What is more significant during the 1700s though is that most of the Spanish settlers intermarried with locals, while most of the British settlers maintained separate settlements. Despite laws against owning land or starting governments in the region, most of Belize was controlled by British settlers in the form of land control, trade, and even local governments. These British land owners also began to bring in slaves to work their fields, adding to the region's diversity as an African Kriol culture arose.
In 1833 slavery was abolished by the British government and a large number of slaves in Belize were given freedom. In a way, this shift gave the local Brits more power as many of these freed slaves adopted British tendencies, culture, and language. However, it also struck a terrible blow to British economic dominance. Despite this, many land owners refused to sell their lands to freed slaves or local Spanish-Mayans, maintaining land control in the hands of wealthy Brits.
This tension rose as numerous people settled in the region, leading to a formal British act in 1854, essentially legalizing British control over Belize. Shortly after this Mayan resistance to the British rose as battles between the groups came to a pinnacle, eventually leading to another act in 1872 pushing Mayans and Garifunas (people of African and Carib Indian descent) onto reservations as the British restricted their rights. By these acts, Britain had gained complete control over the territory.
Once control was solidified the country remained dived by language, religion, and ethnicity, however it was the British that maintained most of the wealth and power. These divisions, along with arguments of taxation and the distribution of governmental funds led to direct British rule as the region was made an official British colony in 1871 known as British Honduras.
Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s the British government and government ruling over the colony took more and more power and land in Belize. This shifted power from local landowners to the central government in London. It was also in the early 1900s that most of Belize's logging resources had collapsed as there was little replanting done after the original logging stripped the landscape of its forests. As logging declined the wealthy British landowners lost more power. Just as the ethnic minorities began to shift towards the United States for economic prosperity the United States' stock market crashed and the great depression began in the U.S. as well as in Belize.
Between the great depression and the exploitation of logging laborers, the people began to rebel against British rule. This movement continued throughout the 1930s and 40s, although World War II (WWII) slowed progress and communication efforts. At the conclusion of WWII the fight for independence again gained steam. In 1954 the first vote open to all took place and it was essentially a referendum on gaining independence from Britain. The results were overwhelming as political discussions shifted to full independence.
In the 1960s Britain began negotiations to grant Belize independence, but Guatemala also sought the land so the two groups began negotiating as the local people were left out of discussions. These talks led to decreasing relations between the British and Guatemalans as Belize slowly gained power. In 1973 the name of the country was officially changed from "British Honduras" to Belize.
Despite the name change, Belize wasn't yet free as Guatemala continued to push for Belizean lands. Belize responded with gaining international support until 1980 when the United Nations (UN) supported Belize's independence with its modern day borders, giving the country independence in 1981, without Guatemala's support, until 1992 when the country was finally recognized by Guatemala, although the exact border was still debated.
Since independence, Belize has made great strides forward economically, however not without setbacks and arguments. They have also opened their tourism industry to great lengths, which has become a great source of income for the nation. Relations with Britain have improved as the two are great allies, but the relations with Guatemala continue to be contended as border disputes are unsettled; fortunately these arguments remain diplomatic as no violence has grown from these debates.