Santo Tomás de Castilla

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Container port of Santo Tomás

Santo Tomás de Castilla is a district of the port city of Puerto Barrios in the Izabal department on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala . It is located on the Bahía de Amatique , a bay in the Gulf of Honduras , not far from the mouth of the Río Motagua .

history

The place was laid out and settled by Spanish settlers and traders as early as the 16th century; from here several expeditions started into the interior of Guatemala and Honduras . In 1641, however, the place was abandoned due to repeated pirate attacks. The Belgians re-established it in the 19th century. Although the city was renamed Matías de Gálvez as early as 1958 , the former name Santo Tomás de Castilla is still in use.

Belgian colony 1843–1854

Map of the successor states of the Central American Confederation with the Belgian territory (blue)

Santo Tomás de Castilla was re-founded by settlers from Belgium around the middle of the 19th century. The Belgian Compagnie Belge de Colonization had acquired on April 16, 1842 on behalf of the Belgian King Leopold I from the Parliament of Guatemala a concession for a 360,000 hectare (3,600 km²) area between the rivers Río Motagua and Río Dulce , which of about 1,200 Indians was inhabited. The condition was that the Belgian colonists build roads and bridges, sovereignty over the area remained with Guatemala. The president of the company was the Belgian ex-minister Félix de Mérode , vice-president the German-born Count Theophil von Hompesch , who also appeared as a proponent of the Nicaragua Canal .

The first 54 colonists from Antwerp arrived in May 1843. Between 1843 and 1848 a few hundred mainly Flemish Belgians were settled in Santo Tomás de Castilla. Settlers also came from Germany; of the 280 settlers in 1845, 93 were German. Up to 2,000 exclusively Catholic colonists were planned, which is also a condition of the concession agreement. The colony was named Verapaz (Verapas, Verapa).

  • Félix de Mérode

  • Street scene with Belgian settlers

  • The port of Santo Tomás around 1840

However, rapid growth was followed by rapid decline. Mismanagement, unfavorable social and environmental conditions as well as the suspicion of the British (in neighboring British Honduras ), the USA ( Monroe Doctrine ) and finally also the Guatemalan authorities caused the project to fail. Within just 18 months between 1845 and 1846, 211 of the then 871 colonists died. Many Belgians moved to Guatemala City or Honduras, some returned to Belgium. In 1854 Santo Tomás de Castilla was given up after the sale to a French colonial company had also failed. The Count of Hompesch had to justify his bankruptcy because of the bankruptcy, the public mood and the attitude of the king and the government were initially against further colonial ambitions.

Until 1960 there was still a Belgian cemetery in Santo Tomás de Castilla.

Matías de Gálvez since 1958

Since 1960, Matías de Gálvez has served the Guatemalan Navy as a base. After an earthquake destroyed the port of Puerto Barrios, Matías de Gálvez was expanded as a new port from 1976 and became a free trade zone. Since then, Matíaz de Gálvez has developed into Guatemala's most important export port, and since 2004 Matías de Gálvez has also been a port of call for cruise ships.

literature

  • Compagnie Belge de Colonization (Ed.): Amérique centrale. Colonization du district de Santo-Thomas de Guatemala by the Communauté de l'Union, funded by the Compagnie Belge de Colonization. Collection de renseignements publiés ou recueillis par la Compagnie. Paris 1844.
  • Robert Raymond Ansiaux: Early Belgian colonial efforts - The long and fateful shadow of Leopold I. The University of Texas at Arlington 2006
  • Florian Krobb: Explorations overseas - Wilhelm Raabe and the fulfillment of the world , p. 85 . Königshausen Würzburg 2009

Web links

Commons : Santo Tomás de Castilla  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Belgian colonization of Santo Tomás  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 15 ° 41 ′  N , 88 ° 37 ′  W