Republic of Honduras

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the cooler mountainous interior, to the south shores of the Golfo de Fonseca. West to east, the forested highlands on the border with Guatemala lead to the vast, undeveloped tropical rainforest of the Mosquitia.

Columbus landed on the mainland near present-day Trujillo on his fourth and final voyage. The Spanish conquered the indigenous people and ruled until 1821 when Central America became independent. The Spanish imparted their religion and language to Honduras during three centuries of rule. Spanish is the principal language throughout the country, although Creole-English is the language of choice of Bay Islanders. The remaining Indian tribes have their own distinct languages.

Honduras was the original banana republic. The United Fruit Company held the country in its grip for 40 years by buying up almost three-quarters of Honduras's arable land and establishing its own railroads and banks. Honduras is one of the least industrialized countries in Central America with eighty percent of Hondurans in poverty. Shantytowns that ring the main cities absorb much of rapidly growing population of nearly seven million. Honduras's reputation suffered from its short role in the 1980's as a base for U.S. covert operations and the country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, one of the strongest hurricanes of the 20th C. Much of the infrastructure has been repaired and tourism has returned to pre-Mitch levels, although as an aftermath, street crime has escalated.