Empire on Edge: The British Struggle for Order in Belize during Yucatán's Caste War, 1847–1901

Abstract

The Caste War (1847–1901) of Yucatan stands not only as a long-lasting Indigenous struggle but also as an armed conflict with a significant international dimension, particularly Britain's indirect involvement. Rajeshwari Dutt's fascinating book contributes to the growing scholarship on the Caste War by examining the participation of Belize (then the colony of British Honduras) in this violent confrontation between the Mexican state and groups of Maya insurgents. Through sustained attention to records in Belize, the United Kingdom, and Mexico, Empire on Edge illuminates the intricacies of British imperial rule in the Caribbean and the practical limits of colonial control on the edge of empire during turbulent times. It further shows how the fluid frontier between Mexico and Belize became, in the second half of the nineteenth century, a space of trade and illegal contraband as well as a site of uneasy cultural and racial accommodations.Empire on Edge is a remarkable book, well written and engaging, that might be of interest to specialists in this understudied country and to those interested in the history of colonial governance, borderland conflicts, refugees' culture, and diplomatic relations. Moreover, as the author herself acknowledges, “this book argues for a deeper and more sustained examination of the intersection between British imperial history and Latin American history” (p. 9n10).This book's major innovation is analyzing the paperwork (writings, reports, instructions, and correspondence) of a group of officials, representatives, and bureaucrats to understand the tensions and challenges of imperial rule in a colonial backwater. Dutt uses colonial paperwork not only to reconstruct Belizean efforts to control its northern border with Mexico but as a window into everyday life in this area, particularly for those at the margins of society—“brown, black, indigenous, refugee, laborer, fugitive” (p. 14). However, other important issues beyond territorial control—such as commodity production and foreign companies' involvement in the war—are much less explored by Dutt. We cannot forget that the tensions and struggles in this liminal and marginal zone were the result of both unfinished colonial projects and global capitalist pressures over massive tropical forest resources. The political control of the territory was, therefore, intrinsically linked to the effective governance of logging camps of logwood, chicle, and mahogany. In this regard, the mapping and colonization of the border between Mexico and British Honduras faced severe environmental constraints and technical challenges that would deserve further research. Unfortunately, the vital role of the material conditions in setting frontier dynamics in a heavily forested land is only considered in passing in this book.Empire on Edge is organized into an introduction, six chapters that proceed in chronological order, and a brief conclusion. Chapter 1 traces the intense economic exchanges between Maya groups and Belizean merchants and tradesmen along the disputed Río Hondo during the early years of the war. It shows that despite the brutality and extreme violence that characterized the war early on, borderland business activity and trading were carried out as usual and even intensified. Chapter 2 turns to the analysis of the thousands of war refugees—both Hispanic and Maya—and their settlement in the northern part of Belize between 1853 and 1861. Triggered by the Caste War, Belize increasingly became a multiethnic society characterized by conflicting interests and interethnic alliances. In this new demographic context, race was prominently used—although with limited success—as a tool of social differentiation and control by colonial authorities.Chapters 3–5 move to the strategies deployed by colonial authorities in Belize to control and protect the frontier with Mexico and the relative failure of these strategies over time. In the 1860s and 1870s, despite Belizean desires and attempts to impose order, the border remained an area of kidnappings, Indian raids, illegal trade, and unregulated timber extraction. An essential part of the problem from the very beginning of the war was that the imperial government refused to send ground troops or additional economic resources to Belize. Chapter 6 explores the pacification of Belize's northern frontier during the 1880s and 1890s. By then, the Mexican state has already imposed internal control over its territory in the Yucatan peninsula and British involvement in the Caste War has ended. Finally, the book's conclusion briefly examines the aftermath of the Spencer-Mariscal Treaty signed between Mexico and Britain in 1893.