The Era of Independence
As Spain's former colonies in Central America gained their independence in 1821 and then began a series of wars to determine whether there would be a federalist, unitary union, or each former province would be independent, the potential of any regional power to threaten the Miskito kingdom declined. Miskito Kings renewed their alliance with Great Britain, and Belize replaced Jamaica as the principal English connection for the kingdom. Miskito kings began being crowned in Belize, as was George Frederic Augustus I (1816) and Robert Charles Frederic (1845), and commissions along the lines of those issues in Jamaica continued to be administered.
The Miskito kings also continued to encourage settlement by foreigners in their lands as long as their sovereignty was respected. This included giving ample grants to Garifuna settlers who came from Trujillo and a variety of English merchants. One of the more famous settlement schemes was the Poyais scheme in 1820, in which a land speculator used a grant from the Miskito king to draw settlers to the coast, but left them without the means to manage themselves and the settlement failed. In the 1830s and 40s King Robert Charles Frederic also appointed several small traders, notably William Hodgson, and brothers Peter and Samuel Shepherd as his agents to administer his claims to tribute and taxes from lands as far south as today's Panama.
At the same time, the mahogany trade peaked in Europe, and Belize, a principal supplier of wood had deforested the easier stands of the wood. So the Miskito Kingdom, where there were still mahogany trees, became of interest to Belize based traders and wood cutting companies who obtained, in turn concessions and grants from King Robert Charles Frederic. In 1837 Britain which began to encourage these traders by formally recognizing the Miskito Kingdom, pointedly noted its interest in preventing interference in the kingdom by Central American countries.
Read more about this topic: Mosquito Coast
Famous quotes containing the words era and/or independence:
“It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past.... Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)
“We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.”
—Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755)