiest communication” between Guatemala and Belize. (Conflict between Guatemala and Belize over land boundaries would persist into the 20th century; the dispute became intractable after 1940 when Guatemala declared that the treaty was null and void because such communication had never been developed.)

Belize became the British colony of British Honduras in 1862—which was ruled by a governor who was subordinate to the governor of  Jamaica—and a crown colony in 1871, when the Legislative Assembly was abolished. British Honduras remained subordinate to Jamaica until 1884, when it acquired a separate colonial administration under an appointed governor.

The British settlers, who called themselves Baymen, began importing  African slaves in the early 18th century to cut logwood and then mahogany. Although the conditions and organization of labour in timber extraction were different from those on plantations, the system was still cruel and oppressive. There were four slave revolts in Belize, and hundreds of slaves took advantage of the terrain and the freedom offered over the frontiers to escape.

Trade with Spain’s colonies in Central America flourished, even after those colonies attained independence in the 1820s; however, the development of plantations in  Belize was forbidden by the treaties with  Spain. After emancipation in 1838, the former slaves remained tied to the logging operations by a system of wage advances and company stores that induced indebtedness and dependency. When the old economy, based on forest products and the transit trade, declined in the mid-19th century, these freedmen remained impoverished.

Beginning in the early 19th century, a mixed population of Carib Indians and  Africans exiled from  British colonies in the eastern Caribbean (formerly called Black Caribs, now referred to as Garifuna) settled on the southern coast of  Belize. The Caste War, an indigenous uprising in the Yucatán that began in 1847, resulted in several thousand  Spanish-speaking refugees’ settling in northern  Belize, while  Mayan communities were reestablished in the north and west. These immigrants introduced a variety of agricultural developments, including traditional subsistence farming and the beginning of sugar, banana, and citrus production. In the 1860s and ’70s the owners of sugar estates sponsored the immigration of several hundred Chinese and  South Asian labourers. In the late 19th century Mopán and Kekchí Maya, fleeing from oppression in  Guatemala, established largely self-sufficient communities in southern and western  Belize.

By the early 20th century the ethnic mixture of the area had been established, the economy was stagnant, and crown colony government precluded any democratic participation. In the 1930s the economy was hit by the worldwide Great Depression, and Belize City was largely destroyed by a hurricane in 1931. A series of strikes and demonstrations by labourers and the unemployed gave rise to a trade union movement and to demands for democratization. The right to vote for the Legislative Assembly was reintroduced in 1936, but property, literacy, and gender qualifications severely limited the franchise. When the governor used his reserve powers to devalue the currency at the end of 1949, leaders of the trade union and the Creole middle class formed a People’s Committee to demand constitutional changes. The People’s United Party (PUP) emerged from the committee in 1950 and led the independence movement. The PUP would be the dominant political party for the next 30 years.

Independence, rule under the PUP and the centies  (1950-1981)
This is the point of divergence away from OTL.

The National Party of Belize (NP) was a political party established mainly to fight the anti-colonialist movement propagated by the  People’s United Party (PUP). The Party was established on August 21, 1951 with the objective of:
 * to secure and extend the liberties, project the interests and develop the national life and prosperity of the people of Belize by all constitutional means;
 * work for the political, economic, social and cultural progress of the country;
 * develop the political life of the citizenry by shaping public opinion in party meetings and literature;
 * identify and support suitable members for elections;
 * secure the development of a planned policy for social and economic future of Belize.

Despite these ideals, the party more often acted against any change, because it consisted of persons who were against the type of radical development proposed by the PUP (which was formed a year earlier).

A convention held by the People's United Party on September 27, 1956 settled a long political dispute that had hindered the party's development for some time. 10 members of the Central executive of the PUP, led by Leigh Richardson and Phillip Goldson, resigned and vowed to form their own political party which absorbed itself into the NP just days later.

There was an internal political cold war between the NP faction and the  PUP faction called The Centies, lasting throughout the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s. The NP claimed the  PUP were “communists in disguise” while the PUP claimed the NP were “a bunch of self-haters that throw a chair at innocent people as a coping mechanism”. Belize evolved through several stages of decolonization, from universal adult suffrage in 1954 to a new constitution and internal self-government in 1964, when George Price, a middle-class Roman Catholic intellectual of mixed Creole and mestizo ancestry, became premier. (Price became leader of the PUP in 1954.) Unrelenting  Guatemalanhostility, however, impeded independence. Seats in both congress and parliament were split between pro-PUP representatives and  pro-NO representatives which oftenly triggered arguments in parliament. UKball always tried to calm things down failed to do so for the most part.

Both parties were rapidly gaining equivalent amounts of popularity overnight, but “there’s always going to be a single winner”. The PUP ended up becoming the governing-party of  British Belize in 1973, who then governed the crown colony until 1981. The National Party was outraged and its sympathizers started general strikes and protests claiming there was “electoral fraud”. During the 1970s, Belize, under the  PUP, took its case for self-determination to the international community, appealing to the  United Nations and joining the Nonaligned Movement. Although the dispute between Guatemala and  Great Britain was left unsolved,  Belize was set for full sovereignty as a nation, the long-awaited day would arrive at September 21, 1981, with a  British defense guarantee and an addition to the  UN.

Bloody Hell Ben, It’s All Gone Now! (1981-1984)
Dawn of a new world. The clock hits 12:00 AM GMT -5, everything changed... Belize fell right into  Anarchy but was successfully defended by loyalists who enforced the status-quo and the law of the former  crown colony. However through the course of the year, they split once against into PUP and  NP on a race to who will bring back their country back from the ashes. This would not last long though...

Guatemalaball was reborn, claiming Chiapas and  Belize right away. He heavily oppressed natives and also  Britons. Maaya Chak started a civil war in Guatemalaball right away.

Bloody February (1983)
Meanwhile im Belmopan, the Britannian Society of Belize was founded and immediately took control of  Belize on the war. Shortly after, the Black River Association was founded with ideas heavily similar to the  NP’s, and plotted to overthrow the  Britannian rule over Belize. The BRA secretly aligned with the  First Britannian-Belizean Division and they stormed Belmopan together which occurred after soldiers began attacking them. The National Assembly Building of Belize was bombed in the Battle of Belmopan. Taking advantage of the situation, the Maaya Chak sent troops into Belize as the BSB ordered nearly all of their troops to go to Belize City. The leader of the BSB was delivering a speech to the Belizean public in live telly when the  First Britannian-Belizean Division suddenly hijacked telly and made the following speech:


 * Citizens! The Britannian Society of Belize has no regard for the common person! They simply wish to please their masters in London. We, as well as the Black River Association, however, will make the common man prosper! Join us in our war against the traitors!

The Maaya Chak took advantage of the Belizean coup again and captured western land in Belize. They conducted massacres, most notably in the town of San Ignacio. People were either killed or forced into the countryside.

Mass migrations took place from Belize to other areas, included but not limited to Yucatan, Honduras, Jamaica, Veracruz, and some have went as far as to fight for other sides of the Guatemalan Civil War. Although it’s mostly soldiers, some civilians decided that the only way to gain freedom is to fight against the tyrants. As such, they’ve joined some factions of the civil war, mostly TLF. The Vice President of the Britannian Society of Belize, sheltered in Jamaica at the time, ordered the group to be disbanded entirely saying that the Tabasco Liberation Front would be able to avenge the fallen soldiers of Belize.