- América del Norte
- Nicaragua
- History and Culture
The recorded history of Nicaragua begins in 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered America. In it's domains lived indigenous people whose culture has still lived on with the passing of the years and centuries. The Pre-Columbine Nicaragua also had great importance, but it is after the 15th century that the country begins to grow and become what it is today.
The Spanish discoverer Francisco Fernandez de Córdoba founded the cities of Leon and Granada in the year 1525, in what today is Nicaragua. Until 1821 the region came under Spanish rule, but this situation changed with the independence of Central America which was achieved that year. The Republic of Nicaragua was established in the first half of the nineteenth century, and got off to a good start. The country prospered while Central America fought for unification. Nicaragua became a rich, stable, democratic country and a wave of immigration arrived from European shores, but the idea that power could be imposed through military force was one which lay under the surface in the region.
By the beginning of the twentieth century the political situation of the country was shaky. The USA was pursuing a policy of intervening in the politics of other countries, particularly in the Central and South American region, and Nicaragua was in dispute over some overseas territories with countries such as Colombia.
Several names stand out from this period of history, including Augusto César Sandino, the revolutionary leader who was the scourge of North American interventionism, and was condemned to death and assassinated by the National Guard in 1934 after signing a peace pact with the president Juan Bautista Sacasa.
Several decades later the powerful Somoza family, who enjoyed the approval and support of the US government, took control of the country. In 1979 a left wing government was elected. The ruling party FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) was supported by Cuba and the USSR, and political tensions in the zone finally resulted in a war between east and west, between the USSR and the USA in Central America; a civil war which provoked an exodus of Nicaraguan refugees fleeing from the war, and persecution by the opposing factions. Sadly the economic success that Nicaragua had enjoyed until then collapsed and the country was left in a precarious situation.
Later came the first female president Violeta Chamorro, peace, and the removal of North American troops from the zone, all of which contributed towards a significant recuperation of the country, and a period of stability which has been threatened only by several natural disasters.
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