They were not, however, able to expand their control beyond Puerto Caballos and Trujillo, thanks to determined Miskito resistance.

This Afro-indigenous group became known to the Europeans as Miskito, and the displaced survivors of their expansionist activities were called the Sumu.

The Spanish hoped to win over support of the Miskito elite, for example, by offering them the same sort of presents that the English, and by educating their youth in Guatemala, as so many Miskito had been educated in Jamaica.

As Spain's former colonies in Central America gained their independence in 1821 and then began a series of wars to determine whether there would be a federalist, unitary union, or each former province would be independent, the potential of any regional power to threaten the Miskito kingdom declined.

The Miskito kings also continued to encourage settlement by foreigners in their lands as long as their sovereignty was respected.

The reserve nevertheless continued to be governed by an elected chief, aided by an administrative council, which met in Bluefields ; and the Miskito denied that the suzerainty of Nicaragua connoted any right of interference with their internal affairs.

Their military capacity and British support allowed the Miskito people to retain their independence when the Pacific side of Central America was in Spanish hands and through the Federation of Central American States.

The film features interviews with Miskito Indian people and some non-Miskito clergy who lived among them concerning actions of the government against them, including bombing of villages, shootings, and forced removal of people from their homes.

In April 2009 the Miskito announced a unilateral declaration of independence from Nicaragua under the name Community Nation of Moskitia ( The Today ( BBC Radio 4 ) feature on this included a rendering of their " National Anthem ", which shares its tune with Patriots of Micronesia, etc .).

Since 1960, the Miskito Indians have utilized breath hold diving techniques to harvest lobsters as their primary source of income.

Some members of AIM supported the Sandinistas of the national government, although they had forced removal of thousands of Miskito from their traditional territory.

The Pech suffered heavily from the emergence of the Miskito in the seventeenth century and their alliance with outsiders, especially British traders, and with the runaway slaves who made up the " Mosquitos zambos ".

The Miskito people of Nicaragua have also adopted it for their national anthem.

Around 1638, the king of the Miskito visited England and made an alliance with the English crown.

England's primary motive and the most immediate result of the treaty was to secure an alliance between the Miskito and English for the War of Jenkin's Ear, and Miskito and English cooperated in attacks on Spanish settlements during the war.

For this, the alliance of the English Miskito ethnic group was decisive, and the British provided them with armaments that allowed them to subdue the other ethnic groups of the Caribbean coast, the Sumu, and the Rama.

Miskito became the dominant language of the Mosquito Coast from the late 17th century on, as a result of the people's alliance with the British Empire, which colonized the area.

A third force, Misurasata, appeared among the Miskito, Sumo and Rama Amerindian peoples of Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, who in December 1981 found themselves in conflict with the authorities following the government's efforts to nationalize Indian land.

These survivors intermarried with the local Miskito people and produced mixed-race offspring.

The Miskito Sambu settled in the valley of the Wanks River, and by the late seventeenth century held the office of General with jurisdiction over the northern portions of the Miskito Kingdom.

However, the new colony was immediately beset with problems, many of the settlers died in route, and the Miskito were dissatisfied with the " stupid little things " the Spanish offered as gifts, which had been a mainstay of the British welcome in previous years.

As a result, the Miskito resumed trade with Jamaica, and when a new Anglo-Spanish war broke out in 1797, Miskito King George II attacked and ended Hodgson's rule in Bluefield, and then on 4 September 1800, George led a large force that stormed the Spanish positions and drove them from his lands.

A number of elite members of Miskito did accept this, but it was cut across by underlying tensions between the northern regions that were controlled by Zambos and were always loyal to George II, and the Tawira southerners, who aligned with the Admiral, Brinton that became more partisan of Spain.

In 1844, the British government decided to return to formal relations with the Miskito Kingdom and formally declared a protectorate.

The Mosquito Coast | Miskito coast is marked with a star.

During the Sandinista / Indian conflict in Nicaragua of the mid-1980s, Russell Means sided with Miskito Indians opposing the Sandinista government.

The Miskito charged the government with forcing relocations of as many as 8, 500 Miskito.

They united with the indigenous Miskito people, and by the early eighteenth century came to dominate the kingdom, leading it on many extensive slave raids.

He once again began military operations in southern Nicaragua, loosely federated with northern forces which, composed mostly from highly paid former National Guard members and some Miskito Indians, were collectively referred to as the Contras.

The shipwrecks, or perhaps escaped slaves from the Providence Island colony, concentrated around Cape Gracias a Dios and as they intermarried with the indigenous people producing a mixed race offspring, were known to the Spanish as Mosquitos Zambos, while the others living more on the southern ( Nicaraguan ) region were less mixed and have been dubbed Tawira Miskito by modern scholars.

English privateers working through the Providence Island Company made informal alliances with the Miskito, and the English began to crown Miskito kings, thus forming what came to be called the Mosquito Kingdom.

Means announced his support for the Miskito group MISURASATA ( later known as YATAMA ), which was allied with the Contras.

The independence movement is led by Hector Williams who is described as the leader of the Miskito and uses the title Wihta Tara, or Great Judge.

In 1837 Britain which began to encourage these traders by formally recognizing the Miskito Kingdom, pointedly noted its interest in preventing interference in the kingdom by Central American countries.

This caused great dissatisfaction among the Miskito, who shortly afterwards revolted ; and on 28 January 1860, Britain and Nicaragua concluded the treaty of Managua, which transferred to Nicaragua the suzerainty over the entire Caribbean coast from Cabo Gracias a Dios to Greytown but granted autonomy to the Miskito in the more limited Mosquito Reserve ( the area described above ).

The Miskito kingdom aided Britain during the American Revolutionary War by attacking Spanish colonies and gained several victories alongside the British.

Despite the withdrawal, Britain maintained an unofficial protectorate over the kingdom, often intervening to protect Miskito interests against Spanish encroachments.

This military cooperation would prove important as Miskito forces were vital to protecting not only English interests in the Miskito Kingdom, but also for British holdings in Belize.

Miskito kings began being crowned in Belize, as was George Frederic Augustus I ( 1816 ) and Robert Charles Frederic ( 1845 ), and commissions along the lines of those issues in Jamaica continued to be administered.

So the Miskito Kingdom, where there were still mahogany trees, became of interest to Belize based traders and wood cutting companies who obtained, in turn concessions and grants from King Robert Charles Frederic.

British governors in Belize began issuing commissions and appointments to Miskito kings and other officials, such as King Robert Charles Frederick, crowned in Belize in 1825, and British officials regularly recognized the various Miskito offices and protected Miskito interests against the Central American republics and against the United States, which protested British interference under the Monroe Doctrine.

Meanwhile, no European country occupied much of Central America, although gradually the English of Jamaica established alliances with the Miskito Kingdom of modern day Nicaragua and Honduras, and them began logging on the coast of modern day Belize.

In the Miskito Kingdom, the rise to power of the Miskito-Zambos, who originated in the survivors of a rebellion aboard a slave ship in the 1640s and the introduction of African slaves by British settlers within the Miskito area and in Belize British Honduras also transformed this area into one with a high percentage of persons of African descent as was found in most of the rest of the Caribbean.