Honduras Profile Honduras Profile
History, Government, and Foreign Affairs
Honduras was originally inhabited by indigenous tribes, the most powerful of which were the Mayans. The western-central part of Honduras was inhabited by the Lencas. These autonomous groups had their conflicts but maintained their commercial relationships with each other and with other populations as distant as Panama and Mexico. On July 30, 1502, Christopher Columbus first saw Honduran soil and claimed the territory in the name of his sovereigns, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. He named the area "Honduras" (meaning "depths") for the deep water off the coast. In 1523, the first expeditionary forces arrived under the command…
