Book contents
3 - The Consolidation of Greytown
from Part I
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 February 2026
Summary
This chapter examines the tenure of British Consul William Dougal Christie who sought to settle territorial disputes over the Mosquito Shore with rival Central American republics and attempted to establish unchallenged British authority over the Nicaragua Canal route by shifting the capital of the Mosquito Kingdom to the harbor of San Juan del Norte (renamed Greytown). Nicaraguan officials challenged the British position by arguing that the Mosquito Kingdom was a fiction erected by the British. As the possibility of a Nicaraguan Canal loomed ahead, competing sovereign powers of Britain and Nicaragua converged on the authenticity of the Afro-Indigenous Mosquito Kingdom as the linchpin around which to settle their territorial dispute over the San Juan delta.
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- The Link That DividesRace, Empire, and the Quest for the Nicaragua Canal in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 69 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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