Honduras was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, before the Spanish colonization in the sixteenth century. The Spanish introduced Catholicism and the now predominant Spanish language, along with numerous customs that have blended with the indigenous culture. Honduras became independent in 1821 and has since been a republic, although it has consistently endured much social strife and political instability, and remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. In 1960, the northern part of what was the Mosquito Coast was transferred from Nicaragua to Honduras by the International Court of Justice.
The nation's economy is primarily agricultural, making it especially vulnerable to natural disasters such as Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The lower class is primarily agriculturally based while wealth is concentrated in the country's urban centers. Honduras has a Human Development Index of 0.625, classifying it as a nation with medium development. When adjusted for income inequality, its Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is 0.443. (Full article...)
Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras, is located in a central mountainous region having a tropical climate within the Choluteca river basin. Major rivers supplying the capital city are the Choluteca and Guacerique rivers which then fill the Concepción and Laureles storage reservoirs. With an urban population of approximately 900,000 and another 400,000 living in the surrounding neighborhoods, Tegucigalpa is being confronted with an array of imposing integrated urban water management (IUWM) challenges. Potable water coverage is poor with around 40% of the city's residents without access to piped water supply thus relying on more costly water trucks and bottled water.
Furthermore, the capital city lies within a geographic depression amongst the surrounding mountain range making the city prone to flooding and landslides with both occurring in 1998 when Hurricane Mitch passed through Tegucigalpa killing 180 people and leaving many more displaced. Other critical IUWM issues include: inadequate water quality and quantity levels, deteriorating watersheds, rivers, and storage reservoirs, inefficient water use, rapid and poorly planned urbanization, intensive competition between industrial and domestic water users as well as irrigation demands, and industrial and domestic effluents discharging into the rivers, tributaries, and reservoirs without treatment. (Full article...)
The following are images from various Honduras-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1First coat of arms of Honduras given by the emperor Charles I of Spain an 5th of the Holy Roman empire. By the time of the colonial era Honduras suffered a demographic change due the arrival of Spanish immigrants (from History of Honduras)
Image 3Train station in La Ceiba during the 1920s. The locomotives were one of the main means of transportation in Honduras during the 20th century. (from History of Honduras)
Image 9The railroad transportation suffered a lot of economic issues and disadvantages during the 2000s, it was not until 2010 passenger trains where reactivated. (from History of Honduras)
Image 53Mayan representative hieroglyphic of the Yax Kuk Mo Dynasty that later would became the emblem of the Kingdom of "Oxwitik" also known as Copán. (from History of Honduras)
Image 64Diablos Negros, is a Honduran hard Rock band active since the 1980s. (from Culture of Honduras)
Image 65The church of la Merced in the city of Comayagua was the first Cathedral of Honduras in 1550 and is the oldest Honduran church still standing. (from History of Honduras)