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<\/a>Originally inhabited by various indigenous cultures since ancient times, the region was conquered by the Spanish Empire in the 16th century. Nicaragua gained independence from Spain in 1821. The Mosquito Coast followed a different historical path, being colonized by the English in the 17th century and later coming under British rule. It became an autonomous territory of Nicaragua in 1860 and its northernmost part was transferred to Honduras in 1960. Since its independence, Nicaragua has undergone periods of political unrest, dictatorship, occupation and fiscal crisis, including the Nicaraguan Revolution<\/a> of the 1960s and 1970s and the Contra War<\/a> of the 1980s.<\/p>\n The mixture of cultural traditions has generated substantial diversity in folklore, cuisine, music, and literature, particularly the latter, given the literary contributions of Nicaraguan poets and writers such as Rub\u00e9n Dar\u00edo. Known as the “land of lakes and volcanoes”, Nicaragua is also home to the second-largest rainforest of the Americas. The biological diversity, warm tropical climate and active volcanoes make Nicaragua an increasingly popular tourist destination.<\/p>\n Paleo-Americans first inhabited what is now known as Nicaragua as far back as 12,000 BCE.<\/p>\n They lived a life based primarily on hunting and gathering, as well as fishing, and performing slash-and-burn agriculture.<\/p>\n In 1502, on his fourth voyage, Christopher Columbus<\/a> became the first European known to have reached what is now Nicaragua as he sailed southeast toward the Isthmus of Panama<\/a>. Columbus explored the Mosquito Coast<\/a> on the Atlantic side of Nicaragua but did not encounter any indigenous people. 20 years later, the Spaniards returned to Nicaragua, this time to its southwestern part. The first attempt to conquer Nicaragua was by the conquistador Gil Gonz\u00e1lez D\u00e1vila<\/a>, who had arrived in Panama in January 1520. In 1522, Gonz\u00e1lez D\u00e1vila ventured into the area that later became known as the Rivas Department of Nicaragua. It was there that he encountered an indigenous Nahua tribe led by a chieftain named Macuilmiquiztli, whose name has sometimes been erroneously referred to as “Nicarao” or “Nicaragua”.<\/p>\n The first Spanish permanent settlements were founded in 1524. That year, the conquistador Francisco Hern\u00e1ndez de C\u00f3rdoba<\/a> founded two of Nicaragua’s principal cities: Granada<\/a> on Lake Nicaragua was the first settlement, followed by Le\u00f3n<\/a> at a location west of Lake Managua.<\/p>\n The Captaincy General of Guatemala<\/a> was dissolved in September 1821 with the Act of Independence of Central America<\/a>, and Nicaragua soon became part of the First Mexican Empire<\/a>. After the monarchy of the First Mexican Empire was overthrown in 1823, Nicaragua joined the newly formed United Provinces of Central America<\/a>, which was later renamed as the Federal Republic of Central America. Nicaragua finally became an independent republic in 1838.<\/p>\n Rivalry between the Liberal elite of Le\u00f3n and the Conservative elite of Granada characterized the early years of independence and often degenerated into civil war, particularly during the 1840s and 1850s. Managua was chosen as the nation’s capital in 1852 to allay the rivalry between the two feuding cities. During the days of the California Gold Rush<\/a>, Nicaragua provided a route for travelers from the eastern United States to journey to California by sea, via the use of the San Juan River<\/a> and Lake Nicaragua.<\/p>\n Great Britain, which had claimed the Mosquito Coast as a protectorate since 1655, delegated the area to Honduras in 1859 before transferring it to Nicaragua in 1860. The Mosquito Coast remained an autonomous area until 1894. Jos\u00e9 Santos Zelaya<\/a>, President of Nicaragua from 1893 to 1909, negotiated the annexation of the Mosquito Coast to the rest of Nicaragua. In his honor, the region was named “Zelaya Department<\/a>“.<\/p>\n Throughout the late 19th century, the United States and several European powers considered a scheme to build a canal across Nicaragua<\/a>, linking the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.<\/p>\n In 1909, the United States supported the conservative-led forces rebelling against President Zelaya. U.S. motives included differences over the proposed Nicaragua Canal, Nicaragua’s potential as a destabilizing influence in the region, and Zelaya’s attempts to regulate foreign access to Nicaraguan natural resources. On November 18, 1909, U.S. warships were sent to the area after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) were executed by order of Zelaya. The U.S. justified the intervention by claiming to protect U.S. lives and property. Zelaya resigned later that year.<\/p>\n United States Marines occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933, except for a nine-month period beginning in 1925. In 1914, the Bryan\u2013Chamorro Treaty<\/a> was signed, giving the U.S. control over a proposed canal through Nicaragua, as well as leases for potential canal defenses. Following the evacuation of U.S. Marines, another violent conflict<\/a> between Liberals and Conservatives took place in 1926, which resulted in the return of U.S. Marines.<\/p>\n From 1927 until 1933, rebel general Augusto C\u00e9sar Sandino<\/a> led a sustained guerrilla war first against the Conservative regime and subsequently against the U.S. Marines, whom he fought for over five years. When the Americans left in 1933, they set up the Guardia Nacional (national guard), a combined military and police force trained and equipped by the Americans and designed to be loyal to U.S. interests.<\/p>\n Nicaragua has experienced several military dictatorships, the longest being the hereditary dictatorship of the Somoza family<\/a>, who ruled for 43 nonconsecutive years during the 20th century. The Somoza family came to power as part of a U.S.-engineered pact in 1927 that stipulated the formation of the Guardia Nacional to replace the marines who had long reigned in the country. Somoza Garc\u00eda slowly eliminated officers in the national guard who might have stood in his way, and then deposed Sacasa and became president on January 1, 1937, in a rigged election.<\/p>\n On September 21, 1956, Somoza Garc\u00eda was shot to death by Rigoberto L\u00f3pez P\u00e9rez<\/a>, a 27-year-old Liberal Nicaraguan poet. Luis Somoza Debayle<\/a>, the eldest son of the late president, was appointed president by the congress and officially took charge of the country. Somoza Garc\u00eda’s youngest son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle<\/a>, often referred to simply as “Somoza”, became president in 1967.<\/p>\n The Somoza family was among a few families or groups of influential firms which reaped most of the benefits of the country’s growth from the 1950s to the 1970s. When Somoza was deposed by the Sandinistas in 1979, the family’s worth was estimated to be between $500 million and $1.5 billion.<\/p>\n In 1961, Carlos Fonseca<\/a> founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Sandinistas forcefully took power in July 1979, ousting Somoza, and prompting the exodus of the majority of Nicaragua’s middle class, wealthy landowners, and professionals, many of whom settled in the United States. The Carter administration decided to work with the new government, while attaching a provision for aid forfeiture if it was found to be assisting insurgencies in neighboring countries. Somoza fled the country and eventually ended up in Paraguay<\/a>, where he was assassinated in September 1980, allegedly by members of the Argentinian Revolutionary Workers’ Party.<\/p>\n In 1980, the Carter administration provided $60 million in aid to Nicaragua under the Sandinistas, but the aid was suspended when the administration obtained evidence of Nicaraguan shipment of arms to El Salvadoran rebels. In response to the coming to power of the Sandinistas, various rebel groups collectively known as the “contras” were formed to oppose the new government. The Reagan administration<\/a> authorized the CIA<\/a> to help the contra rebels with funding, armaments, and training. They engaged in a systematic campaign of terror among the rural Nicaraguan population to disrupt the social reform projects of the Sandinistas.<\/p>\n After the U.S. Congress prohibited federal funding of the contras in 1983, the Reagan administration nonetheless illegally continued to back them by covertly selling arms to Iran and channeling the proceeds to the contras (the Iran\u2013Contra affair<\/a>), for which several members of the Reagan administration were convicted of felonies.<\/p>\n In the Nicaraguan general election, 1990, a coalition of anti-Sandinista parties (from the left and right of the political spectrum) led by Violeta Chamorro<\/a>, the widow of Pedro Joaqu\u00edn Chamorro Cardenal, defeated the Sandinistas. The defeat shocked the Sandinistas, who had expected to win.<\/p>\n Exit polls of Nicaraguans reported Chamorro’s victory over Ortega was achieved with a 55% majority. Chamorro was the first woman president of Nicaragua. Ortega vowed he would govern desde abajo (from below). Chamorro came to office with an economy in ruins, primarily because of the financial and social costs of the contra war with the Sandinista-led government. In the next election, the Nicaraguan general election, 1996, Daniel Ortega<\/a> and the Sandinistas of the FSLN were defeated again, this time by Arnoldo Alem\u00e1n<\/a> of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC).<\/p>\n In November 2016, Ortega was elected for his third consecutive term<\/a> (his fourth overall).<\/p>\n International monitoring of the elections was initially prohibited, and as a result the validity of the elections has been disputed, but observation by the OAS was announced in October. Ortega was reported by Nicaraguan election officials as having received 72% of the vote.<\/p>\n In April 2018, demonstrations opposed a decree increasing taxes and reducing benefits in the country’s pension system.<\/p>\n Nicaragua occupies a landmass of 130,967 km2 (50,567 sq mi), which makes it slightly larger than England. Nicaragua has three distinct geographical regions: the Pacific lowlands \u2013 fertile valleys which the Spanish colonists settled, the Amerrisque Mountains<\/a> (North-central highlands), and the Mosquito Coast (Atlantic lowlands\/Caribbean lowlands<\/a>).<\/p>\n The low plains of the Atlantic Coast are 97 km (60 mi) wide in areas. They have long been exploited for their natural resources.<\/p>\n On the Pacific side of Nicaragua are the two largest fresh water lakes in Central America\u2014Lake Managua<\/a> and Lake Nicaragua<\/a>. Surrounding these lakes and extending to their northwest along the rift valley of the Gulf of Fonseca<\/a> are fertile lowland plains, with soil highly enriched by ash from nearby volcanoes of the central highlands.<\/p>\n Nicaragua is among the poorest countries in the Americas. Agriculture represents 15.5% of GDP, the highest percentage in Central America. Remittances account for over 15% of the Nicaraguan GDP. Close to one billion dollars are sent to the country by Nicaraguans living abroad. The economy grew at a rate of about 4% in 2011. By 2019, given restrictive taxes and a civil conflict, it recorded a negative growth of – 3.9%; the International Monetary Fund forecast for 2020 is a further decline of 6% due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n According to the United Nations Development Programme<\/a>, 48% of the population of Nicaragua live below the poverty line, 79.9% of the population live with less than $2 per day.<\/p>\n Nicaragua is primarily an agricultural country; agriculture constitutes 60% of its total exports which annually yield approximately US$300 million. Nearly two-thirds of the coffee crop comes from the northern part of the central highlands, in the area north and east of the town of Estel\u00ed. Tobacco, grown in the same northern highlands region as coffee, has become an increasingly important cash crop since the 1990s, with annual exports of leaf and cigars in the neighborhood of $200 million per year. Today most of Nicaragua’s bananas are grown in the northwestern part of the country near the port of Corinto; sugarcane is also grown in the same district. Cassava<\/a>, a root crop somewhat similar to the potato, is an important food in tropical regions. Cassava is also the main ingredient in tapioca pudding.<\/p>\n Mining is becoming a major industry in Nicaragua, contributing less than 1% of gross domestic product (GDP). Restrictions are being placed on lumbering due to increased environmental concerns about destruction of the rain forests. But lumbering continues despite these obstacles; indeed, a single hardwood tree may be worth thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n Nicaragua is considering construction of a canal linking the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, which President Daniel Ortega has said will give Nicaragua its “economic independence.” Scientists have raised concerns about environmental impacts, but the government has maintained that the canal will benefit the country by creating new jobs and potentially increasing its annual growth to an average of 8% per year.<\/p>\n By 2006, tourism had become the second largest industry in Nicaragua. The growth in tourism has also positively affected the agricultural, commercial, and finance industries, as well as the construction industry. President Daniel Ortega has stated his intention to use tourism to combat poverty throughout the country. The results for Nicaragua’s tourism-driven economy have been significant, with the nation welcoming one million tourists in a calendar year for the first time in its history in 2010.<\/p>\n The road infrastructure is very well spread across the Pacific side, while the Atlantic side has less infrastructure. As of 2009, from a total of 19,137 km 2,033 km are paved and 17,104 km are unpaved.<\/p>\n Public transport in Nicaragua is mostly served by buses on both short and wide range distances. There are five different types, based on the size of the vehicle, target group, frequency of stops and distance.<\/p>\n As of 2013, 147 airports exist in Nicaragua. Nicaragua’s main international airport is Managua International Airport.<\/a><\/p>\n Since September 2001, all rail transport has been suspended in Nicaragua.<\/p>\n The flag of Nicaragua was first adopted on September 4, 1908, but not made official until August 27, 1971. It is based and inspired on the flag of the Federal Republic of Central America<\/a> and flag of Argentina<\/a>.<\/p>\n The two Azure bands on the flag and the arms of Nicaragua in use today are the most similar to those used by the United Provinces of Central America. The triangle, volcanoes, rising sun, Cap of Liberty, and rainbow all appeared on the original emblem. The coat of arms used today contains the name of the state, Republica de Nicaragua, whereas in 1823 the title was Provincias Unidas del Centro de America. The decision to revert to the emblems used by the United Provinces of Central America was taken in 1908 and reflected Nicaragua’s aspirations for the rebirth of the political entity formed by the 5 nations. Except for the text around the arms, the flag is very similar to that of the United Provinces of Central America. The 5 volcanoes represent the original 5 member states, the Cap of Liberty<\/a> represents national freedom, and the rays of the sun and the rainbow are symbolic of the bright future to come.<\/p>\nHistory:<\/h2>\n
Pre-Columbian History:<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Spanish era (1523\u20131821):<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Independence (1821):<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>United States Occupation (1909\u20131933):<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Somoza dynasty (1927\u20131979):<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Nicaraguan Revolution (1960s\u20131990):<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Post-War (1990\u2013present):<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Flag of Nicaragua:<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>