Mosquito Coast

a coastal region in Central America bordering on the Caribbean Sea, E of Honduras and Nicaragua.

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or Miskito Coast

Region along the coast of eastern Nicaragua and Honduras.

It comprises a lowland about 40 mi (65 km) wide that skirts the Caribbean Sea for about 225 mi (360 km). It was visited by Christopher Columbus in 1502, but Europeans had little contact with the area until 1655, when England established a protectorate there. It is named for the Miskito Indians. Spain, Nicaragua, and the U.S. disputed England's protectorate until the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850). In 1894 the region was incorporated into Nicaragua, but the northern part was granted to Honduras in 1960 by the International Court of Justice. The chief town is Bluefields, at the mouth of the Escondido River in Nicaragua.

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▪ region, Nicaragua-Honduras

also spelled  Miskito , Spanish  Costa de Mosquitos 

      coastal region of Nicaragua and Honduras. It comprises a band approximately 40 miles (65 km) wide of lowland that skirts the Caribbean Sea for about 225 miles (360 km). Although it was visited by Columbus in 1502, Europeans had little contact with the area until the rise of the buccaneers in the 17th century, after which the English established a protectorate over the Miskito Indians, for whom the region is named. Spain, Nicaragua, and the United States disputed this claim until the matter was finally settled by the occupation of the Mosquito Coast by the Nicaraguan government and by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 between the United States and Great Britain.

      The Mosquito Coast's principal city is Bluefields; other centres, also in Nicaragua, are Puerto Cabezas and San Juan del Norte. A majority of the population is Miskito Indian.

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