Fonseca, Gulf of
Fonseca, Gulf of
Gulf of Fonseca. This large bay on the Pacific coast, named after Queen Isabella of Spain's counselor, Juan Rodríguez De Fonseca, is partitioned among El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua; the lion's share pertains to Honduras. In 1849, Ephraim George Squier, partly with an eye toward securing a Pacific terminus for the Honduras Interoceanic Railroad, persuaded Honduras to cede Tigre Island to the United States. British consul-general Frederick Chatfield sought to preempt this cession by occupying the island. The upshot was the signing of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850. The insular security afforded by the port Amapala has made it a favorite launch site for Honduran insurrectionists since independence.
See alsoClayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850) .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bustillo Lacayo, Guillermo. El Golfo de Fonseca: Región clave en Centroamérica. Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Editorial Guaymuras, 2002.
Zamora R., Augusto. Intereses territoriales de Nicaragua: San Andrés y Providencia, Cayos, Golfo de Fonseca, Río San Juan. Managua: Fondo Editorial de lo Jurídico, 1995.
Kenneth V. Finney