British Honduras: The invention of a colonial territory. Mapping and spatial knowledge in the 19th century

International audienceUntil the 17th century, the area currently occupied by Belize appeared in maps as a portion of space in the American world with no particular attribute other than being at the confines of a territory poorly known to Europeans, some of whom stopped there without making any political or social commitment, before the area became coveted, delimited and negotiated between empires. In the 18th century it was integrated into a colonial structure as a territory to be controlled and administered by Great Britain in the 19th century. The purpose of this monograph is not to retrace the genesis of a nation, but more modestly, to recount the invention of a colonial territory. No territory exists on its own; only social, political, symbolic and emotional constructions grant it substance and reality. Through descriptions, narratives and maps, this monograph brings the territory into existence and displays the articulation between the collective imaginaries, the subjectivities, and the spatial practices of the social and political actors– political authorities, residents, cartographers–who interacted in the territorial construction of Belize