INTRODUCTION $1 
cated his throne. ‘The Mexican republic that was then 
instituted continued until the French intervention in 
1861. During this time the most noteworthy events 
were the war with the United States in 1846-47 and the 
passing of the reform laws under Benito Jaurez that 
freed Mexico from the oppressions of the church. 
As a result of the French intervention Maximilian of 
Austria was made emperor. This unfortunate ruler, 
who did much to beautify Mexico City, was dethroned 
and shot in 1867. The republic was then re-established. 
The other republics of Central America formed a 
federal union at the time the first Mexican empire came 
to an end in 1823. This union was preserved till 1839 
and several later attempts were made to restore it. The 
five republics have had such tempestuous careers as a 
result of warfare, usurpation, and political brigandage 
that their material and social development has been 
stunted. Costa Rica is, however, on the high road to 
stability. 
Panama was until 1903 a part of Colombia. British 
Honduras had its origin in the concessions given to 
English logwood gatherers and to the fact that pirates 
found refuge behind the coral reefs that line the shores. 
The English claim to the Mosquito Coast rested upon a 
similar flimsy basis, and was finally abandoned. 
Languages. About thirty distinct groups of re- 
lated languages, technically known as linguistic stocks, 
were found in Mexico and Central America. Some of 
these stocks occupied small areas and showed little in 
the way of word variation. A few stocks were stretched 
over wide territories and were divided into many mutu- 
ally unintelligible tongues, which in turn were sub- 
divided into well-defined dialects. Several entire stocks 
are now extinct and others are rapidly approaching 
extinction through the substitution of Spanish. A 
