Editing Belize City (section)

==History==
Belize City [[English settlement of Belize|was founded as "Belize Town" in 1638]]<ref name="belizecitycouncil.org"/> by [[Baymen|English lumber harvesters]].  It had been a small [[Maya peoples|Maya]] settlement called ''Holzuz''.{{efn|''Jolsus'' in modern Mayan orthography.}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mwakikagile |first1=Godfrey |title=Belize and Its Identity: A Multicultural Perspective |date=2010 |publisher=New Africa Press |isbn=9789987160204 |page=20}}</ref> Belize Town was ideal for the English as a central post because it was on the sea and a natural outlet for local rivers and creeks down which the British shipped logwood and [[mahogany]]. Belize Town also became the home of the thousands of African slaves brought in by the English ([[Acts of Union 1707|later the British, beginning in 1707]]) to toil in the forestry industry. It was the coordination site for the 1798 [[Battle of St. George's Caye]], won by the British against would-be invaders, and the home of the local courts and government officials up to the 1970s. For this reason, historians often say that "the capital was the colony", because the center of British control was here.<ref name="Ambergris Caye, Belize History">{{cite web| url=http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/mayan/amberhistory.html| title=Ambergris Caye, Belize History| access-date=February 23, 2013| archive-date=16 April 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130416082516/http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/mayan/amberhistory.html| url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="cavehill.uwi.edu">{{cite web| url=http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/BNCCde/belize/conference/papers/Barnett.html| title=Ayuso, Mateo, "The Role of the Maya-Mestizo in the Development of Belize", in Belize Ethnicity and Development, papers presented at the First Annual Studies on Belize Conference, May 1987, Society for the Promotion of Education and Research, Belize.| access-date=February 23, 2013| archive-date=17 September 2007| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070917073616/http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/Barnett.html| url-status=live}}</ref>

This sentiment remains true today. Even though people like [[Antonio Soberanis Gómez]], [[George Cadle Price|George Price]] and [[Evan X Hyde]] all lobbied to take their movements outside, and other ethnic groups such as the [[Garifuna people|Garifuna]] and [[Mestizos]] sprang up elsewhere in the country, people looked to Belize Town for guidance.<ref name="Ambergris Caye, Belize History"/><ref name="cavehill.uwi.edu"/>

===Natural disasters===
Belize City has been directly struck by two hurricanes since 1900, the [[1931 Belize hurricane|1931 hurricane]] and the 1961 [[Hurricane Hattie]], and at various times areas of the city have burnt down, the most recent being fires in the 1999 and 2004. The city was also hit hard by [[Hurricane Richard]] in 2010 and by the 2016 [[Hurricane Earl (2016)|Hurricane Earl]]. Fires on the Northside and Southside have burnt out great stretches of housing, but the fire department was able to quench most of these. The city is also susceptible to flooding in the rainy season.