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Honduras The Era of the Conquistadores
The nearly simultaneous invasions of Honduras in 1524
by rival
Spanish expeditions began an era of conflict among rival
Spanish
claimants as well as with the indigenous population. The
major
initial expeditions were led by González Dávila, who hoped
to carve
out a territory for his own rule, and by Cristóbal de
Olid, who was
dispatched from Cuba by Cortés. Once in Honduras, however,
Olid
succumbed to personal ambition and attempted to establish
his own
independent authority. Word of this reached Cortés in
Mexico, and
to restore his own authority, he ordered yet another
expedition,
this one under the command of Francisco de Las Casas.
Then,
doubting the trustworthiness of any subordinate, Cortés
set out for
Honduras himself. The situation was further complicated by
the
entry into Honduras of expeditions from Guatemala under
Pedro de
Alvarado and from Nicaragua under Hernando de Soto.
In the initial struggle for power, Olid seemed to gain
the upper
hand, capturing both González Dávila and Las Casas. His
captives,
however, having managed to subvert the loyalty of some of
Olid's
men, took Olid prisoner, and then promptly beheaded him.
Although
later condemned for this action by a Mexican court, none
of the
conspirators ever suffered any real punishment.
The arrival of Cortés in Honduras in 1525 temporarily
restored
some order to the Spanish conquest. He established his own
authority over the rival claimants, obtained the
submission of
numerous indigenous chiefs, and tried to promote the
creation of
Spanish towns. His own headquarters was located at
Trujillo on the
Caribbean coast. In April 1526, Cortés returned to Mexico,
and the
remaining Spaniards resumed their strife.
Some order was again restored in October of that year
when the
first royal governor, Diego López de Salcedo, arrived.
López de
Salcedo's policies, however, drove many indigenous people,
once
pacified by Cortés, into open revolt. His attempt to
extend his
jurisdiction into Nicaragua resulted in his imprisonment
by the
authorities there. After agreeing to a Nicaraguan-imposed
definition of the boundary between the two provinces,
López de
Salcedo was released but did not return to Honduras until
1529.
The early 1530s were not prosperous for Honduras.
Renewed
fighting among the Spaniards, revolts, and decimation of
the
settled indigenous population through disease,
mistreatment, and
exportation of large numbers to the Caribbean islands as
slaves
left the colony on the edge of collapse by 1534. The
Spanish crown
renamed the depressed province as Honduras-Higueras,
subdividing it
into two districts. Higueras encompassed the western part
while the
rest remained known as Honduras. The decline in population
of the
province continued, and only the direct intervention of
Pedro de
Alvarado from Guatemala in 1536 kept Higueras from being
abandoned.
Alvarado was attracted by the prospect of gold in the
region, and,
with the help of native Guatemalans who accompanied him,
he soon
developed a profitable gold-mining industry centered in
the newly
established town of Gracias.
The discovery of gold and silver deposits attracted new
settlers
and increased the demand for indigenous labor. The
enforced labor,
however, led to renewed resistance by the native people
that
culminated in a major uprising in 1537. The leader of the
uprising
was a capable young Lenca chieftain known as Lempira
(after whom
the Honduran national monetary unit would eventually be
named).
Lempira established his base on a fortified hill known as
the Peñol
de Cerquín and until 1538 successfully defeated all
efforts to
subdue him. Inspired by his examples, other native
inhabitants
began revolting, and the entire district of Higueras
seemed
imperiled. Lempira was ultimately murdered while
negotiating with
the Spaniards. After his death, resistance rapidly
disintegrated,
although some fighting continued through 1539.
The defeat of Lempira's revolt accelerated the
decimation of the
indigenous population. In 1539 an estimated 15,000 native
Americans
remained under Spanish control; two years later, there
were only
8,000. Most of these were divided into encomiendas,
a system
that left the native people in their villages but placed
them under
the control of individual Spanish settlers. Under terms of
the
encomienda system, the Spaniards were supposed to
provide
the indigenous people with religious instruction and
collect
tribute from them for the crown. In return, the Spaniards
were
entitled to a supposedly limited use of indigenous labor.
As the
native population declined, the settlers exploited those
remaining
even more ruthlessly. This exploitation led to a clash
between the
Spanish settlers and authorities on one side and on the
other side
the Roman Catholic Church led by Father Cristóbal de
Pedraza, who,
in 1542 became the first bishop of Honduras. Bishop
Pedraza, like
others after him, had little success in his efforts to
protect the
native people.
Data as of December 1993
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