Honduras is located in Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Guatemala and Nicaragua and bordering the Gulf of Fonseca (North Pacific Ocean), between El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Honduras has borders with Guatemala for 256km, Nicaragua for 922km and El Salvador for 342km.
Land in Honduras is mostly mountains in interior, narrow coastal plains.
Honduran land covers an area of 112090 square kilometers which is slightly larger than Tennessee
As for the Honduran climate; subtropical in lowlands, temperate in mountains.
Honduran(s) speak Spanish, Amerindian dialects.
|
Atlántida Choluteca Colón Comayagua Copán Cortés El Paraíso Francisco Morazán Gracias a Dios Honduras (general) | Intibucá Islas de la Bahía La Paz Lempira Ocotepeque Olancho Santa Bárbara Valle Yoro |
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. The country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed about 5,600 people and caused approximately $2 billion in damage.
Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere with an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income and massive unemployment, is banking on expanded trade under the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and on debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The country has met most of its macroeconomic targets, and began a three-year IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PGRF) program in February 2004. Growth remains dependent on the economy of the US, its largest trading partner, on continued exports of non-traditional agricultural products (such as melons, chiles, tilapia, and shrimp), and on reduction of the high crime rate.
Honduran natural resources include timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, hydropower
has only a short Pacific coast but a long Caribbean shoreline, including the virtually uninhabited eastern Mosquito Coast
Honduran religion is Roman Catholic 97%, Protestant 3%.
Natural hazards in Honduras include frequent, but generally mild, earthquakes; extremely susceptible to damaging hurricanes and floods along the Caribbean coast.