Honduras

Through the ages

Rivals in history

The kingdoms, empires and states Honduras fought or stood against, from the first to today.

1. 🇪🇸 Spanish Empire1524 to 1539

   Spanish captains arrived from Mexico and Panama in 1524 and fought each other as well as the local peoples. The Lenca leader Lempira led a large revolt from a mountain fortress until he was killed around 1537.

2. 🇬🇧 Kingdom of Great Britain1742 to 1861

   British settlers, allied with the Miskito, held parts of the Caribbean coast and the Bay Islands against Spain for over a century. Britain made the Bay Islands a colony in 1852 and only handed them and the coast to Honduras in 1861.

3. 🇬🇹 Guatemala1826 to 1840

   The Honduran general Francisco Morazán led the liberal side in the civil wars of the Central American federation and took Guatemala City in 1829. Guatemalan conservatives under Rafael Carrera defeated him there in 1840, ending the union.

4. 🇺🇸 United States1903 to 1925

   American marines landed in Honduras several times in the early twentieth century to protect American lives and fruit company property during civil wars, and the United States brokered several of the peace deals between Honduran factions.

5. 🇳🇮 Nicaragua1907 to 1960

   In 1907 Nicaraguan forces under President José Santos Zelaya defeated Honduras at Namasigüe and occupied Tegucigalpa. The land border set by the King of Spain in 1906 stayed disputed, with clashes in 1957, until the world court upheld it in 1960.

6. 🇸🇻 El Salvador1969 to 1992

   Tension over Salvadoran migrants and an unmarked border exploded after World Cup qualifying matches in July 1969: El Salvador invaded, and the Football War lasted about 100 hours. A peace treaty came in 1980, and the world court divided the disputed pockets in 1992.

7. 🇳🇮 Nicaragua1981 to 1990

   The Sandinista government of Nicaragua faced Contra rebels based in Honduras and backed by the United States. Border clashes followed, and in 1986 Nicaragua took Honduras to the world court over the attacks, a case it later withdrew.

8. 🇸🇻 El SalvadorSince 1992Still open

   The 1992 ruling left the tiny island of Conejo, in the Gulf of Fonseca, without a clear owner. Honduras holds it and keeps a military post there, while El Salvador still claims it.

9. 🇳🇮 Nicaragua1999 to 2007

   In 1999 Nicaragua took Honduras to the International Court of Justice over their boundary in the Caribbean Sea. The court drew a new line in 2007 and gave Honduras four small cays it had claimed.

Today

Honduras now

Once part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent nation in 1821. After two and a half decades of mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came to power in 1982. During the 1980s, Honduras proved a haven for anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting leftist guerrillas.

Capital

Tegucigalpa

Government

presidential republic

Head of government

Nasry Asfura

Languages

Spanish

Area

112,492 km²

Through time

Then and now

• Population10.6 million2023 · 1.6 million in 1950
• Life expectancy72.9 years2023 · 41.0 years in 1950
• GDP per person$5,1862022 · $2,018 in 1950
• Living in cities59%2025 · 31% in 1950
• Literacy88%2024 · 38% in 1950
• Political regimeElectoral democracy2025 · Electoral autocracy in 1950
• Military alliancesRio Pact2024 · Rio Pact in 1950
• Military spending1.5% of GDP2025
• War deathsNone2025

Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.

Relations

Close partners and tensions

Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 23 October 2026.