Assorted References

• Central America–Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement
  • In Central America–Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement
• flag history
  • In flag of Honduras
• Mesoamerican Indian jewelry
  • In jewelry: Central and South American: pre-Columbian
• nagualism
  • In myth: The alter ego, or life index
• population and ethnography
  • In Honduras: The people of Honduras
  • In Lenca

physical geography

• In Honduras: Relief

• Gulf of Fonseca
  • In Gulf of Fonseca
• Gulf of Honduras
  • In Gulf of Honduras

Geography

Tim L. Merrill (ed.), Honduras: A Country Study, 3rd ed. (1995), covers the geography, social and administrative structure, and history of the country. Kent Norsworthy and Tom Barry, Inside Honduras, 2nd ed. (1994), also provides substantial detail on the politics, military, economy, and society. Alison Acker, Honduras: The Making of a Banana Republic (1988); and Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Central America: A Nation Divided, 3rd ed. (1999), place Honduras in the larger context of Central American history.

History

Works on early Honduran history include Robert S. Chamberlain, The Conquest and Colonization of Honduras, 1502–1550 (1953, reprinted 1966); and Linda Newson, The Cost of Conquest: Indian Decline in Honduras Under Spanish Rule (1986). Darío A. Euraque, Reinterpreting the Banana Republic: Region and State in Honduras, 1870–1972 (1996), is excellent for the century that it covers. Political aspects of resources are discussed in Kenneth V. Finney, In Quest of El Dorado: Precious Metal Mining and the Modernization of Honduras, 1880–1900 (1987). Twentieth-century developments are treated in Nancy Peckenham and Annie Street (eds.), Honduras: Portrait of a Captive Nation (1985); and James A. Morris, Honduras: Caudillo Politics and Military Rulers (1984). William H. Durham, Scarcity and Survival in Central America (1979, reissued 1992), pursues the underlying causes of the 1969 Soccer War between El Salvador and Honduras and exposes many of the socioeconomic problems of Central America and their long-term historical consequences.

For all practical purposes the capital of Honduras is Tegucigalpa, but some sources note that two “cities” share that designation. Chapter 1, Article 8, of the Honduran constitution states (translated), "The cities of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela, jointly, constitute the Capital of the Republic." Chapter 11, Article 295, translates, "The Central District consists of a single municipality made up of the former municipalities of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela"; however, municipalities are defined in Honduras as political entities similar to counties, and they may contain one or more cities. In a decree of October 30, 1880, President Marco Aurelio Soto established a permanent seat of government in Tegucigalpa, and in 1907 the episcopal (now archiepiscopal) see was translated there. On March 15, 1938, General Tiburcio Carías Andino and the National Congress declared that Comayagüela was a barrio ("neighbourhood") of Tegucigalpa, the national capital. Today some government offices are listed with Comayagüela addresses, but the area is considered a part of Tegucigalpa.

The name Comayagüela means “Little Comayagua,” in reference to the west-central Honduran city of Comayagua, which was the traditional capital of the republic. The political and economic rivalry between Tegucigalpa and Comayagua was a recurring theme in Honduran history, with the seat of government alternating between the two cities for much of the 19th century.

Sources:

Constitución de la República de Honduras, Decree Number 131 (January 11, 1982).

Ministry of the Economy of Honduras, Honduras: histórica-geográfica (1980), pages 121–125.

Kenneth V. Finney, “Tegucigalpa,” in Barbara A. Tenenbaum (ed.), Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture (1996).

Tim L. Merrill (ed.), Honduras: A Country Study, 3rd ed. (1995), pages xv and 167.

Will G. Ochoa, Estudios sociales: Honduras en mapas, 13th ed. (1995), page 32.

Ralph Lee Woodward, correspondence with Encyclopædia Britannica editors, November 12–16, 1999.