History

Nicaragua takes its name from Nicarao, chief of the Native American tribe then living around present-day Lake Nicaragua.

The Spanish Conquest

In 1502 Cristopher Columbus was the first European known to have reached what is now Nicaragua as he sailed south along the Central America isthmus. On his fourth voyage, Columbus sailed alongside and explored the Mosquito Coast on the east of Nicaragua.

In 1523, the first Spaniards entered the region of what would become known as Nicaragua. Gil González Dávila reached its western portion after a trek through Costa Rica. He proceeded to explore the fertile western valleys and was impressed with the Indian civilisation he found there. He and his small army gathered gold and baptised Indians along the way. However, they eventually so imposed upon the Indians that they were attacked and nearly annihilated. González Dávila returned to his expedition's starting point in Panama and reported on his find, naming the area Nicaragua. However, Governor Pedrarias Dávila attempted to arrest him and confiscate his treasure. He was forced to flee to Santo Domingo to outfit another expedition.

Francisco Hernández de Córdoba approached from Costa Rica at the command of the governor of Panama. Pedro de Alvarado and Cristóbal de Olid, came from Guatemala through San Salvador and Honduras at the command of Hernán Cortés.

Córdoba apparently came with the intention of colonisation. In 1524, he established permanent settlements in the region, including two of Nicaragua's principal towns: Granada on Lake Nicaragua and León east of Lake Managua. But he soon found it necessary to prepare defences for the cities and go on the offensive against incursions by the other conquistadores.

The inevitable clash between the Spanish forces did not impede their devastation of the indigenous population, and the Indian civilisation was destroyed. The series of battles came to be known as The War of the Captains. By 1529, the conquest of Nicaragua was complete. Pedrarias Dávila became the first governor of the colony.

The land was parcelled out to the conquistadores. The area of most interest was the western portion; it included a wide, fertile valley with huge, freshwater lakes, a series of volcanoes, and volcanic lagoons. Many Indians were soon enslaved to develop and maintain 'estates' there. Others were put to work in mines in northern Nicaragua, but the great majority were sent as slaves to Panama and Peru, for significant profit to the new landed aristocracy. Many Indians died through disease and neglect by the Spaniards, who controlled everything necessary for their subsistence.

1538-1909: From Colony to Nation

In 1538, the Viceroyalty of New Spain was established, encompassing all of Mexico and Central America, except Panama. By 1570, the southern part of New Spain was designated the Captaincy General of Guatemala. The area of Nicaragua was divided into administrative 'parties' with León as the capital. In 1610, the volcano known as Momotombo erupted, destroying the capital, which was then rebuilt northwest of its original site.

The history of Nicaragua remained relatively static for three hundred years following the conquest. There were minor civil wars and rebellions, but they were quickly suppressed. The region was subject to frequent raids by Dutch, French and British pirates; the city of Granada was invaded twice, in 1658 and 1660.

Nicaragua became a part of the Mexican Empire and then gained its independence as a part of the United Provinces of Central America in 1821 and as an independent republic in its own right in 1838. The Mosquito Coast based on Bluefields on the Atlantic was claimed by the United Kingdom as a protectorate from 1655 to 1850; this was delegated to Honduras in 1859 and transferred to Nicaragua in 1860, though remained autonomous until 1894.

Much of Nicaragua's politics since independence has been characterised by the rivalry between the liberal elite of León and the conservative elite of Granada. The rivalry often degenerated into civil war, particularly during the 1840s and 1850s. Initially invited by the Liberals in 1855 to join their struggle against the Conservatives, a United States adventurer named William Walker was elected to the presidency in 1856. Honduras and other Central American countries united to drive him out of Nicaragua in 1857, after which a period of three decades of Conservative rule ensued.

Taking advantage of divisions within the conservative ranks, José Santos Zelaya led a liberal revolt that brought him to power in 1893. Zelaya ended the longstanding dispute with the United Kingdom over the Atlantic coast in 1894, and reincorporated the Mosquito Coast into Nicaragua.

1909-1936: United States Involvement

In 1909, the United States provided political support to conservative-led forces rebelling against President Zelaya. US motives included differences over the proposed Nicaragua Canal, Nicaragua's potential as a destabilising influence in the region and Zelaya's attempts to regulate foreign access to Nicaraguan natural resources.

On November 18, 1909, US warships were sent to the area after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) were executed by order of Zelaya. The US justified the intervention by claiming to protect US lives and property. Zelaya resigned later that year. US Marines occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933, except for a nine month period beginning in 1925.

From 1910 to 1926, the conservative party ruled Nicaragua. The Chamorro family, which had long dominated the party, effectively controlled the government during that period. In 1914, the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty was signed, giving the US control over the proposed canal, as well as leases for potential canal defences. Following the evacuation of US marines, another violent conflict between liberals and conservatives took place in 1926, known as the Constitutionalist War, which resulted in a coalition government and the return of US Marines.

From 1927 until 1933, Gen. Augusto César Sandino led a sustained guerrilla war first against the Conservative regime and subsequently against the US Marines, who withdrew upon the establishment of a new Liberal government. Sandino rejected a 1927 negotiated agreement brokered by the United States to end the latest round of fighting between liberals and conservatives.

The revolt finally forced the United States to agree a compromise and leave the country. 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 US interests. Anastasio Somoza García, a close friend of the American government, was put in charge. He was one of the three rulers of the country, the others being Sandino and the mostly figurehead President Juan Bautista Sacasa.

The Nicaraguan Campaign Medal, a decoration of the United States Navy, was later issued for those American service members who had performed military duty in Nicaragua during the early years of the 20th century.

1936-1979: The Somozas

1936-1956: Anastasio Somoza García

Divisions within the Conservative Party in the 1932 elections paved the way for the Liberal Juan Bautista Sacasa to assume power. President Sacasa's popularity decreased as a result of his poor leadership and accusations of fraud in the 1934 congressional elections. During this time, Somoza García brought together the National Guard and the Liberal Party (Partido Liberal-PL) in order to win the presidential elections in 1936. Somoza Garcia also cultivated support from former presidents Moncada and Chamorro while consolidating control within the Liberal Party.

Early in 1936, Somoza openly confronted President Sacasa by using military force to displace local government officials loyal to the president and replacing them with close associates. Somoza García's increasing military confrontation led to Sacasa's resignation on June 6, 1936. The Congress appointed Carlos Brenes Jarquín, a Somoza García associate, as interim president and postponed presidential elections until December. In November, Somoza resigned as chief director of the National Guard, thus complying with constitutional requirements for eligibility to run for the presidency. The Liberal Nationalist Party (Partido Liberal Nacionalista - PLN) was established with support from a faction of the Conservative Party to support Somoza Garcia's candidacy. Somoza was elected president in the December election by the remarkable margin of 107,201 votes to 108. On January 1, 1937, he resumed control of the National Guard, combining the roles of president and chief director of the military.

After Somoza's win in the December 1936 presidential elections, he diligently proceeded to consolidate his power within the National Guard, while at the same time dividing his political opponents. Family members and close associates were given key positions within the government and the military. The Somoza family also controlled the PLN, which in turn controlled the legislature and judicial system, thus giving Somoza absolute power over every sphere of Nicaraguan politics. Nominal political opposition was allowed as long as it did not threaten the ruling elite. Somoza Garcia's National Guard repressed serious political opposition and antigovernment demonstrations. The institutional power of the National Guard grew in most government owned enterprises, until eventually it controlled the national radio and telegraph networks, the postal and immigration services, health services, the internal revenue service, and the national railroads.

In less than two years after his election, Somoza Garcia, defying the Conservative Party, declared his intention to stay in power beyond his presidential term. Thus, in 1938, Somoza Garcia named a Constituent Assembly that gave the president extensive power and elected him for another eight-year term. A Constituent Assembly, extension of the presidential term from four years to six years, and clauses empowering the president to decree laws relating to the National Guard without consulting Congress, ensured Somoza's absolute control over the state and military. Control over electoral and legislative machinery provided the basis for a permanent dictatorship.

The earliest opposition to Somoza came from the educated middle class and the normally conservative wealthy, such as Pedro Joaquín Chamorro. Gradually, however, the liberal opposition began to be eclipsed by the far more radical and violent Marxists. On September 21, 1956, one young Marxist-Leninist, Rigoberto López Pérez, managed to gain access to a party attended by the President and shot him in the chest. Whilst the assassin quickly died in a hail of gunfire, Somoza himself died a few days later.

1956-1979: Luis Somoza Debayle and Anastasio Somoza Debayle

Somoza García was succeeded by his two sons. Luis Somoza Debayle became President, but his brother Anastasio Somoza Debayle held great power as head of the National Guard. A graduate of West Point, Anastasio was even closer to the Americans than his father and was said to speak better English than Spanish.

The revolutionaries were greatly strengthened by the Cuban Revolution. Operating from Costa Rica they formed the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN) and came to be known as Sandinistas. They took their name from the still legendary Augusto César Sandino. With aid from the United States, the Somoza brothers succeeded in defeating the guerrillas.

President Luis Somoza Debayle, under pressure from the rebels, announced that national elections would be held in February 1963. Election reforms had been made that established secret ballots and a supervising electoral commission (though the Conservative Party never elected any members of the commission). Somoza had also introduced a constitutional amendment that would prevent family members from succeeding him. The opposition was extremely sceptical of Somoza's promises, and ultimately control of the country passed to Anastasio Somoza Debayle after Luis died of a heart attack in 1967.

American Economic Involvement

From 1945 to 1960, the US-owned Nicaraguan Long Leaf Pine Company (NIPCO) directly paid the Somoza family millions of dollars in exchange for favourable benefits to the company. By 1961, NIPCO had cut all of the commercially viable coastal pines in northeast Nicaragua. Expansion of cotton plantations in the 1950s and cattle ranches in the 1960s forced peasant families from the areas they had farmed for decades. Some were forced by the National Guard to relocate into colonisation projects in the rainforest. Some moved eastward into the hills, where they cleared forests in order to plant crops. Soil erosion forced them, however, to abandon their land and move deeper into the rainforest. Cattle ranchers then claimed the abandoned land. Peasants and ranchers continued this movement deep into the rain forest. By the early 1970s, Nicaragua had become the United States' top beef supplier. The beef supported fast-food chains and pet food production. Six Miami, Florida meat-packing plants and the largest slaughterhouse in Nicaragua were all owned by President Anastasio Somoza Debayle.

1961-1979: Sandinista Insurrection

A major turning point in Nicaragua's history was the December 1972 Managua earthquake that killed over 10,000 people and left 500,000 homeless. A great deal of international relief was sent to the nation. However, newspaper stories began to appear, alleging that Somoza and the National Guard were embezzling relief money. Violent opposition to the government, especially to its widespread corruption, was then renewed with the Sandinistas being revived; this time backed by communist Cuba and the Soviet Union.

At a New Year's Day Party, a close friend of Somoza was taken hostage along with several others, including several Somoza family members, and executed. Martial Law was declared soon thereafter, and the National Guard began to raze villages in the jungle suspected of supporting the rebels.

The rebels, emboldened by the success of their actions, stepped up their assault against the government. The country tipped into full scale civil war with the 1978 assassination of Pedro Chamorro (by a Cuban American who had been a target of his criticisms), who had continued to oppose violence against the regime. 50,000 turned out for his funeral. It was initially assumed that Somoza had ordered his assassination.

The Sandinista forces, backed by Communist Cuba and gathering in neutral Honduras and Costa Rica, infiltrated the country and began to seize isolated communities. Other towns, infiltrated by Sandinista terrorists, attacked and expelled the National Guard units. Somoza responded with increasing frustration. When León became the first city in continental America to fall to the Communists, he was forced to respond with aerial bombardment, famously ordering the air force to "bomb everything that moves until it stops moving".

The US media grew increasingly unfavourable in its reports on the situation in Nicaragua. Caving to public perceptions about Somoza, the Jimmy Carter administration attempted to force Somoza to leave Nicaragua. When this tactic failed, Somoza sought to maintain his influence through the National Guard. When a battle-fatigued teenage National Guardsman executed ABC reporter Bill Stewart and graphic film of the execution was broadcast, the American public became more hostile to Somoza. President Carter refused Somoza further US military aid.

1979-1990: Sandinista Period

As Nicaragua's government collapsed and the National Guard commanders escaped with Somoza, the US first promised and then denied them exile in Miami. The rebels advanced on the capital victoriously. On July 19, 1979 a new government was proclaimed under a provisional junta headed by Daniel Ortega and including Violeta Chamorro, Pedro Chamorro's widow.

The United Nations estimated material damage from the revolutionary war to be USD$480 million. The FSLN took over a nation plagued by malnutrition, disease and pesticide contaminations. Lake Managua was considered dead because of decades of pesticide runoff, toxic chemical pollution from lakeside factories, and untreated sewage. Soil erosion and dust storms were also a problem in Nicaragua at the time due to deforestation. To tackle these crises, the FSLN created the Nicaraguan Institute of Natural Resources and the Environment.

The Sandinistas were victorious in the national election of November 4, 1984. Although the election was certified as 'free and fair' by international observers, there were many groups, including the Nicaraguan political opposition and the Reagan administration, who claimed political restrictions placed on the opposition by the government. The primary opposition candidate was the US-backed Arturo Cruz, who succumbed to pressure from the United States government not to take part in the 1984 elections; other opposition parties, such as the Conservative Democratic Party and the Independent Liberal party, were both free to denounce the Sandinista government and participate in the elections. The fears of opposition groups were apparently well founded, as it was later discovered that the FSLN had, in fact, been actively suppressing right-wing opposition parties while leaving moderate parties alone, with Ortega claiming that the moderates "presented no danger and served as a convenient facade to the outside world". Ortega was overwhelmingly elected President in 1984.

The US and Contras

US President Carter initially hoped that continued American aid to the new government would keep the Sandinistas from forming a doctrinaire Marxist-Leninist government aligned with the Soviet bloc. The Carter administration allotted the Sandinistas minimal funding, but the Sandinistas resolutely turned away from the US and, with Cuban and East European help, built up an army of 75,000. The build-up included T-55 heavy tanks, heavy artillery and HIND attack helicopters, an unprecedented military build-up that made the Sandinista Army more powerful than all of its neighbours combined. The Soviets also pledged to provide MiG 21 fighters, although these were never delivered.

The first challenge to the powerful new army came from groups of Somoza's National Guard who had fled to Honduras. The Contras were soon under the control of Nicaraguan business elites who opposed Sandinista policies to seize their assets. The Contra chain of command included some ex-National Guardsmen, including Contra founder and commander Enrique Bermúdez and others. One prominent Contra commander, however, was ex-Sandinista hero Edén Pastora, aka 'Commadante Zero,' who rejected the Leninist orientation of his fellow comandantes.

After his election in 1980, Ronald Reagan understood relations between the United States and the Sandinista government as an active front in the Cold War. The United States attempted to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Nicaragua by expanding the supply of arms and training to the Contras in neighbouring Honduras, as well as allied groups based to the south in Costa Rica. President Reagan called the Contras "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers".

American pressure against the government escalated, including attacks on Nicaraguan ports and oil installations (September 1983-March 1984) and the laying of magnetic mines outside Nicaraguan harbours (early 1984), actions condemned as illegal by the International Court of Justice. On May 1, 1985 Reagan issued an executive order that imposed a full economic embargo on Nicaragua, which remained in force until March 1990.

In 1982, legislation (the Boland Amendment) was enacted in the US to prohibit further direct aid to the Contras. Reagan's officials attempted to illegally supply them out of the proceeds of arms sales to Iran and third party donations, triggering the Iran-Contra Affair of 1986-87. Mutual exhaustion, Sandinista fears of Contra unity and military success, and mediation by other regional governments led to the Sapoa ceasefire between Sandinistas and Contras (March 23, 1988) and subsequent agreements (February, August 1989) for Contra reintegration into Nicaraguan society preparatory to general elections, which were subsequently won in a landslide by the party identified with the Contras.

1990-Present: Post-Sandinista Period

1990-1996: Violeta Chamorro

In a stunning landslide defeat, the FSLN lost to the National Opposition Union led by former Sandinista Violeta Chamorro in elections on February 25, 1990, but still largely controlled the army, labour unions, and courts. During President Chamorro's nearly 7 years in office, her government achieved major progress toward consolidating democratic institutions, advancing national reconciliation, stabilising the economy, privatizing state-owned enterprises, and reducing human rights violations.

In February 1995, Sandinista Popular Army Cmdr. Gen. Humberto Ortega was replaced, in accordance with a new military code enacted in 1994 by Gen. Joaquín Cuadra, who espoused a policy of greater professionalism in the renamed Army of Nicaragua. A new police organisation law, passed by the National Assembly and signed into law in August 1996, further codified both civilian control of the police and the professionalisation of that law enforcement agency.

1996-2001: Arnoldo Alemán

The October 20, 1996 presidential, legislative and mayoral elections were judged free and fair by international observers and by the national electoral observer group Ética y Transparencia (Ethics and Transparency) despite a number of irregularities, due largely to logistical difficulties and a baroquely complicated electoral law. Nicaraguans elected former-Managua Mayor Arnoldo Alemán, leader of the centre-right Liberal Alliance, which later consolidated into the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC). Alemán continued in liberalising the economy and fulfilling his campaign promise of "works not words" by completing infrastructure projects such as highways, bridges, and wells. His administration was, however, tainted by charges of corruption that resulted in the resignation of several key officials in mid-2000. Alemán was subsequently arrested and sentenced to twenty years in jail for corruption.

In November 2000, Nicaragua held municipal elections. Alemán's PLC won a majority of the overall mayoral races, but the FSLN fared considerably better in larger urban areas, winning a significant number of departmental capitals, including Managua.

2001-2006: Enrique Bolaños

Presidential and legislative elections were held on November 4, 2001 - the country's fourth free and fair elections since 1990. Enrique Bolaños of the PLC was elected to the Nicaraguan presidency, defeating the FSLN candidate Daniel Ortega, by 14 percentage points. The elections were characterised by international observers as free, fair and peaceful.

President Bolaños was inaugurated on January 10, 2002. During the campaign Bolaños promised to reinvigorate the economy, create jobs, fight corruption and support the war against terrorism.

2006-Present: Daniel Ortega

In November 2006 the presidential election was won by Daniel Ortega, bringing him back into power after 16 years of opposition. International observers, including the Carter Center, judged the election to be free and fair.

The country has partly rebuilt its economy during the 1990s, but was hard hit by Hurricane Mitch at the end of October 1998, almost exactly a decade after the similarly destructive Hurricane Joan.