History of Honduras

Honduras was home to many indigenous peoples before the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. Groups such as the Lencas, Tol, Pech (or Paya), Maya, and Sumo lived in different parts of the land, trading with each other and with people as far away as Panama and Mexico. Their cities left behind ruins that show how advanced their societies were long before European contact.

The Spanish established new towns like Trujillo, Comayagua, Gracias, and Tegucigalpa. During colonial times, the land was used for farming, mining, and raising animals. Honduras gained independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821. For a short time, it was part of the First Mexican Empire, then became part of the Federal Republic of Central America until it finally became its own independent country in 1839.

Pre-Columbian era

Main articles: Copán, Pre-Columbian Honduras, and Yax Kuk Mo dynasty

Long before European explorers arrived, many different groups of people lived in what is now Honduras. The Maya built a big city at Copán, near the border with Guatemala. This city grew around 150 A.D. and became very important between 700 and 850 A.D. They left behind stone carvings and tall stone pillars called stelae.

Other groups also lived in Honduras. The Lencas were strong and well-organized in western Honduras. There were also people called the Western Jicaque, and many towns and cities that traded with faraway places like Guatemala and Mexico. These early societies built complicated buildings and were important centers for trade.

Conquest period

Main article: Spanish conquest of Honduras

Honduras was first seen by Europeans when Christopher Columbus arrived near the Bay Islands close to Guanaja in 1502. He landed near modern Trujillo and named the place Honduras, meaning “depths,” because of the deep waters off the coast.

In 1524, Hernán Cortés sent a captain named Cristóbal de Olid to start a colony in Honduras. But De Olid decided to claim the land for himself. Cortés sent another captain, Francisco de las Casas, to fix the problem, but many of his ships were lost in storms. After a battle, De Olid and De Las Casas made a truce. Later, De Olid was either killed by his own soldiers or captured and executed — the stories differ.

Cortés himself arrived in 1525 and set up two new cities: near modern Puerto Cortés and Trujillo. He also asked the new governor to treat the local people well. Over the next years, fights between Spanish leaders and local people caused a lot of trouble. Settlers and local leaders both rebelled against unfair rules.

In 1537, a new governor arrived and tried to calm things down. One of his captains helped stop a big revolt led by a local leader named Lempira. Lempira is remembered today — the Honduran money is named after him.

Colonial Honduras

The Spanish arrived in Honduras in the 16th century and faced many local groups who lived there. These groups included the Lencas in the west-central part, the Tol on the central north coast, and the Pech near Trujillo. They traded with each other and with people as far away as Panama and Mexico.

Mining became important early on, especially around Gracias near the Guatemalan border, where gold was found. Later, silver was discovered in the Río Guayape Valley, which helped Comayagua grow. However, mining faced challenges like lack of materials and workers. The Spanish also tried to control the northern coast but had less success there. Groups like the Miskito lived along the Mosquito Coast and resisted Spanish control. The British also had influence in the area, forming alliances with some local groups and using the region as a base.

19th century

Independence from Spain (1821)

In the early 1800s, when Napoleon took over Spain, many places in Spanish America began to want freedom. Fighting for independence happened mostly in what we now call Mexico from 1810 to 1821. After the leader there was defeated in 1821, news spread that they were free, and Honduras joined other Central American areas to officially say they were no longer ruled by Spain through the Act of Independence.

After saying they were free, there was a plan for Spain’s king, Ferdinand VII, to also lead what used to be called New Spain, but he refused. Instead, a leader named Agustín de Iturbide became the emperor of a place called the First Mexican Empire, which included Honduras and other Central American areas.

Federal independence period (1821–1838)

In 1823, leaders in Mexico removed their emperor, Agustín de Iturbide, and let the Central American areas decide their own future. The United Provinces of Central America was created, with five areas joining together: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. These areas were called “states” now.

Important leaders during this time included Dionisio de Herrera, Honduras’s first elected president, who created the country’s first rules. Another leader, General Francisco Morazán, worked hard to keep all these areas united but faced many challenges. Honduras finally left this group in 1838 and became its own country.

Democratic period (1838–1899)

During the 1840s and 1850s, Honduras tried many times to bring Central America back together, but these efforts failed. In 1850, Honduras started building a big railroad from Trujillo to Tegucigalpa and then to the Pacific Ocean, but it stopped in San Pedro Sula in 1888 because of problems. This town became an important industrial center. The capital of Honduras moved from Comayagua to Tegucigalpa in 1880. Over the years, Honduras faced many small fights and changes in government.

20th century

Internationalization of the north (1899–1932)

Political stability and instability both helped and distracted the economic revolution that changed Honduras through the development of a plantation economy on the north coast. As American companies bought and controlled more land in Honduras, they asked the US government to protect their investments. Conflicts over land ownership, the rights of people who worked the land, and a class of wealthy people who supported the US led to armed fights and many invasions by US forces. In the first years of the century, US military forces entered Honduras in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924, and 1925. Because the country was mostly controlled by American fruit companies, it became the original example of what people called a "banana republic."

Rise of US influence (1899–1919)

In 1899, the banana industry in Honduras was growing fast. A peaceful transfer of power from Policarpo Bonilla to General Terencio Sierra marked the first time in years that a president passed power in a normal way. By 1902, railroads were built along the Caribbean coast to help the growing banana trade. However, Sierra tried to stay in office and refused to leave when a new president was elected in 1902, and he was removed by Manuel Bonilla in 1903.

After removing Sierra, Manuel Bonilla, a conservative, kept former president Policarpo Bonilla, a liberal rival, in prison for two years and tried to stop liberals across the country, as they were the only other organized political group. The conservatives were divided into many personal groups and lacked strong leadership, but Bonilla reorganized the conservatives into a "national party." Today’s National Party of Honduras traces its roots to his time in office.

Bonilla proved to be an even better friend to the banana companies than Sierra. Under Bonilla’s rule, companies got exemptions from taxes and permission to build ports and roads, as well as permission to improve rivers inside the country and to get rights for new railroad building. He also successfully set the border with Nicaragua and stopped an invasion from Guatemala in 1906. After stopping Guatemalan forces, Bonilla sought peace and signed a friendship agreement with both Guatemala and El Salvador.

Nicaragua’s president José Santos Zelaya saw this friendship as an alliance to work against Nicaragua and began to work against Bonilla. Zelaya supported liberal Honduran exiles in Nicaragua in their efforts to remove Bonilla, who had made himself a dictator. With help from the Nicaraguan army, the exiles invaded Honduras in February 1907. With help from Salvadoran troops, Manuel Bonilla tried to fight back, but in March his forces were defeated in a battle where machine guns were used in Central America for the first time. After Bonilla was removed, the exiles set up a temporary government, but it did not last.

American leaders noticed: it was in their interests to stop Zelaya, protect the area around the new Panama Canal, and defend the growing banana trade. This invasion by Honduran exiles with Nicaragua’s help upset the United States government, which thought Zelaya wanted to control all of Central America, sent marines to Puerto Cortes to protect the banana trade. US naval forces were also sent to Honduras and were able to successfully protect Bonilla’s last defense point at Amapala in the Gulf of Fonseca. Through a peace settlement arranged by the US representative in Tegucigalpa, Bonilla stepped down and the war with Nicaragua ended.

The settlement also provided for a compromise government led by General Miguel R. Davila in Tegucigalpa. Zelaya, however, was not happy with the settlement, as he did not trust Davila. Zelaya made a secret plan with El Salvador to remove Davila from office. The plan did not succeed, but it worried American leaders in Honduras. Mexico and the U.S. called the five Central American countries to diplomatic talks at the Central American Peace Conference to increase stability in the area. At the conference, the five countries signed the General Treaty of Peace and Amity of 1907, which set up the Central American Court of Justice to solve future disputes among the five nations. Honduras also agreed to stay neutral in any future conflicts among the other nations.

In 1908, opponents of Davila tried unsuccessfully to remove him from power. Despite the failure of this attempt, American leaders became worried about Honduran instability. The Taft Administration saw the huge Honduran debt, over $120 million, as a reason for the instability and began efforts to refinance the mostly British debt with plans for a United States customs control or something similar. Negotiations were arranged between Honduran leaders and New York bankers, led by J.P. Morgan. By the end of 1909, an agreement was reached to reduce the debt and issue new 5% bonds: The bankers would control the Honduran railroad, and the United States government would promise to keep Honduras independent and would take control of custom revenue.

The terms proposed by the bankers faced much opposition in Honduras, further weakening the Dávila government. A treaty with the key parts of this agreement with J.P. Morgan was finally signed in January 1911 and sent to the Honduran legislature by Dávila. However, that group, in a rare show of independence, rejected it by a vote of thirty-three to five.

An uprising in 1911 against Dávila interrupted efforts to deal with the debt problem. The United States Marines landed, which forced both sides to meet on a US ship. The revolutionaries, led by former president Manuel Bonilla, and the government agreed to a stop-fighting and the setting up of a temporary president who would be chosen by the United States mediator, Thomas Cleland Dawson. Dawson chose Francisco Bertrand, who promised to hold early, free elections, and Dávila stepped down. The 1912 elections were won by Manuel Bonilla, but he died after just over a year in office. Bertrand, who had been his vice president, returned to the presidency and in 1916 was elected for a term that lasted until 1920. Between 1911 and 1920, Honduras saw relative stability. Railroads expanded across Honduras and the banana trade grew fast. This stability, however, would be hard to keep in the years after 1920. Revolutionary plans also continued during this time, with constant rumors that one group or another was being supported by one of the banana companies.

The growth of the banana industry led to the start of organized worker movements in Honduras and to the first major strikes in the nation’s history. The first of these was in 1917 against the Cuyamel Fruit Company. The strike was stopped by the Honduran military, but the next year more worker problems happened at the Standard Fruit Company’s area in La Ceiba. In 1920, a general strike hit the Caribbean coast. In response, a United States ship was sent to the area, and the Honduran government began arresting leaders. When Standard Fruit offered a new wage—equivalent to US$1.75 per day—the strike finally ended. Worker troubles in the banana trade, however, were far from over.

Fruit companies' activity

The Liberal government chose to expand production in mining and agriculture, and in 1876 began giving large land grants and tax exemptions to foreign companies as well as to local businesses. Mining was especially important, and the new policies matched the growth of banana exports, which began in the Bay Islands in the 1870s and was continued on the mainland by small and middle farmers in the 1880s. Liberal concessions allowed U.S.-based companies to enter the Honduran market, first as shipping companies, then as railroad and banana producing businesses. The U.S. companies created very large plantations worked by workers who came to the region from the crowded Pacific coast, other Central American countries, and, thanks to the companies’ policies favoring English-speaking people, from the English-speaking Caribbean. The result was an enclave economy centered on the settlements and activities of the three major companies, Cuyamel Fruit Company, Standard Fruit and especially United Fruit after it bought Cuyamel in 1930.

In 1899, Vaccaro Brothers and Company (later known as Standard Fruit), a New Orleans–based fruit company, came to Honduras in 1899 to buy coconuts, oranges and bananas on Roatán. After successfully selling the fruit in New Orleans, the company moved to the mainland of Honduras. In 1901, Vaccaro Brothers set up offices in La Ceiba and Salado and eventually controlled the banana industry between Boca Cerrada and Balfate (an area of about 80 kilometers of coastline). In 1900, American businessman Samuel Zemurray and United Fruit came to Honduras to buy banana plantations. In 1905, Zemurray began buying his own plantations and in 1910, after buying 5,000 acres of plantation land in Honduras, he formed his own company, the Cuyamel Fruit Company. The two companies' wealth and powerful connections allowed them to gain extraordinary influence in the Honduran government.

Rivalries between the companies, however, grew in 1910, when the United Fruit came to Honduras to set up operations; the company had already been a local producer of bananas in Honduras. By 1912, United Fruit had two concessions it had bought with government approval. One was to build a railroad from Tela to Progreso in the Sula Valley, and the other was to build a railroad from Trujillo to the city of Juticalpa in Olancho. In 1913, United Fruit set up the Tela Railroad Company and soon after a similar subsidiary, the Trujillo Railroad Company; these two railroads managed the concessions which the Honduran government gave them. Through these two railroad companies, United Fruit dominated the banana trade in Honduras.

An 1899 census showed that northern Honduras had been exporting bananas for several years and that over 1,000 people in the region between Puerto Cortes and La Ceiba (and inland as far as San Pedro Sula) were tending bananas, most of them small growers. The fruit companies received very large land concessions, often forcing small growers who had been growing and exporting bananas on their land out of business. In addition, they brought in many workers from Jamaica and Belize, both to work on the plantations, but also as lower managers and skilled workers. The companies often favored the West Indian workers because they spoke English and were sometimes better educated than their Honduran counterparts. This feeling of foreign control, coupled with a growing prejudice against the African-descended West Indians, led to considerable tension, as the arrival of the West Indians caused demographic change in the region.

The connection between the wealth of the banana trade and the influence of outsiders, particularly North Americans, led O. Henry, the American writer who took temporary refuge in Honduras in 1896–97, to coin the term "banana republic" to describe a fictional nation he modeled on Honduras. By 1912, three companies dominated the banana trade in Honduras: Samuel Zemurray's Cuyamel Fruit Company, Vaccaro Brothers and Company and the United Fruit Company; all of which tended to be vertically integrated, owning their own lands and railroad companies and ship lines such as United's "Great White Fleet". Through land subsidies given to the railroads, they soon came to control vast areas of the best land along the Caribbean coast. Coastal cities such as La Ceiba, Tela, and Trujillo and towns further inland such as El Progreso and La Lima became essentially company towns.

For the next twenty years, the U.S. government was involved in stopping Central American disputes, uprisings, and revolutions, whether supported by neighboring governments or by United States companies. As part of the so-called Banana Wars all around the Caribbean, Honduras saw the landing of American troops in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925. For example, in 1917 the Cuyamel Fruit Company extended its rail lines into disputed Guatemalan territory.

Renewed instability (1919–1924)

In 1919, it became clear that Francisco Bertrand would not allow an open election to choose his successor. This course of action was opposed by the United States and had little popular support in Honduras. The local military commander and governor of Tegucigalpa, General Rafael López Gutiérrez, took the lead in organizing opposition to Bertrand. López Gutiérrez also sought support from the liberal government of Guatemala and even from the conservative regime in Nicaragua. Bertrand, in turn, sought support from El Salvador.

Determined to avoid an international conflict, the United States government, after some hesitation, offered to mediate the dispute, hinting to the Honduran president that if he refused the offer, open intervention might follow. The United States landed US Marines on 11 September 1919. Bertrand quickly stepped down and left the country. The United States ambassador helped set up an interim government headed by Francisco Bográn, who promised to hold free elections. General López Gutiérrez, who now controlled the military, made it clear that he was determined to be the next president. After much negotiation and some confusion, a plan was worked out under which elections were held. López Gutiérrez won easily in a manipulated election, and in October 1920 he became president.

During Bográn's short time in office, he had agreed to a United States proposal to invite a United States financial adviser to Honduras. Arthur N. Young of the Department of State was selected for this task and began work in Honduras in August 1920, continuing to August 1921. While there, Young collected extensive data and made many recommendations, even persuading the Hondurans to hire a New York police lieutenant to reorganize their police forces. Young's investigations clearly showed the desperate need for major financial reforms in Honduras, whose always tricky budgetary situation was made much worse by the return of revolutionary activities.

In 1919, for example, the military had spent more than double the amount budgeted for them, accounting for over 57 percent of all federal spending. Young's recommendations for reducing the military budget, however, found little favor with the new López Gutiérrez administration, and the government's financial condition remained a major problem. The goal was to modernize the Honduran Army, which still had technology from the late-19th century. If anything, continued uprisings against the government and the threat of a new Central America conflict made the situation even worse. From 1919 to 1924, the Honduran government spent US$7.2 million beyond the amount covered by the regular budgets for military operations.

Coups

From 1920 through 1923, seventeen uprisings or attempted coups in Honduras contributed to growing United States concern over political instability in Central America. In August 1922, the presidents of Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador met on the USS Tacoma in the Gulf of Fonseca. Under the watchful eye of the United States ambassadors to their nations, the presidents pledged to prevent their territories from being used to promote revolutions against their neighbors and issued a call for a general meeting of Central American states in Washington at the end of the year.

The Washington conference concluded in February with the adoption of the General Treaty of Peace and Amity of 1923, which in many ways followed the provisions of the 1907 treaty. The Central American court was reorganized, reducing the influence of the various governments over its membership. The clause providing for withholding recognition of revolutionary governments was expanded to prevent recognition of any revolutionary leader, his relatives, or anyone who had been in power six months before or after such an uprising unless the individual's claim to power had been ratified by free elections. The governments renewed their pledges to refrain from aiding revolutionary movements against their neighbors and to seek peaceful resolution for all outstanding disputes.

The supplemental conventions covered everything from the promotion of agriculture to armament limitation. One, which remained unratified, provided for free trade among all of the states except Costa Rica. The arms limitation agreement set a ceiling on the size of each nation's military forces (2,500 men in the case of Honduras) and included a United States-sponsored pledge to seek foreign assistance in establishing more professional armed forces.

The October 1923 Honduran presidential elections and subsequent political and military conflicts provided the first real tests of these new treaty arrangements. Under heavy pressure from Washington, López Gutiérrez allowed an unusually open campaign and election. The long-fragmented conservatives reunited as the National Party of Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduras—PNH), which ran as its candidate General Tiburcio Carías Andino, the governor of the department of Cortés. The liberal PLH was unable to unite around a single candidate and split into two dissident groups, one supporting former president Policarpo Bonilla, the other advancing the candidacy of Juan Angel Arias. As a result, no candidate secured a majority. Carías received the greatest number of votes, with Bonilla second and Arias a distant third. Under the terms of the Honduran constitution, this stalemate left the final choice of president up to the legislature, but that body was unable to obtain a quorum and reach a decision. In January 1924, López Gutiérrez announced his intention to remain in office until new elections could be held, but he repeatedly refused to specify a date for the elections. Carías, reportedly with the support of United Fruit, declared himself president, and an armed conflict broke out. In February the United States, warning that recognition would be withheld from anyone coming to power by revolutionary means, suspended relations with the López Gutiérrez government for its failure to hold elections. Conditions rapidly deteriorated in the early months of 1924. On 28 February, a major battle took place in La Ceiba between government troops and rebels.

Even the presence of the USS Denver and the landing of a force of United States Marines were unable to prevent widespread looting and burning resulting in over US$2 million in property damage. Fifty people, including a United States citizen, were killed in the fighting. In the weeks that followed, additional vessels from the United States Navy Special Service Squadron were concentrated in Honduran waters, and landing parties put ashore to protect United States interests. One force of marines and sailors was sent inland to Tegucigalpa to provide additional protection for the United States legation. Shortly before the arrival of the force, López Gutiérrez died, and what authority remained with the central government was being exercised by his cabinet. General Carías and a variety of other rebel leaders controlled most of the countryside but failed to coordinate their activities effectively enough to seize the capital.

In an effort to end the fighting, the United States government dispatched Sumner Welles to the port of Amapala; he had instructions to try to produce a settlement that would bring to power a government eligible for recognition under the terms of the 1923 treaty. Negotiations, which were once again held on board a United States cruiser, lasted from 23 to 28 April. An agreement was worked out that provided for an interim presidency headed by General Vicente Tosta, who agreed to appoint a cabinet representing all political factions and to convene a Constituent Assembly within ninety days to restore constitutional order. Presidential elections were to be held as soon as possible, and Tosta promised not to run himself. Once in office, the new president showed signs of going back on some of his promises, especially those related to a bipartisan cabinet. Under heavy pressure from the United States delegation, however, he ultimately followed the provisions of the peace agreement.

Keeping the 1924 elections on track proved difficult. To put pressure on Tosta to conduct a fair election, the United States continued an embargo on arms to Honduras and barred the government from access to loans—including a requested US$75,000 from the Banco Atlántida. Furthermore, the United States persuaded El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua to join in declaring that under the 1923 treaty provision, no leader of the recent revolution would be recognized as president for the coming term. These pressures ultimately helped persuade Carías to withdraw his candidacy and also helped ensure the defeat of an uprising led by General Gregorio Ferrera (great-grandfather of American Actress America Ferrera) of the PNH. The PNH nominated Miguel Paz Barahona (1925–29), a civilian, as president. The PLH, after some debate, refused to nominate a candidate, and on 28 December Paz Barahona won virtually unanimous election.

Restoration of order (1925–1931)

Despite another minor uprising led by General Ferrera in 1925, Paz Barahona's administration was, by Honduran standards, rather calm. The banana companies continued to grow, the government's budget improved, and there was even an increase in labor organizing. On the international front, the Honduran government, after years of negotiations, finally concluded an agreement with the British bondholders to liquidate most of the immense national debt. The bonds were to be redeemed at 20 percent of face value over a thirty-year period. Back interest was forgiven, and new interest accrued only over the last fifteen years of this arrangement. Under the terms of this agreement, Honduras, at last, seemed on the road to fiscal solvency.

Fears of disturbances increased again in 1928 as the scheduled presidential elections approached. The ruling PNH nominated General Carías while the PLH, united again following the death of Policarpo Bonilla in 1926, nominated Vicente Mejía Colindres. To the surprise of most observers, both the campaign and the election were conducted with a minimum of violence and intimidation. Mejía Colindres won a decisive victory—obtaining 62,000 votes to 47,000 for Carías. Even more surprising was Carías's public acceptance of defeat and his urging of his supporters to accept the new government.

Mejía Colindres took office in 1929 with high hopes for his administration and his nation. Honduras seemed on the road to political and economic progress. Banana exports, then accounting for 80 percent of all exports, continued to grow. By 1930 Honduras had become the world's leading producer of the fruit, accounting for one-third of the world's supply of bananas. United Fruit had come increasingly to dominate the trade, and in 1929 it bought out the Cuyamel Fruit Company, one of its two principal remaining rivals. Because conflicts between these companies had frequently led to support for rival groups in Honduran politics, had produced a border controversy with Guatemala, and may have even contributed to revolutionary disturbances, this merger seemed to promise greater domestic tranquility. The prospect for tranquility was further advanced in 1931 when Ferrera and his insurgents were killed, while leading one last unsuccessful effort to overthrow the government, after government troops discovered their hiding place in Chamelecon. Many of Mejía Colindres's hopes, however, were dashed with the onset of the Great Depression. Banana exports peaked in 1930, then declined rapidly. Thousands of workers were laid off, and the wages of those remaining on the job were reduced, as were the prices paid to independent banana producers by the giant fruit companies. Strikes and other labor disturbances began to break out in response to these conditions, but most were quickly stopped with the aid of government troops. As the depression deepened, the government's financial situation deteriorated; in 1931 Mejía Colindres was forced to borrow US$250,000 from the fruit companies to ensure that the army would continue to be paid.

Tiburcio Carías Andino (1932–1949)

Despite growing unrest and severe economic strains, the 1932 presidential elections in Honduras were relatively peaceful and fair. The peaceful transition of power was surprising because the onset of the depression had led to the overthrow of governments elsewhere throughout Latin America, in nations with much stronger democratic traditions than those of Honduras. After United Fruit bought out Cuyamel, Sam Zemurray, a strong supporter of the Liberal Party, left the country and the Liberals were short on cash by the 1932 general election. Mejía Colindres, however, resisted pressure from his own party to manipulate the results to favor the PLH candidate, Angel Zúñiga Huete. As a result, the PNH candidate, Carías, won the election by a margin of some 20,000 votes. On 16 November 1932, Carías took office, beginning what was to be the longest period of continuous time in power by any individual in Honduran history.

Shortly before Carías's inauguration, dissident liberals, despite the opposition of Mejía Colindres, had risen in revolt. Carías had taken command of the government forces, obtained arms from El Salvador, and crushed the uprising in short order. Most of Carías's first term in office was devoted to efforts to avoid financial collapse, improve the military, engage in a limited program of road building, and lay the foundations for prolonging his own hold on power.

The economy remained extremely bad throughout the 1930s. In addition to the dramatic drop in banana exports caused by the depression, the fruit industry was further threatened by the outbreak in 1935 of epidemics of Panama disease (a debilitating fungus) and sigatoka (leaf blight) in the banana-producing areas. Within a year, most of the country's production was threatened. Large areas, including most of those around Trujillo, were abandoned, and thousands of Hondurans were thrown out of work. By 1937 a means of controlling the disease had been found, but many of the affected areas remained out of production because a significant share of the market formerly held by Honduras had shifted to other nations.

Carías had made efforts to improve the military even before he became president. Once in office, both his capacity and his motivation to continue and to expand such improvements increased. He gave special attention to the fledgling air force, founding the Military Aviation School in 1934 and arranging for a United States colonel to serve as its commandant.

As months passed, Carías moved slowly but steadily to strengthen his hold on power. He gained the support of the banana companies through opposition to strikes and other labor disturbances. He strengthened his position with domestic and foreign financial circles through conservative economic policies. Even in the height of the depression, he continued to make regular payments on the Honduran debt, adhering strictly to the terms of the arrangement with the British bondholders and also satisfying other creditors. Two small loans were paid off completely in 1935. Political controls were instituted slowly under Carías. The Communist Party of Honduras was outlawed, but the PLH continued to function, and even the leaders of a small uprising in 1935 were later offered free air transportation should they wish to return to Honduras from their exile abroad. At the end of 1935, however, stressing the need for peace and internal order, Carías began to crack down on the opposition press and political activities. Meanwhile, the PNH, at the president's direction, began a propaganda campaign stressing that only keeping Carías in office could give the nation continued peace and order. The constitution, however, prohibited immediate reelection of presidents.

To extend his term of office Carías called a constituent assembly to write a new constitution and select the individual to serve for the first presidential term under that document. Except for the president's desire to perpetuate himself in office, there seemed little reason to alter the nation's basic charter. Earlier constituent assemblies had written thirteen constitutions (only ten of which had entered into force), and the latest had been adopted in 1924. The handpicked Constituent Assembly of 1936 incorporated thirty of the articles of the 1924 document into the 1936 constitution.

The major changes were the elimination of the prohibition on immediate reelection of a president and vice president and lengthening the presidential term from four years to six. Other changes included restoration of the death penalty, reductions in the powers of the legislature, and denial of citizenship to women, and therefore also of the right to vote. Finally, the new constitution included an article specifying that the incumbent president and vice president would remain in office until 1943. But Carías, by then a virtual dictator, wanted even more, so in 1939 the legislature, now completely controlled by the PNH, extended his term in office by another six years (to 1949).

The PLH and other opponents of the government reacted to these changes by attempting to overthrow Carías. Numerous coup attempts in 1936 and 1937, succeeded only in further weakening the PNH's opponents. By the end of the 1930s, the PNH was the only organized functioning political party in the nation. Numerous opposition leaders had been imprisoned, and some had reportedly been chained and put to work in the streets of Tegucigalpa. Others, including the leader of the PLH, Zúñiga Huete, had fled into exile.

During his presidency, Carías cultivated close relations with his fellow Central American dictators, generals Jorge Ubico in Guatemala, Maximiliano Hernández Martínez in El Salvador, and Anastasio Somoza García in Nicaragua. Relations were particularly close with Ubico, who helped Carías reorganize his secret police and also captured and shot the leader of a Honduran uprising who had made the mistake of crossing into Guatemalan territory. Relations with Nicaragua were somewhat more strained as a result of the continuing border dispute, but Carías and Somoza managed to keep this dispute under control throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

The value of these ties became somewhat questionable in 1944 when popular revolts in Guatemala and El Salvador deposed Ubico and Hernández Martínez. For a time, it seemed as if revolutionary contagion might spread to Honduras as well. A plot, involving some military officers as well as opposition civilians, had already been discovered and crushed in late 1943. In May 1944, a group of women began demonstrating outside of the Presidential Palace in Tegucigalpa, demanding the release of political prisoners.

Despite strong government measures, tension continued to grow, and Carías was ultimately forced to release some prisoners. This gesture failed to satisfy the opposition, and antigovernment demonstrations continued to spread. In July several demonstrators were killed by troops in San Pedro Sula. In October a group of exiles invaded Honduras from El Salvador but were unsuccessful in their efforts to topple the government. The military remained loyal, and Carías continued in office.

Second World War

Honduras maintained diplomatic relations with nations that belonged to the Axis until 1941 when it declared war on the Empire of Japan on 8 December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which then spread to Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy on 12 December of the same year. Several Honduran merchant ships were sunk in the Caribbean by German submarines, which had already been sighted in the Gulf of Fonseca and the Caratasca lagoon, therefore air patrols began in 1942. This was thanks to the modernization of the Honduran army and the foundation of the Honduran Air Force. The aircraft used for this operation were the North American NA-16, Chance Vought F4U Corsair, and the Boeing Model 40 and Model 95 modified to drop bombs. The first sighting of a German U-boat by the air force occurred on 24 July 1942 and was attacked by planes with 60-pound bombs, being the first and possible only official record of a military confrontation between Honduras and Nazi Germany. Many of the raw materials produced in Honduras were sent to the North American country to bring supplies to soldiers in the Pacific War against the Japanese, the North African theater, and later with its entry into the European theater in 1944 after the D-Day landing.

End of Caria's regime

Anxious to curb further disorder in the region, the United States began to urge Carías to step aside and allow free elections when his term of office expired. Carías, by then in his early seventies, ultimately yielded and announced October 1948 elections, in which he would not run. He continued, however, to find ways to use his power. The PNH nominated Carías's choice for president – Juan Manuel Gálvez, who had been minister of war since 1933. Exiled opposition figures were allowed to return to Honduras, and the PLH, trying to overcome years of inactivity and division, nominated Zúñiga Huete, the same individual whom Carías had defeated in 1932. The PLH rapidly became convinced that it had no chance to win and, charging the government with manipulation of the electoral process, boycotted the elections. This act gave Gálvez a virtually unopposed victory, and in January 1949, he assumed the presidency.

Evaluating the Carías presidency is a difficult task. His time in office provided the nation with a badly needed period of relative peace and order. The country's fiscal situation improved steadily, education improved slightly, the road network expanded, and the armed forces were modernized. At the same time, nascent democratic institutions withered, opposition and labor activities were suppressed, and national interests at times were sacrificed to benefit supporters and relatives of Carías or major foreign interests.

New Reform (1949–1954)

Once in office Gálvez showed more independence than expected. He continued and expanded some policies of the Carías administration, such as road building and development of coffee exports. By 1953 nearly one-quarter of the government budget was allocated to road construction. Gálvez also continued most of the prior administration's fiscal policies, reducing external debt and paying off the last of the British bonds. The fruit companies continued to receive favorable treatment at the hands of the Gálvez administration; for example, United Fruit received a highly favorable twenty-five-year contract in 1949.

Galvez however did institute some notable innovations. Education got more attention and a larger share of the national budget. Congress passed an income tax law, although enforcement was sporadic at best. A considerable degree of press freedom was restored, the PLH and other groups were allowed to organize, and some worker organization was permitted. Labor also benefited from legislation during this period. Congress passed, and the president signed, legislation establishing the eight-hour workday, paid holidays for workers, limited employer responsibility for work-related injuries, and regulations over the employment of women and children.

1955–1979

After the general strike in 1954, young military reformists staged a coup in October 1956 that installed a provisional junta. Capital punishment was abolished in 1956, though Honduras had not had an execution since 1940. Constituent assembly elections in 1957 appointed Ramón Villeda Morales as president, and the constituent assembly itself became a national Congress with a 6-year term. The Liberal Party of Honduras held power in 1957–63. The military began to become a professional institution independent of politics, with the newly created military academy graduating its first class in 1960.

In October 1963, conservative military officers preempted constitutional elections and deposed Ramón Villeda Morales in a bloody coup. These officers exiled PLH members and governed under General Oswaldo López until 1970. In July 1969, El Salvador invaded Honduras in the short Football War. Tensions in the aftermath of the conflict remain.

A civilian president for the PNH, Ramón Ernesto Cruz, took power briefly in 1970 until, in December 1972, López staged another coup. This time he adopted more progressive policies, including land reform.

On November 22, 1971, the United States handed over the Swan Islands to Honduras after signing the Treaty of the Swan Islands. Honduras began exercising this sovereignty on September 1, 1972.

López' successors continued armed forces modernization, building army and security forces, concentrating on Honduran air force superiority over its neighbors. During the governments of General Juan Alberto Melgar Castro (1975–78) and General Policarpo Paz García (1978–82), Honduras built most of its physical infrastructure and electricity and terrestrial telecommunications systems, both state monopolies. The country experienced economic growth during this period, with greater international demand for its products and increased availability of foreign commercial capital.

Constituent assembly (1980)

In 1982, the country returned to civilian rule. A constituent assembly was popularly elected in April 1980 and general elections were held in November 1981. A new constitution was approved in 1982 and the PLH government of Roberto Suazo assumed power.

1980s

Roberto Suazo Córdova won the elections on an ambitious program of economic and social development to tackle the country's recession. During this time, Honduras also assisted the contra guerillas.

President Suazo launched ambitious social and economic development projects sponsored by American development aid. Honduras became host to the largest Peace Corps mission in the world, and nongovernmental and international voluntary agencies proliferated. From 1972 to 1983, Honduras was governed by military juntas.

Though spared the bloody civil wars wracking its neighbors, the Honduran army quietly waged a campaign against Marxist–Leninist rebels such as the Cinchoneros Popular Liberation Movement, notorious for kidnappings and bombings, and many non-militants. The operation included a campaign of extrajudicial killings by government units, most notably the CIA-trained Battalion 3-16.

Numerous trade unionists, academics, farmers and students disappeared. Declassified documents show that U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte personally intervened to prevent possible disclosures of these crimes, in order to avoid "creating human rights problems in Honduras". The U.S. established a continuing military presence in Honduras to support the Contras in their war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, and to support the fight against leftist guerrillas in El Salvador and Guatemala. They also developed an air strip and a modern port in Honduras. U.S. military assistance to Honduras increased from $4 million in 1981 to $77.4 million in 1984.

President Suazo, relying on U.S. support, created ambitious social and economic development projects to help with a severe economic recession and with the perceived threat of regional instability. As the November 1985 election approached, the PLH could not settle on a presidential candidate and interpreted election law as permitting multiple candidates from any one party. The PLH claimed victory when its presidential candidates collectively outpolled the PNH candidate, Rafael Leonardo Callejas, who received 42% of the total vote. José Azcona, the candidate receiving the most votes (27%) among the PLH, assumed the presidency in January 1986. With strong endorsement and support from the Honduran military, the Suazo administration ushered in the first peaceful transfer of power between civilian presidents in more than 30 years. In 1989 he oversaw the dismantling of Contras which were based in Honduras.

In 1988, in Operation Golden Pheasant, US forces were deployed to Honduras in response to Nicaraguan attacks on Contra supply caches in Honduras.

1990s

In January 1990, Rafael Leonardo Callejas won the presidential election and took office, concentrating on economic reform and reducing the deficit. He began a movement to place the military under civilian control and laid the groundwork for the creation of the public prosecution service. In 1993, PLH candidate Carlos Roberto Reina was elected with 56% of the vote against PNH contender Oswaldo Ramos Soto. He won on a platform calling for "moral revolution" and made active efforts to prosecute corruption and pursue those responsible for alleged human rights abuses in the 1980s. The Reina administration successfully increased civilian control over the armed forces and transferred the national police from military to civilian authority. In 1996, Reina named his own defense minister, breaking the precedent of accepting the nominee of the armed forces leadership.

His administration substantially increased Central Bank net international reserves, reduced inflation to 12.8% a year, restored a better pace of economic growth (about 5% in 1997), and held down spending to achieve a 1.1% non-financial public sector deficit in 1997.

The Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH)'s Carlos Roberto Flores took office 27 January 1998 as Honduras' fifth democratically elected president since free elections were restored in 1981, with a 10% margin over his main opponent, PNH nominee Nora Gúnera de Melgar, widow of former leader Juan Alberto Melgar. Flores inaugurated International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs of reform and modernization of the Honduran government and economy, with emphasis on maintaining the country's fiscal health and improving international competitiveness.

In October 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras, leaving more than 5,000 people dead and 1.5 million displaced. Damages totaled nearly $3 billion. International donors came forward to assist in rebuilding infrastructure, donating US$1400 million in 2000.

21st century

2000s

In November 2001, the National Party won elections for president and Congress. The PNH got 61 seats and the PLH got 55. The PLH candidate Rafael Pineda lost to the PNH candidate Ricardo Maduro, who became president in January 2002. Maduro focused on stopping certain groups from growing.

On 27 November 2005, PLH candidate Manuel Zelaya beat the PNH candidate and became president on 27 January 2006. Zelaya won with a very small margin and promised to make government more open and fight against illegal activities.

In 2009, Zelaya suggested having a vote to decide about making a new constitution. This caused big problems because the rules did not allow some changes. Zelaya did not follow the court's orders, and this led to trouble. On 28 June 2009, the military removed Zelaya from office and sent him to a nearby country. Another leader took over, but many countries still said Zelaya was the real president.

2010s

In 2010, Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa became president and worked to gain support from other countries.

In 2012, Honduras made a law that stopped a certain medicine from being used.

In 2013, Juan Orlando Hernández became president. His time in office saw some growth in cities, but also more unemployment and protests. In 2015, the highest court changed the rules so a president could serve more than one term. Hernández was elected again in 2017 after some people said the vote was not fair. In 2019, his brother was found guilty of serious crimes in another country.

2020s

In 2020, Honduras decided to move its embassy in Israel to a new city.

In 2021, the country changed its rules to make it very hard to allow a certain medical choice in the future.

In November 2021, Xiomara Castro won the election and became the first woman to be president of Honduras in January 2022.

In April 2022, a former president was sent to another country to face serious charges. He said he was not guilty. Later, he was freed from prison. In January 2026, Nasry Asfura became the new president after winning the election.