Honduras has been inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples, the most powerful of which, until the ninth century CE, were the Maya. The western-central part of Honduras was inhabited by the Lenca while other indigenous peoples settled in the northeast and coastal regions. These peoples had their conflicts but maintained commercial relationships with each other and with other populations as distant as Panama and Mexico.
On July 30, 1502, Christopher Columbus first saw Honduran soil and claimed the territory in the name of his sovereigns, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. He named the area "Honduras" (meaning "depths") for the deep water off the coast. In 1523 the first expeditionary forces arrived under the command of Gil Gonzales de Avila, who hoped to rule the new territory. In 1524, Cristobal de Olid arrived with the same intent on behalf of Hernán Cortés. Olid founded the colony Triunfo de la Cruz and tried to establish his own independent government. When Cortes learned of this, he sent a new expedition, headed by Francisco de las Casas. Olid managed to capture his rivals, but was betrayed by his men and assassinated. Cortes himself then traveled to Honduras and established his government in the city of Trujillo before returning to Mexico in 1526. Honduras formed part of the colonial era Captaincy General of Guatemala. The cities of Comayagua and Tegucigalpa developed as early mining centers.
By October 1537, the Lenca leader Lempira had unified more than two hundred indigenous groups to resist penetration by the Spanish conquerors. After a long battle, Governor Montejo gained control of the Valley of Comayagua, established the city of Comayagua in another location, and defeated the indigenous forces in Tenampua, Guaxeregui, and Ojuera.
Honduras gained independence from Spain in 1821. The country was briefly annexed to the First Mexican Empire. In 1823, Honduras joined the newly formed United Provinces of Central America federation, which collapsed in 1838.
Pre-Columbian era
Mayan civilization
Pre-Columbian Honduras was populated by a complex mixture of indigenous peoples representing a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and linguistic groups—the most advanced and notable of which were related to the Maya of the Yucatán and Guatemala. Maya civilization had reached western Honduras in the 5th century A.D., probably spreading from lowland Mayan centers in Guatemala's Petén region. The Maya spread rapidly through the Río Motagua Valley, centering their control on the major ceremonial center of Copán, near the present-day town of Santa Rosa de Copán. For three and a half centuries, the Maya developed the city, making it one of the principal centers of their culture. At one point, Copán was probably the leading center for both astronomical studies—in which the Maya were quite advanced—and art. One of the longest Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions ever discovered was found at Copán. The Maya also established extensive trade networks spanning as far as central Mexico.
Then, at the height of the Maya civilization, Copán was apparently abandoned. The last hieroglyph date in Copán is 800 A.D. Much of the population evidently remained in the area after that, but the educated class—the priests and rulers who built the temples, inscribed the glyphs, and developed the astronomy and mathematics—suddenly vanished. Copán fell into ruin, and the descendants of the Maya who remained had no memory of the meanings of the inscriptions or of the reasons for the sudden fall.
Other indigenous groups
Following the period of Maya dominance, the area that would eventually comprise Honduras was occupied by a multiplicity of indigenous peoples. Indigenous groups related to the Toltec of central Mexico migrated from the northwest into parts of what became western and southern Honduras. Most notable were the Toltec-speaking Chorotega, who established themselves near the present-day city of Choluteca. Later enclaves of Nahua-speaking peoples, such as the Pipil, whose language was related to that of the Aztec, established themselves at various locations from the Caribbean coast to the Golfo de Fonseca on the Pacific coast.