Honduras

Honduras  (  / h ɒ n ˈ d ʊər ə s /  ), officially the  Republic of Honduras  ( Spanish :  República de Honduras   <span class="IPA" style="font-family:'LucidaSansUnicode','ArialUnicodeMS';" title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)">[reˈpuβlika ðe onˈduɾas] ), is a republic in  Central America. It was at times referred to as  Spanish Honduras  to differentiate it from  British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of  Belize. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1em;">[5]  The country is bordered to the west by  Guatemala, to the southwest by  El Salvador , to the southeast by  Nicaragua , to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the  Gulf of Fonseca , and to the north by the  Gulf of Honduras , a large inlet of the  Caribbean Sea.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;">Honduras was home to several important indigenous cultures, most notably the Maya. Much of the country was conquered by Spainwhich introduced its now predominant language and many of its customs in the sixteenth century. It became independent in 1821 and has been a republic since the end of Spanish rule.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;">The area of Honduras is about 112,492 km² and the population exceeds eight million. Its northern portions are part of the Western Caribbean Zone. Honduras is most notable for production of minerals, coffee, tropical fruit, sugar cane and recently for export of clothing in the international market.