On the southeastern corner of Mexico and running south to the eastern border of Honduras lies a tiny country, roughly 8,800 miles in size. Turned sideways, this country, Belize, would cover little more than the state of Massachusetts, and though it is sparsely populated, it still served as the flashpoint of a simmering conflict between Britain and Belize’s Central American neighbor Guatemala, which claimed the territory to themselves.

On this day, September 1981, Belize declared independence, supported fully by Britain. The path to independence was laid out twenty years earlier, but stalled because of the Guatemalan claim to Belize, which they threatened to realize with military force if they had to.

Guatemala rested their claim on the treaty with Britain, which they said ceded the land that became Belize in exchange for the British building a road through it to the Atlantic coast. Such a road was never built, and Guatemala considered the treaty abrogated and Belize rightfully theirs. Ultimately the issue was resolved by an international agreement, and Belize got to retain their nation status.