The most interesting facts about Honduras include the magnificent Mesoamerican Reef, ancient Mayan ruins and the 100-hour “football war”.
Fast facts
Official name: Republic of Honduras
Capital city: Tegucigalpa
Population: 9,529,188
Area: 112,090 sq km
Major languages: Spanish, Amerindian dialects
Time zone: UTC-6 (Central Time Zone)
Interesting facts about Honduras
1. The earliest humans are believed to have appeared in Honduras around 9,000 BC. However, very little is known about them other than they were hunter-gatherers.
2. One of the most important sites of the Mayan civilization is located in Honduras. Copán, a ruined ancient Maya city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, is believed to have served as the political, civil, and religious center of Mayan territory in the region.
3. Christopher Columbus was the first European to arrive in Honduras in 1502. Spain quickly began to colonize the area, which was completed in 1539 after an intense conflict with the native population.
4. Columbus named the country Honduras, which means ‘depths’ in Spanish, because of the deep waters found off the north coast near present-day Trujillo.
5. The region was largely dominated by Spain, although Britain encroached on some coastal areas until 1821 when Honduras became independent from Spain.
6. Honduras was initially absorbed into the Mexican empire. Then, in 1823, Honduras joined the United Provinces of Central America, which also included Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.
7. The Honduran flag descends from the flag used by the former Federal Republic of Central America, which consists of blue-white-blue stripes and a coat of arms in the center. The countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica all use permutations of the design in their modern flags.
See how Hondura’s flag compares to other North American flags.
8. Honduras inspired the derogatory term ‘banana republic’. The expression is usually used to describe a small country, often in Latin America, that is poor, corrupt, and badly ruled.
9. The term stems from American involvement in Honduras. The United Fruit Company, along with other US fruit corporations, turned Honduras into an enormous banana plantation at the beginning of the 1900s. The US repeatedly intervened in various military coups to protect its commercial interests. This policy dominated and hindered Honduran economics and politics for much of the 20th century.
10. Honduras fought the ‘100 Hour War’ – sometimes referred to as La guerra del fútbol (The Football War) – with neighboring El Salvador in 1969. Existing tensions between the countries escalated and corresponded with rioting during a 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifier. The four-day conflict cost thousands of lives and uprooted thousands more.
11. Honduras was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. It killed around 5,600 people and caused approximately $2 billion in damage.
12. Honduras is highly vulnerable to climate change, facing frequent weather-related events that cause economic losses of around 1.8% of its GDP annually.
13. Lying off northern Honduras, the Mesoamerican Reef is the largest reef system in the Americas and the second-largest in the world after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
14. For many years, Honduras had the highest murder rate in the world. It peaked in 2011 at 85 intentional homicides per 100,000 people.
15. The homicide rate has fallen in recent years. The latest figures show Honduras recorded approximately 31.4 homicides per 100,000 residents.
16. In a country of 9 million people, there are up to 40,000 street gang members.
17. A 2002 UN report claimed death squads backed by the Honduran police murdered more than 1,500 children in Honduras. A special commission to investigate the deaths of the street children was later set up.
18. Honduras is home to a region called the Mosquito Coast which spreads along the Caribbean coast of Honduras and Nicaragua. It is not named after the insect, but instead, after the Miskito indigenous people, who inhabit the region.
19. The region inspired the 1981 best-selling book by Paul Theroux and later the 1986 film starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.
20. Over 700 bird species have been documented in Honduras. Perhaps the most famous is the endangered scarlet macaw which is also the national bird.
21. Honduras is the second-largest country in Central America after Nicaragua.
22. Honduras is the second-poorest country in Latin America after Haiti.
23. One of the most curious facts about Honduras is that it has two capital cities. The Honduran constitution declares that the twin cities of Tegucigalpa and Comayaguela jointly constitute the capital of Honduras. However, practically all governmental institutions are on the Tegucigalpa side.
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Caitriona Maria is an education writer and owner of The Facts Institute. With seven years of teaching experience and a background in educational content, she specialises in creating clear reference resources about countries, geography and global topics.