The Mosquito Coast (also known as Mosquitia or Mosquito Shore) is an area along the coast of present-day eastern Nicaragua and southeastern Honduras. It was named after the local Miskito Nation and was long dominated by British interests and known as the Mosquito Kingdom or Moskito Kingdom.

From 1860 suzerainty of the area was transferred to Nicaragua with the name Mosquito Reserve. In November 1894 the Mosquito Coast was militarily incorporated into Nicaragua. However, in 1960, the northern part was granted to Honduras by the International Court of Justice.

Because the Mosquito Coast was generally defined as the domain of the Miskito Kingdom, it expanded or contracted with that domain. During the 19th century, the question of the kingdom's borders was a serious issue of international diplomacy among Britain, the United States, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Conflicting claims regarding both the kingdom's extent and arguable existence were pursued in diplomatic exchanges. The British and Miskitu definition applied to the whole eastern seaboard of Nicaragua and even to La Mosquitia in Honduras: i.e., the coast region as far west as the Río Negro or Tinto.

History

Before the arrival of Europeans in the region, the area was divided into a large number of small, egalitarian groups, possibly speaking languages related to Sumu and Paya. Columbus visited the coast briefly in his fourth voyage. Detailed Spanish accounts of the region, however, relate only to the late 16th and early 17th centuries. According to their understanding of the geography, the region was divided between two "Provinces" Taguzgalpa and Tologalpa. Lists of "nations" recorded by Spanish missionaries include as many as 30 names. Careful analysis of them by Karl Offen suggests that many were duplicated. He concluded that the regional geography included about a half dozen entities speaking related but distinct dialects and occupying the various river basins of the region.

Attempted Spanish settlement

thumb|upright=1.5|Political map of the Caribbean around 1600.

Spanish authorities issued various licenses to conquer Taguzgalpa and Tologalpa in 1545, 1562, 1577, and 1594, but no evidence suggests that any of these licenses resulted in even brief settlements or conquests. The Spanish were unable to conquer this region during the 16th century. In the 17th century, they sought to "reduce" the region through missionary efforts. These included several attempts by Franciscans between 1604 and 1612; another one led by Fray Cristóbal Martinez in 1622, and a third one between 1667 and 1675. None of these efforts resulted in any lasting success.

Because the Spanish failed to have significant influence in the region, it remained independent of outside control. This allowed the native peoples to continue their traditional way of life and to receive visitors from other regions. English and Dutch privateers who preyed on Spanish ships soon found refuge in the Mosquito Coast.

British contact and recognition of the Mosquito Kingdom

Although the earliest accounts do not mention it, a political entity of uncertain organization, but probably not very stratified, which the English called the "Mosquito Kingdom", was present on the coast in the early seventeenth century. One of its kings visited England around 1638 at the behest of the Providence Island Company and sealed an alliance.

In subsequent years, the kingdom stood strongly against any Spanish incursions and was prepared to offer sanctuary to any anti-Spanish groups that might come to their shores. At the very least English and French privateers and pirates did visit there, taking in water and food. A detailed account of the kingdom written by a buccaneer known only as M. W. describes its organization as being fundamentally egalitarian, with the king and some officials (usually called "Captains" in that period but later being more elaborate) being primarily military leaders, but only in wartime.

Early British alliance

The first British contacts with the Mosquito region started around 1630, when the agents of the English chartered Providence Island Company—of which the Earl of Warwick was chairman and John Pym treasurer—occupied two small cays and established friendly relations with the local inhabitants. Providence Island, the company's main base and settlement, entered into regular correspondence with the coast during the decade of company occupation, 1631–1641.

The Providence Island Company sponsored the Miskito's "King's Son" visit to England during the reign of Charles I (1625–1649). When his father died, this son returned home and placed his country under English protection.

Following the capture of Providence Island by Spain in 1641, England lacked a base close to the coast. However, shortly after the English captured Jamaica in 1655, they recommenced relations with the coast, and Oldman went to visit England. According to the testimony of his son Jeremy, taken around 1699, he was received in audience by "his brother king", Charles II, and was given a "lac'd hat" and a commission "to kindly use and relieve such straggling Englishmen as should chance to come that way".

Emergence of the Mosquitos Zambos (Miskito Sambu)

thumb|200px|The Coco River in the northern limit of the Mosquito Coast

While accounts vary, the Miskito Sambu appear to be descended from the survivors of a shipwrecked slave ship who reached this area in the mid-seventeenth century. These survivors intermarried with the local Miskito people, thereby creating a mixed-race group. They gradually adopted the language and much of the culture of their hosts. The Miskito Sambu settled near the Coco River (Wangki). By the late 17th century, their leader held the office of general with jurisdiction over the northern portions of the Mosquito Kingdom. In the early eighteenth century, they managed to take over the office of King, which they held for at least the rest of the century.

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Miskitos Zambos began a series of raids that attacked Spanish-held territories and independent Indian polities. Miskito raiders reached as far north as the Yucatán, and as far south as Costa Rica. They sold many of the captives they took as slaves to English or other British merchants; the slaves were transported to Jamaica to work on sugar plantations. Through such raiding, the Zambo gained a more dominant position, and the king's domain was inhabited primarily by Zambos. They also assisted the government of Jamaica in hunting down Maroons in the 1720s.

Sociopolitical system

Although English accounts referred to the area as a "kingdom", it was relatively loosely organized. A description of the kingdom, written in 1699, notes that it occupied discontinuous areas along the coast. It probably did not include a number of settlements of English traders. Although English accounts refer as well to various noble titles, Miskito social structure does not appear to have been particularly stratified. The 1699 description noted that people holding titles such as "king" and "governor" were only empowered as war leaders, and did not have the last word in judicial disputes. Otherwise, the author saw the population as living in an egalitarian state.

M. W. mentioned titled officers in his account of 1699, but later sources define these superior offices to include the king, a governor, and a general. In the early 18th century, the Miskito kingdom became organized into four distinct clusters of population, centered on the banks of the navigable rivers. They were integrated into a single loosely structured political entity. The northern portions were dominated by Sambus and the southern ones by Tawira Miskitos. The king, whose domain lay from the Coco River south to the Rio Kukalaya, including the king's residence near Sandy Bay, was a Sambu, as was the general, who ruled the northern portions of the kingdom, from the Coco River to nearly Trujillo. The Governor, who was a Tawira, controlled the southern regions, from the Cucalaya River to Pearl Lagoon.

After 1766, another title, Admiral, was recorded; this man was also a Tawira, controlling a region on the extreme south from Pearl Key Lagoon down to around Bluefields.

British settlement

The Miskito king Edward I and the British concluded a formal Treaty of Friendship and Alliance in 1740. The British appointed Robert Hodgson, Senior as Superintendent of the Shore. The language of the treaty includes what amounts to a surrender of sovereignty by the Miskito. British historians often interpreted this as an indication that a British protectorate was established over the Mosquito Kingdom.

Britain's primary motive and the most immediate result of the treaty was to secure an alliance between the Miskito and British for the War of Jenkins' Ear. The two groups cooperated in attacks on Spanish settlements during the war. The most notable was the Raid on Matina in August by 1747; the main Spanish fort (Fuerte de San Fernando de Matina) was captured and the cacao rich area was subsequently ravaged. This military cooperation would prove important as Miskito forces were vital to protecting not only British interests in the Mosquito Kingdom but also for British holdings in British Honduras (now Belize).

A more lasting result of this formal relation was that Edward I and his successors allowed the British to establish settlements and plantations within his realm; he issued the first land grants to this effect in 1742. British settlement concentrated especially in the Black River area, Cape Gracias a Dios, and Bluefields. The British plantation owners used their estates to grow some export crops and as bases for the exploitation of timber resources, especially mahogany. Most of the labor on the estates was supplied by African or Indian slaves captured in Miskito and British raids into Spanish territory. By 1786, there were several hundred British residents on the shore and several thousand slaves, mostly African.

The Miskito kings received regular gifts from the British in the form of weapons and consumer goods. They provided security against slave revolts and aided in capturing runaways.

British evacuation

Spain, which claimed the territory, suffered considerably from the Miskito attacks which continued during peacetime. When the American Revolutionary War broke out, Spanish forces attempted to eliminate the British presence, seizing the settlement at Black River, and driving British settlers from the isle of Roatán. But this effort ultimately failed when armed settlers led by the Anglo-Irish soldier Edward Despard retook the settlements.

Although Spain had been unable to drive the British from the coast or occupy any position, in the course of the diplomatic negotiations following the American war of independence, Britain made concessions to Spain in this area.

Although Spain had been unable to drive the British from the coast or occupy any position, in the course of the diplomatic negotiations following the war, Britain found itself making concessions to Spain. In the 1786 Convention of London, Britain agreed to evacuate British settlers and their slaves from the Mosquito Coast to their as yet informal colony in what was to become British Honduras. Later treaties with Spain recognized Britain's commercial rights, but never its territorial rights in the region. Some of the settlers and their slaves remained after they swore loyalty to the King of Spain, especially in Bluefields.

Spanish interlude

Government reorganization and Spanish settlement

The Mosquito Coast was initially annexed (or from the Spanish point of view, re-annexed) to the Captaincy General of Guatemala. Since the beginning, however, poor land communication with Guatemala City made easier for the Miskito elites to sail to Cartagena de Indias and swear fealty to Spain before the Viceroy of New Granada instead. Viceroy Francisco Gil de Taboada even suggested that government over the Mosquito Coast should be transferred to Havana, Cuba, mirroring the long-standing relation that the Mosquito Kingdom had earlier with British Jamaica, but this idea was rejected by the Spanish Crown. Guatemala protested the perceived unruliness of the Spanish-appointed governor at Bluefields, who was none other but a former British Superintendent of the Mosquito Coast who had sworn recent fealty to Spain, Robert Hodgson Jr., but his loyalty and good work were defended by the New Granadan Viceroy José Manuel de Ezpeleta, who succeeded Taboada in 1789 and considered that Hodgson's influence among the Miskito was vital to avoid a revolt. Hodgson Jr. was the son of Robert Hodgson Sr., the first British appointed Superintendent in 1749–1759, and he had occupied himself this post from 1767 to 1775, when his political enemies persuaded Lord George Germain to replace him with James Lawrie, the last British Superintendent before the evacuation and a declared adversary of Hodgson.

Miskito revolt

The new colony suffered setbacks as a result of many of the settlers dying en route and the Miskito Crown showing its dissatisfaction with the gifts offered by the Spanish. The Miskito resumed trade with Jamaica and, when news of another Anglo-Spanish War arrived in 1797, George II raised an army to attack Bluefields, deposed Hodgson, and drove the Spanish out of the kingdom on 4 September 1800. However, the king died suddenly in 1801. According to British George Henderson, who visited the Mosquito Coast in 1804, many in the kingdom believed that George II had been poisoned by his brother Stephen as part of a deal with the Spanish. In order to prevent Stephen from seizing power for himself, General Robinson spirited George II's young heir George Frederic Augustus I to Jamaica by way of Belize and established a regency in his name.

With Spanish power over the Mosquito Coast vanished and British influence rapidly returning, the Captaincy General of Guatemala sought full control of the shore from Spain. The Colombian Ricardo S. Pereira, writing in 1883, considered this act a miscalculation on the part of the Real Audiencia of Guatemala, and if they had simply raised an army and marched on the Mosquito Coast, nobody would have questioned that the area was part of the Captaincy General once Spanish power was fully restored. Instead, the Spanish government heeded the old advice espoused by Gil de Taboada and Ezpeleta, and rejected Guatemala's request on 30 November 1803, reaffirming the control of the Viceroyalty of New Granada over the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (used by New Granadan coast guards as a base against British privateers, often coming from the Mosquito Coast itself), and transferring sovereignty of the Mosquito Coast over to New Granada and considering the area a dependency of San Andrés. While Spanish rule was never restored over the Mosquito Coast (instead, the British occupied the Archipelago itself in 1806 during the course of the war against Spain), the Royal Decree of 1803 became the reason for territorial disputes between the United Provinces of Central America and Gran Colombia after Latin American independence, and between Nicaragua and Colombia for the rest of the 19th century.

Meanwhile, George II's brother Stephen made some overtures to Spain, who reciprocated by calling Stephen king and giving him the traditional gifts (albeit less frequently than to George II), His coronation in Belize on 16 January 1816, in a deliberate move to secure British support, marked the end of the regency. Meanwhile, Spain lost rule over New Granada in 1819 and over Central America in 1821, when the First Mexican Empire was proclaimed.

Renewed British presence

As internecine conflicts seized both Gran Colombia and Central America post-independence, the potential of any regional power to threaten the Miskito kingdom declined. Miskito Kings renewed their alliance with Great Britain, which in 1801 had merged with Ireland to form the United Kingdom, and Belize replaced Jamaica as the principal British connection to the kingdom. George Frederic Augustus I's 1816 coronation in Belize was imitated by his successor Robert Charles Frederic in 1845.

Economic expansion

thumb|A panoramic view of Black River in the (fictional) Territory of Poyais

thumb|Fort Wellington on the Black River (Engraving showing Fort Wellington (Poyais) on the Black River, Mosquito Coast, mid 1840s.)

The Miskito kings admitted foreign settlers as long as their sovereignty was respected, an opportunity that was seized by British merchants and Garifuna people from Trujillo, Honduras. Between 1820 and 1837 the Scottish con man Gregor MacGregor pretended to have been named "Cacique of Poyais" by George Frederic Augustus I and sold forged land rights to eager settlers and investors in Britain and France. Most settlers suffered from the lack of infrastructure and died from tropical diseases, MacGregor having led them to believe that the area was already developed and just in need of skilled workers. In the 1830s and 40s King Robert Charles Frederic also appointed 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 Panama.

thumb|upright=1.35|Dwellings in Bluefields in 1845

At the same time, the mahogany trade peaked in Europe, but the supply in Belize, a main exporter, was becoming scarce. The Miskito Kingdom became an alternative source to Belize-based traders and wood cutting companies, who acquired concessions and land grants from Robert Charles Frederic. In 1837, Britain formally recognized the Mosquito Kingdom as an independent state, and took diplomatic measures to prevent the new nations that left the imploding Federal Republic of Central America in 1838–1841 from interfering with the kingdom.

The expansion of the economy attracted and benefitted from the arrival of capital from the United States, and immigrants from the States, the West Indies, Europe, Syria and China.

The United States assumed that this meant the immediate British evacuation of the Mosquito Coast, while the British argued that it only bound them to not expand further in Central America and that both the 1844 protectorate and the 1848 peace treaty were still valid. On 21 November, the American steamer Prometheus was fired upon by a British warship for not paying port tariffs at Greytown. One of the passengers was Cornelius Vanderbilt, business magnate and one of the richest people in the United States. The British government apologized after the United States sent two armed sloops to the area.

Treaty of Managua

Britain and Nicaragua signed the Treaty of Managua on 28 January 1860, which transferred suzerainty over the Caribbean coast between Cabo Gracias a Dios and Greytown to Nicaragua. Attempts to decide the sovereignty over the northern bank of the Wanks/Coco River which cuts Cabo Gracias a Dios in half, began in 1869, but would not be settled until ninety-one years later when the International Court of Justice decided in favor of Honduras.

The 1860 treaty also recognized that the Mosquito Kingdom, now reduced to the territory around Bluefields, would become an autonomous Miskito reserve, usually called Mosquito Reservation or Mosquito Reserve. The municipal constitution of the reserve, signed on 13 September 1861, confirmed George Augustus Frederic II as ruler of the territory and its inhabitants, but only as hereditary chief and not king, a title that, along those of general, admiral and governor, was abolished; and that the hereditary chief would be advised by a council of 41 members elected for a period of eight years. The composition of this council was not limited to Miskito: instead, the first council included a number of Moravian missionaries and its first session started with a Moravian prayer. In compensation for his losses, George Augustus Frederic II would be paid £1000 yearly and until 1870 by the Nicaraguan government.

  • Sovereignty over the Mosquito Coast belonged to Nicaragua, but it was largely limited by the autonomy of the Miskito, as recognized in the 1860 treaty.
  • Nicaragua had the right to fly its flag in any part of the Mosquito Coast.
  • Nicaragua could maintain a Commissioner on the Mosquito Coast to defend her national interests.
  • The Miskito could also fly their own flag on the Mosquito Coast, so long as said flag included some sign of Nicaraguan suzerainty. A compromise was reached by using the flag used during the British protectorate (designed by Patrick Walker), but to little avail. The situation was such that, from 6 July to 7 August, the US occupied Bluefields to 'protect US interests'. After enjoying almost complete autonomy for fourteen years, on 20 November 1894 their territory formally became incorporated into that of the republic of Nicaragua by President José Santos Zelaya. The former Mosquito Coast was established as the Nicaraguan department of Zelaya. During the 1980s, the department was dissolved and substituted by the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) and South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS), autonomous regions with a certain degree of self-government. Those regions were renamed the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (RACCN) and the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (RACCS) in 2014.

Miskito under Nicaragua

The Miskito continued to enjoy a certain autonomy under Nicaragua, though there was considerable tension between the claims of the government and those of the Indians. This tension was expressed openly during Sandinista rule, which sought greater state control. The Miskito strongly supported U.S. efforts to undermine the Sandinistas and were important allies of the Contras.

Miskito separatism

Miskito dissidents declared the independence of the unrecognized Communitarian Nation of Moskitia in 2009. The movement is led by Reverend Hector Williams, who was elected as "Wihta Tara" (Great Judge) of Moskitia by the Council of Elders, its governing body composed of traditional leaders from within the Miskito community. The council advocates for independence and has considered a referendum, seeking international recognition. It also addresses the needs of the impoverished Moskitian communities, such as drug addiction among youth as the coast is slowly gaining influence as a corridor for drug trafficking.

The movement was backed by a 400-man "indigenous army" made up of veterans of the Contras, which captured the YAMATA party headquarters in 2009.

Miskito leaders

  • c. 1650–c. 1687 Oldman
  • c. 1687–1718 Jeremy I
  • 1718–1729 Jeremy II
  • 1729–1755 Edward I
  • 1755–1776 George I
  • 1776–1800 George II Frederic
  • 1800–1824 George Frederic Augustus I
  • 1824–1841 Robert Charles Frederic
  • 1841–1865 George Augustus Frederic II
  • 1865–1879 William Henry Clarence
  • 1879–1888 George William Albert Hendy
  • 1888–1889 Andrew Hendy
  • 1889–1890 Jonathan Charles Frederick
  • 1890–1894 Robert Henry Clarence

Inhabitants

The Mosquito Coast was a sparsely populated territory.

Today, what used to be the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua has a population of 400,000, consisting of 57% Miskito, 22% Creoles (Afro-Europeans), 15% Ladinos, 4% Sumu (Amerindian), 1% Garifuna (Afro-Indians), 0.5% Chinese and 0.5% Rama (Amerindian).

Religion

Anglicanism and the Moravian Church gained a significant following in the Mosquito Coast.

Early history of the Mosquito Coast also saw minor involvement from the Puritans.

  • W. Douglas Burden describes an expedition in search of a silver mine along the coast. The relevant chapters are "an Outlandish Land" and "Blake's Story" in Look to the Wilderness.

See also

  • Garifuna people
  • Miskito
  • La Mosquitia
  • The Mosquito Coast - a 1986 US movie

Footnotes

Sources and references

Internet resources

  • Mosquito Coast (Nicaragua) – Mosquito Coast flag

Printed sources

  • Cwik, Christian; Displaced minorities: The Wayuu and Miskito people, in: The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity, Ed.: Steven Ratuva. (London, New York, Singapure, Palgrave Macmillan 2019) url=[http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-130242-8_117-1 ]
  • Dozier, Craig; Nicaragua's Mosquito Shore: The Years of British and American Presence, University of Alabama Press, 1985
  • Floyd, Troy S.; The Anglo-Spanish Struggle for Mosquitia, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque (NM), 1967
  • Ibarra Rojas, Eugenia; Del arco y la flecha a las armas de fuego. Los indios mosquitos y la historia centroamericana, Editorial Universidad de Costa Rica, San Jose, 2011
  • Naylor, Robert A.; Penny Ante Imperialism: The Mosquito Shore and the Bay of Honduras, 1600–1914: A Case Study in British Informal Empire, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, London, 1989
  • Olien, Michael; The Miskito Kings and the Line of Succession, Journal of Anthropological Research, vol. 39, no. 2, 1983, pp. 198–241
  • Olien, Michael; Micro/Macro-Level Linkages: Regional Political Structure on the Mosquito Coast, 1845–1864, Ethnohistory, vol. 34, no. 3, 1987, pp. 256–287
  • Olien, Michael; General, Governor and Admiral: Three Miskito Lines of Succession, Ethnohistory, vol. 45, no. 2, 1998, pp. 278–318
  • Potthast, Barbara; Die Mosquitoküste im Spannungsfeld Britischer und Spanischer Politik, 1502–1821, Bölau., Cologne, 1988
  • Romero Vargas, Germán; Las Sociedades del Atlántico de Nicaragua en los siglos XVII y XVIII, Banco Nicaraguënse, Managua, 1995