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Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.

History of Country:   The Mayan civilization resided in Honduras from the fifth century A.D.. Christopher Columbus named it Honduras in 1502, meaning "depths", for the deep water off the north coast. In 1524, Hernan Cortes established his authority in Honduras. The indigenous people declined because of disease, mistreatment and deportation to the Caribbean Islands as slaves. A war, led by Lempira the Indian chief in 1537 and lasted for two years.  The monetary unit of Honduras was later named in honor of him.

Honduras became independent from Spain in 1821 and was part of the Mexican Empire. It became a member of the Central American Federation from 1825.  It its independence in 1838. Political chaos persisted for decades because of power struggles between conservatives and liberals, and a succession of military regimes.  In 1969 border disputes and the threat of expelling approximately 300,000 illegal El Salvadorans immigrants living in Honduras led to a sudden outburst of violence. This dispute was called the Soccer War because it happened at the time Honduras and El Salvador were engaged in a three-game elimination match for the World Cup preliminaries. Although the war lasted only five days, it created serious losses for both sides. Some 130,000 Salvadorans were expelled from Honduras, 2,000 people were killed, and thousands of other Hondurans in the border area had been made homeless.

During the 1980s, Honduras served as a base for insurgent activity against the government of Nicaragua by rebels known as Contras. U.S. staged military maneuvers in Honduras and the country's economy became heavily dependent on aid from the United States. After the conflict, however, with the decrease in American aid, Honduras was left in economic crises again.  In November 1998, Honduras was hard hit by Hurricane Mitch, causing landslides and floods that buried towns. 5,600 people died and thousands were missing, and much of the country's crops and livestock were destroyed.  Significant progress has been made since then.