Kacike Journal

Peter A. B. Thomson (2005).
Belize: A Concise History.

Oxford: Macmillan Caribbean.

192 pages, 29 illustrations and 7 maps
ISBN 333 77925 8 (paperback)

Reviewed by Joseph O. Palacio

Thomson sets the aim of his volume as an effort to explain two characteristics that strike
an outsider about Belizeans: "tolerance and individualism, not a natural combination, but
one which sits easily enough in Belize" (p. xv). He does not elaborate at the end of the
book whether he succeeded in showing to his reader the genesis of this inner
characteristic of Belizeans. On the other hand, by the end of the book the reader will have
found that Thomson has achieved the objective he sets for himself at the beginning,
namely "to set out a concise and, as far as possible, factual framework of political,
administrative, and economic history..." (p. ix). [1]

Thomson's allusion to the gestalt of Belizeans is in keeping with his laid back style -
maintained throughout the book - of writing a layman's armchair historical essay. Such a
tone gives the book an anti-positivist and even postmodern type of appeal. Indeed, he
adds in the Preface that the book is designed not for the scholar but for the student or
"curious visitor" (p.ix). [2]

In the first part of this review I will show what Thomson has achieved from the book as a
layman's collection of essays. In the other I will argue that the author could have
achieved a more scholarly text with some additional work. [3]

Thomson's main achievement is in reducing a large array of material covering more than
three centuries into sixteen chapters, almost all equal in length, thereby demonstrating a
fairly equitable distribution in his bias. While together the chapters portray a
comprehensive and concise precis of Belizean history, each chapter was designed to be a
stand-alone treatment of a given topic. Furthermore, the author has an easily understood
writing style, although some sentences can become too long and convoluted. [4]

Within the larger context of writings on Belize's history, Thomson's volume can be
recommended as first reading to the student looking for an overall picture. Afterwards,
the student can follow topics in greater detail in other volumes. [5]

For a person, who is a non-historian by profession and whose closest connection to
Belize was to serve as British High Commissioner from 1987 to 1990, Thomson has
accomplished a tremendous contribution to the history of Belize. His work demonstrates
the collection of much primary data mostly from the Colonial Office records at the Public

Records Office in London, and, for two months, at the Belize Archives in Belmopan.
Despite what the author modestly said about the book as not being a "comprehensive
textbook", nor "a re-interpretation of Belizean history", nor "primarily a social study", (p.
ix), he put in a great deal of scholarly effort at data collection, analysis, and synthesis into
easily readable paragraphs and chapters. All this painstaking work certainly elevates the
book from being a collection of layman's essays into a respectable text on the history of
Belize. My primary critique is that with a relatively small amount of additional work and
attention to detail, the work could augment its stature to a highly scholarly text,
notwithstanding the author's modesty. The following are gaps that need more attention.
[6]

A main weakness of the volume is in the use of illustrations and maps. There are no page
references to the photographic illustrations and they were not placed close enough to the
appropriate parts of the text. Besides, there are no cross-references from the text to the
illustrations, leaving them as an appendage. Out of seven maps only three are good
enough to be used - Map A "Modern Caribbean", Map B "Modern Belize", and Map C
"British Honduras in the mid- 19 th century". Map D "Maya Sites in Belize" could have
included many more sites with some help from Belize's Institute of Archaeology. In the
case of Map E "Early British Settlements in Mexico and Central America Shown in
Italics", it is not clear to what time period the map refers and what the sites actually were.
Finally, the name of Map F "Battle of St. George's Cay" is a misnomer. It should be
"Main Cayes used in the Battle of St. George's Caye". [7]

There were some lapses in orthography as well as typographical errors. By the time the
manuscript was written the spelling was no longer Ketchi (p. xiv) but K'ekchi, and has
subsequently become Q'eqchi'. The name of the group of Maya rebels during the Caste
War was not "Chichuanha"' but "Chichenha"' (p. 91). In note 68 on p. 138 there is an
omission of "there". [8]

The author did not follow normal conventions in his use of references. He did not state at
the beginning of the book the meaning of the abbreviations that he would be using in his
"Notes", such as FCO, ABH, BA, etc. He did not warn the reader that he would be
isolating published references at the end of only two chapters, chapters 1 and 14. He cited
other publications in the other chapters which were not similarly identified. Besides, there
was no comprehensive bibliography at the end of the book for the reader to follow for
greater detail. Finally, the index was too sparing given the concise character of the book
and the need to easily identify topics. [9]

He uses scores of notes in each chapter to indicate where he got his data, should the
reader want to go to the source for verification. But notes should also supplement
information, whether published or not. This is the more important in Thomson's
abbreviated text. Several times additional notes would have added a degree of
wholesomeness to a point that the author was making. [10]

There was need for another level of elaboration, namely setting the parameters of the
content within the larger historiography of Belize. As in the case of other smaller

CARICOM states, there have been few published histories of Belize and invariably they
follow the themes of political structure and socio-economy. Thomson's content comes
closest to Narda Dobson's (1973) in terms of the time period and the emphasis on
constitutional evolution from the early colonial era. There is some overlap with Grant
(1976) in the later stages of the decolonization process from 1950 to the 1970. Borland's
encyclopedic work (1977, 1988, and 1997) on social history provides much depth on
topics that Thomson could only briefly mention. Finally, Shoman's (1994) ideological re-
interpretation of Belize's history provides some content where Thomson could only be
sketchy. In not deliberately carving out his own niche at the beginning of his volume by
referring to what had been done earlier, Thomson did himself and the reader a disservice.
He would have been able to promote why there was need for his work, pinpointing the
specific areas that he would be adding to Belize's history. A concluding chapter
summarizing what his main contributions had been would have provided a balance that
the content seriously lacks. [11]

The previous weaknesses have been more in terms of the format and scope of Thomson's
work. I now turn to issues of content. The first chapter is certainly one of the weakest in
the book for he was relying more on secondary sources for a topic, which was not his
forte. My criticism is more at what he did not include in his review. Unfortunately, he fell
into the trap of focusing on the archaeological past of the Maya, while not combining
archaeology with ethnohistory to bring the connection to the Maya of today. There
continues to be more done in this important cross-over period that needs to find its way
into such surveys, see, for example the works of Farris (1984), Graham (1991), Jones
(1982), and Pendergast (1993). [12]

Undoubtedly, the strength of the book is in following the constitutional changes that took
place in the 19 th and 20 th centuries, including the corresponding changes in the judiciary,
legislature, and public administration. The themes that Thomson cleverly infuses into
these three topics include taxation, representativity, and fiscal responsibility. He presents
several scenarios of managing budgetary responsibilities in the 18 th and 19 th centuries
with the Colonial Office in London pursuing minute details over administrative work
done in Belize, an executive arm working with the various demands of the legislature,
and the cries of the masses for increased public services. [13]

The fact that these same topics resonate in today's public administration shows where
knowledge of history prepares one to appreciate the present and the logical frameworks
that still remain pretty much intact even at this time. Thomson started his volume with a
sense of modesty but he was able to marshal a tremendous array of facts that enables
Belizeans to understand how their public affairs have been formed over three centuries.
Such understanding transcends across the borders of Belize to other territories that share
a similar historical formation. [14]

References

Bolland, O. Nigel

1977

The Formation of a Colonial Society: Belize from Conquest to Crown Colony .

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

1988

Colonialism and Resistance in Belize: Essays in Historical Sociology . Belize: Cubola

Press.

1997

Struggles for Freedom: Essays on Slavery, Colonialism, and Culture in the Caribbean

and Central America . Belize: Angelus Press.

Dobson, Narda

1973

A History of Belize . London: Longman Group Ltd.

Farris, Nancy M.

1984

Maya Society under Colonial Rule: The Collective Enterprise of Survival . Princeton:

Princeton University Press.

Graham, Elizabeth

1991

Archaeological Insights into Colonial Period Maya Life at Tipu, Belize. In Columbian
Consequences, Vol. 3 ed. D.H. Thomas, pp. 319-335. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institute Press.

Grant, C.H

1976

The Making of Modern Belize: Politics, Society, and British Colonialism in Central

America . London: Cambridge University Press.

Jones, G.D

1982

Agriculture and Trade in the Colonial Period Southern Maya Lowlands. In Maya
Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston, ed. K.V. Flannery, pp. 275-293.
New York: Academic Press.

Pendergast, David M.

1993

Worlds in Collision: The Maya/Spanish Encounter in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century

in Belize. In Proceedings of the British Academy, pp. 105-143

Reviewer

Dr. Joseph O. Palacio , is an anthropologist and retired Resident Tutor of the University
of the West Indies' college in Belize.

Citation

Please cite this article as follows, or in line with other bibliographic conventions for
citing electronic resources, including paragraph numbers if necessary:

Palacio, Joseph O.. (2005). Review of Peter A. B. Thomson (2005). Belize: A Concise
History. [17 paragraphs] KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and
Anthropology [On-line Journal]. Available at:
http://kacikejournal.wordpress.com/palacioreview [Date of access: Day, Month, Year].

© 2005. Joseph O. Palacio, KACIKE.