Disputed Borderlands: Entangled Territories between the Spanish and British Empires in Colonial Central America, 1700-1787

The intention of this thesis is to examine the history of eighteenth-century Central America as a borderland disputed by three major powers: the British, Spanish and the Miskito. Interactions between these three powers had a major impact on the region’s development but were focused in three key areas. These areas, and the focus of the thesis, are the Mosquito Coast, Costa Rica and Belize. They were the main points of contact for the three major regional powers. The relations that formed in these areas were complicated by the limited influence of the imperial capitals, the conflicting aims of their nearby colonies, the capitals' dependency on these colonies to implement policy and the differing aims of those that lived in the borderlands. The other key aspect of this thesis is the inclusion of the Miskito as a major power in Central America. While their importance has been covered before, the complex interplay of the Miskito’s role in borderland relations and their own cultural development has only been studied in ethnographic or anthropological works. These complicated relations have not been well explored in the existing historiography, which typically seeks to create clear distinctions between British, Spanish and Miskito activity. Through studying these cases, using an entangled approach, the intention is to show that they were deeply entwined, not only between empires, but also through different levels of imperial administration including the Miskito. Ultimately, the thesis seeks to analyse the impact of these myriad interactions in the Central American borderlands and prove the region’s development was shaped by a combination of different groups and that historical analysis based on imperial frameworks often does not accurately portray the history of these areas.