Member-only story
Why The Mosquito Coast Has Nothing To Do With Actual Mosquitos
How this historic region got its name
The Mosquito Coast is a stretch of land along the Gulf of Mexico in present-day Nicaragua and Honduras. Most modern people know the region as a destination for various cruise ships, but the area has centuries of history and strategic posturing attached to it. Whenever people hear the name Mosquito Coast, they immediately think that the region is inundated with pesky mosquitos. That is a fair assumption. The Mosquito Coast is a tropical lowland not dissimilar to Florida or Panama, which are swampy and buggy. But that is not the case at all.
In fact, the Mosquito Coast has nothing to do with mosquitos. The name Mosquito Coast came about via transliteration and a forgotten kingdom. The result is a name that is completely misunderstood and misremembered.
The Miskito People
The Miskito are an indigenous ethnic group that still populates the Mosquito Coast today. The Miskito people ruled kingdoms in this region from the time that the Europeans first arrived. The region bounced between Spanish dominance and British control up until the 20th century. Throughout it, the Miskito Kingdom was a cornerstone of the region and was the government that represented the native people.
After Spanish influence waned in Central America, the British set up shop and took the mantle of European regional power. The British long had an interest in the region, with their first settlements appearing in the 17th century. After the Spanish departed, the British exerted greater control and turned portions of the Mosquito Coast into an official crown colony.
The Miskito people still number around 700,000 today and inhabit the same areas that they did during their monarchical period.
Transliteration
As the British absorbed control of the Mosquito Coast, they also took control of the language. As the Miskito Kingdom faded from prominence and public memory, people started assuming that the word “Miskito” referred to mosquitos rather than an indigenous people group. Hearing the word in conversation made ignorant people think of biting insects rather than an ancient group of people.
