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Nicaragua Travel and Destination Guide
CULTURE
Pre 20th Century History
The earliest traces of human habitation in Nicaragua are the 7,000-year-old footprints of the Acahualinca - prints preserved under layers of volcanic ash of people and animals running toward Lake Managua. Around the 10th century AD, indigenous people from Mexico migrated to Nicaragua's Pacific lowlands, and Aztec culture was adopted by many indigenous groups when Aztecs moved south during the 15th century to establish a trading colony.
The first contact with Europeans came in 1502, when Columbus sailed down the Caribbean coast. In 1522, a Spanish exploratory mission reached the southern shores of Lake Nicaragua. A few years later the Spanish colonized the region and founded the cities of Granada and León, subduing local tribes. The inhabitants of the heavily populated area around Managua put up a fierce resistance to the Spanish invaders, and their city was subsequently destroyed.
Nicaragua gained independence from Spain in 1821, along with the rest of Central America. It was part of Mexico for a brief time, then part of the Central American Federation, and finally achieved complete independence in 1838. Soon after, Britain and the USA both became extremely interested in Nicaragua and the strategically important San Juan River navigable passage from Lake Nicaragua to the Caribbean. In 1848, the British seized the port at the mouth of the river on the Caribbean coast and renamed it Greytown. This became a major transit point for hordes of hopefuls looking for the quickest route to Californian gold.
In 1855, the liberals of León invited William Walker, a military adventurer intent on taking over Latin American territory, to help seize power from the conservatives based in Granada. Walker and his band of mercenaries took Granada easily and he proclaimed himself president of Nicaragua. He was soon booted out of the country (one of his first moves was to institutionalize slavery) but showed almost absurd tenacity as he repeatedly tried to invade; his efforts set a precedent for continued US interference in Nicaragua's affairs.
In 1893 a Liberal general, José Santos Zelaya, deposed the Conservative president and became dictator. Zelaya soon antagonized the USA by seeking a canal deal with Germany and Japan. Encouraged by Washington, which sought to monopolize a trans-isthmian canal in Panama, the Conservatives rebelled in 1909. The American government eventually forced Zelaya's resignation.
Modern History
For most of the next two decades the USA dominated politics in Nicaragua, installing presidents it favored and ousting those it didn't (sound familiar?), using its marines as persuasion. In 1914 the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty was signed, granting the USA exclusive canal rights in Nicaragua; though they had no intention of building such a canal, they wanted to ensure that no one else did.
In 1925 a new cycle of violence began with a Conservative coup. The Conservative regime was opposed by a group of Liberal rebels including Augusto Sandino, who eventually became leader of a longterm rebel campaign resisting US involvement. When the marines headed home in 1933, the enemy became the new US-trained Guardia Nacional, whose aim was to put down resistance by Sandino's guerrillas. This military force was led by General Anastasio Somoza García.
In February 1934 Somoza engineered Sandino's assassination, then set his sights on supreme power. In 1937, following fraudulent elections, he became president. Ever unpopular, Somoza was shot dead in 1956, his sons upholding the dynasty until 1979. Despite widespread opposition, it wasn't until the devastating earthquake of '72 and the international aid that poured into the pockets of the Somozas that opposition spread among all classes. Two groups were set up to counter the regime: the FSLN (known as the Sandinistas) and the UDEL, led by journalist Pedro Joaquín Chamorro.
In 1978, Chamorro was assassinated, the country erupted in violence and former moderates joined with the FSLN to overthrow the Somoza regime. But the Sandinistas inherited a poverty-stricken country and, despite great progress in health and education, it wasn't long before the country faced new problems. Shortly after Reagan took office in 1981, the USA announced that it was suspending aid and allocating funds to the organization of counter-revolutionary groups known as Contras. The Sandinistas responded by using much of the nation's resources to defend themselves.
In the 1984 election Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinistas, won 63% of the vote, but the USA continued its attacks. In 1985, the USA imposed a trade embargo that lasted five years and strangled Nicaragua's economy. By this time it was well known that the USA was funding the Contras and Congress passed a number of bills calling for an end to the funding. US support for the Contras continued secretly until revealed by the Iran Contra Affair.
In 1990, Nicaraguans elected Violeta Chamorro, leader of the opposition UNO and widow of the martyred Pedro Chamorro. Chamorro's failure to revive the economy, and her reliance on Sandinista support, led to US threats to withhold aid. Daniel Ortega ran for president in October 1996 as a centrist, but he was defeated by the anticommunist Liberal Alliance candidate Arnoldo Alemán, who was sworn in January 10, 1997.
Alemán invested heavily in infrastructure and reduced the size of the army by a factor of 10, but his administration was plagued by scandal, as corruption soared and Alemán amassed a personal fortune from the state's coffers.
Recent History
Ortega ran for president again in 2001, but was defeated by Liberal Party candidate Enrique Bolaños. Not giving up on their man yet, the Sandinistas renamed Ortega as the party's leader in March 2002.
Bolaños took office pledging to clean up the country's corrupt government. He took an aggressive stance and in spite of rifts he created, convinced the assembly to strip former president Alemán of his diplomatic immunity. Alemán was subsequently sentenced to 20 years jail for money-laundering and embezzlement.
Coinciding with Panama's announcement to widen the canal, Nicaragua announced plans of their own to build a rival canal that would incorporate the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua. Although Nicaragua has considered constructing a canal for decades, these plans have always been dismissed by the international community as far-fetched. After years of seeking a return to the presidency, 2006 also saw the re-election of Ortega, much to the dismay of the American government.
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