Orange Walk Town
Coordinates: 18 ° 5 ′ N , 88 ° 33 ′ W
Orange Walk Town is the capital of the Orange Walk district in Belize , Central America and the country's third largest city. It is located 106 km north of Belize City and 50 km south of Corozal on the left bank of the New River .
population
According to the results of the census , Orange Walk Town had 13,709 inhabitants in 2010 . Mestizos , Creoles , Mennonites , Chinese , Taiwanese , Indians and immigrants from other Central American countries live in the city .
history
Before the arrival of European settlers, the region was inhabited for a long time by the Maya , who had built a trading center for goods traffic on the river on the banks of the New River, known as the Holpatin . The Mayan colonization of the region dates back to around 1200 BC. Chr.
The first European settlers settled in the region around 1530; Lumberjacks looking for the blue wood that was in great demand at the time , which they floated across the river to the coast for onward transport to Europe. After a gladly told story, which is not historically guaranteed and therefore belongs to local folklore, the first settlers built a church and planted orange trees on both sides of the church path. In this way, the newly emerging site became known as the Orange Walk .
The loggers only ensured a brief economic boom for the place. Only in 1848, with the flight of large parts of the population from the Yucatán peninsula to Belize triggered by the war of the castes , was the country sustainably settled. In addition to the Spanish language, the new settlers also brought sugar cane to Orange Walk, which subsequently had a significant impact on the region's economy.
In the second half of the 19th century, Orange Walk was a garrison of British colonial troops. On August 31, 1872, an attack by a group of insurgent Mayas led by Marcos Canul against Orange Walk Town failed. Canul was badly wounded and died the next day. This ended the armed resistance of the Mayans against British rule.
economy
Orange Walk Town is the center of sugar cane cultivation in Belize, which is why the city is nicknamed Sugar City and its residents are sometimes called Citizen Cane . All of the country's sugar cane production is processed at the Tower Hill Sugar Refinery . The Cuello's Distillery, 5 km from the city, distills from the raw product rum . Thanks to the sugar boom, Orange Walk Town had the lowest poverty rate of all cities and districts in the country in 1990.
In order to break up the sugar cane monoculture, considerable efforts have been made for years to diversify agriculture. Citrus production, cattle breeding and dairy farming now complement the product range.
Tourism is becoming increasingly important as a new industry in the city and district. Although the city itself does not offer any unique tourist attractions, it has a solid, medium-sized tourist infrastructure (hotels, restaurants, discos, tour operators, tourist information) and is therefore suitable as a starting point for excursions to the nearby Mayan ruins. These include the country's oldest Mayan ruins, the ruins of Cuello , as well as the ruins of Lamanai on the banks of the New River or the Río Bravo Conservation Area in the west of the district.
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Belize Population and Housing Census 2010 , p. 65, accessed July 2, 2018.
- ^ Assad Shoman: XIII chapters of a history of Belize . The Angelus Press, Belize City 1995, ISBN 976-8052-19-8 , p. 4.
- ^ Assad Shoman: XIII chapters of a history of Belize . The Angelus Press, Belize City 1995, p. 86.
- ^ Assad Shoman: XIII chapters of a history of Belize . The Angelus Press, Belize City 1995, p. 137.
- ^ Assad Shoman: XIII chapters of a history of Belize . The Angelus Press, Belize City 1995, p. 84.
- ^ Assad Shoman: XIII chapters of a history of Belize . The Angelus Press, Belize City 1995, p. 247.