Mosquito Coast - Sources and references

Undeveloped lowland area in E Honduras and E Nicaragua, Central America, following the Caribbean coast in a 65 km/40 mi-wide strip of tropical forest, lagoons, and swamp; inhabited by Black Creoles and the Miskito, Sumo, and Rama Indians; controlled by the British, 1665–1860; timber, bananas.

The Caribbean Mosquito Coast historically consisted of an area along the Atlantic coast of present-day Nicaragua, called after its native Miskito Indians and long dominated by British interests.

Although its name sometimes applies to the whole eastern seaboard of Nicaragua — and even to La Mosquitia in Honduras, i.e. the coast region as far west as the Río Negro or Tinto – the Mosquito Coast more accurately consisted of a narrow strip of territory, fronting the Caribbean Sea, and extending from about 11°45’ to 14°10’ N. The chief towns were Bluefields or Blewfields (the largest town, which has a good harbour and is the capital of Nicaragua's Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur), Magdala on Pearl Cay, Prinzapolka on the river of that name, Wounta near the mouth of the Kukalaya, and Carata near the mouth of the Wawa River.

The Mosquito Coast is so called from its principal inhabitants, the Miskito Indians, whose name was corrupted into Mosquito by European settlers.

The first European settlement in the Mosquito country started in 1630, when the agents of the English chartered Providence Company — of which the Earl of Warwick was chairman and John Pym treasurer — occupied two small cays and established friendly relations with the local inhabitants.

From 1655 to 1850 Britain claimed a protectorate over the Mosquito Indians; In 1848, the seizure of Greytown (San Juan del Norte), by the Mosquito Indians, with British support, aroused great excitement in the United States, and even involved the risk of war.

This caused great dissatisfaction among the Indians, who shortly afterwards revolted; and on 28 January 1860 Britain and Nicaragua concluded the treaty of Managua, which transferred to Nicaragua the suzerainty over the entire Caribbean coast from Cabo Gracias a Dios to Greytown (now San Juan del Norte) but granted autonomy to the Indians in the more limited Mosquito Reserve (the area described above).

The reserve nevertheless continued to be governed by an elected chief, aided by an administrative council, which met in Bluefields; The question was referred for arbitration to the Habsburg emperor of Austria, whose award (published in 1880) upheld the contention of the Indians, and affirmed that the suzerainty of Nicaragua was limited by their right of self-government. After enjoying almost complete autonomy for fourteen years, the Indians voluntarily surrendered their privileged position, and on 20 November 1894 their territory formally became incorporated in that of the republic of Nicaragua by Nicaraguan president José Santos Zelaya. The former Mosquito Coast was established as the Nicaraguan department of Zelaya.

The first version of the Mosquito Coast flag was adopted 1834.

There is also a novel by Paul Theroux called The Mosquito Coast, which was later made into a movie starring Harrison Ford and a young River Phoenix.

Sources and references

A Bibliography of the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua by Courtney de Kalb, in Bulletin of the American Geog. (1894) Studies of the Mosquito Shore in 1892 by the same author, and in the same publication, vol. http://www.flag.de/FOTW/flags/ni-mc.html - Mosquito Coast flag RoyalArk-Mosquitos

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.