The region was inhabited in pre-Columbian times by the Chorotegas and the Maya, in the 11th century. the Toltecs settled there, and then the Aztecs. C. Columbus discovered the town in 1502. C. de Olid founded (1524) the first colony in Triunfo de la Cruz. With the indigenous resistance suppressed (1530), Honduras it was under the jurisdiction first of Mexico and then of Guatemala (1539). In the colonial period there were frictions with England for the settlement on the coast.

According to localcollegeexplorer, the conquest of independence from Spain followed a parallel trend with the other Central American countries. The first riots of Tegucigalpa, in January 1812, followed the adhesion to the declaration of independence in 1821. Annexed to the Mexican Empire in 1822, Honduras broke away from it after the fall of A. de Iturbide in 1823 and became a member of the Federation of the United Provinces of Central America, of which the Honduran F. Morazán was president from 1830 to 1839. Between 1838 and 1840 the Federation became disbanded and Honduras it declared itself an independent and sovereign state, nevertheless becoming a promoter for the whole century of various initiatives aimed at reconstituting the Federation, until 1895, when Honduras, Salvador and Nicaragua united into a single republic, which however dissolved in 1898.

After the First World War, in which Honduras entered in 1917 declaring war on Germany, a federation attempt was repeated with the constitution, between Honduras, Salvador and Guatemala, of the Central American Union, which however failed in 1921. After a period of civil war and various revolutionary governments, in 1932 T. Carías Andino was elected president, who with successive re-elections governed for 17 years. The economic crisis, determined by the decrease in banana crops and the reduction in exports, provoked a revolt in 1937, which was quelled with the help of the army; the same year the dispute with Nicaragua for the tracing of the borders worsened, which began in 1935 and was partially resolved by the intervention of Pan-American organizations.

After participating in World War II alongside the United States, Honduras he joined the United Nations and in 1951 the Organization of Central American States. The political framework, however, remained characterized by great political instability, with an alternation of presidents elected and subsequently deposed by military juntas and coups d’etat. The situation of extreme institutional precariousness worried the US ally, interested in making Honduras a stabilizing element of the political situation that arose in Central America at the end of the 1970s with the revolutionary uprising in Nicaragua and the serious internal crisis in El Salvador. Pressure from the Washington government they then started a partial democratization process that led to the general elections of 1980 for the choice of a constituent assembly. In 1982, the liberal leader R. Suazo Córdova was elected president, coinciding with the entry into force of the new constitutional charter. In foreign policy, the government was close to the United States and supported its support for the anti-Sandinist guerrillas, to the point of generating serious tension with Managua, while the dispute with Salvador relating to the possession of the island of Meanguera remained open.

The administration of nationalist president RL Callejas, elected in 1990, tightened austerity measures in an effort to address the plight of foreign debt; the recovery of international credits was matched by the growth of social protest and the repressive interventions of the army, in particular the peasant unrest linked to the unsolved problem of agrarian reform. The elections of 1993 brought the liberals back to power and CR Reina was elected to the presidency of the Republic. The new administration did not deviate from the previous one in its economic policy choices, but took a series of initiatives aimed at fighting corruption and crime linked to drug trafficking and limiting the power of the armed forces. CR Flores Facussé (1998-2000) continued in the policy of controlling and dismantling the military apparatus. After a coup attempt, in 2001 new elections brought the nationalist R. Maduro to power, under which the historic political-territorial dispute with El Salvador was resolved and the two countries, together with Guatemala and Nicaragua, signed a free trade agreement with the United States. In 2005 the presidential elections were won by the liberal candidate M. Zelaya, who launched new plans to revive the economy and fight petty crime. In 2009 he was overthrown by a military coup and, despite protests from the international community, replaced with R. Micheletti. The subsequent presidential elections were won by Porfirio Lobo, exponent of the National Party, while the presidential consultations held in November 2013 were won by the conservative candidate JO Hernández, who took over from him. A serious political crisis has opened in the country following the presidential elections held in November 2017: although the Constitution prohibits the re-election of a head of state, Hernández was authorized by the Supreme Court to run for a second term, confronting the exponent of the center-left party Alianza de oposición S. Nasralla, which after an initial advantage gained 41.3% of the votes against 42.9% of the opponent. The accusations of fraud made by the opposition and the request for transparency in the electoral process have generated street demonstrations against which the government has adopted severe repressive measures, declaring a state of emergency and imposing a curfew;

GULF OF HONDURAS Vast inlet on the east coast of Central America, which opens onto the Caribbean Sea, between the Yucatán and Honduras. It has low, sandy coasts, fronted by cords and coral islands. Guatemala and Honduras overlook it. The innermost part forms the Bay of Amatique.