History of Nicaragua

History of Nicaragua

Key Dates

• 1502: Christopher Columbus is the first European to set foot on Nicaraguan soil during his fourth voyage to the Americas. The territory was then inhabited by various indigenous populations.

• 1522: The beginning of Spanish exploration and colonization, with the founding in 1524 of the first "cities"—Leon and Granada. The latter quickly prospered due to its geographical location.

• 1525: Creation of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Captaincy General of Guatemala, which, for three centuries, encompassed a large part of Central America. Nicaragua was attached to this Captaincy.

• Late 16th–17th century: Amid rivalries, Spain occupied the Pacific coast of the country, while the much more inhospitable Caribbean region was gradually taken over by the English.

• 1821: After being anticipated for about a decade, the country gained independence from Spain, along with other territories in the region.

• 1823: Nicaragua became one of the six republics of the Federal Republic of Central America (which dissolved in 1840), then regained full nationhood in 1838. Despite this, ongoing rivalries between liberal Leon and conservative Granada, as well as several civil wars, persisted in the following years.

• 1848: The California Gold Rush turned the southern part of the country into a key transit zone between the Atlantic and Pacific. This was also the era of the Nicaragua Canal project, which only began construction in... 2014.

• 1855–1857: The country was taken over by an American adventurer-mercenary, William Walker, who was eventually driven out by neighboring states.

• 1860: By treaty, the English relinquished sovereignty over the Mosquito Coast, which they had occupied for two centuries, to the Nicaraguan government.

• Late 19th century: The country continued to experience political instability, punctuated by various conflicts.

• 1895–1898: The short-lived period of the Greater Republic of Central America (Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras) was established by President Zelaya, who pursued progressive policies and reforms in education and infrastructure. Under his presidency, Nicaragua became the wealthiest country in Central America.

• 1909: Zelaya was overthrown by the Americans, whose interests were threatened, and who supported the conservative opposition.

• 1909–1933: The Americans controlled the country behind the scenes and intervened militarily several times before finally leaving in 1933, partly due to the guerrilla campaign led by General Augusto César Sandino, who was assassinated in 1934.

• 1936–1956: Already influential during the "American era," Anastasio Somoza won the 1936 elections and established an increasingly dictatorial, corrupt, and pro-American regime, which led to his assassination in 1956.

• 1956–1979: The Somoza sons, Luis and later Anastasio Somoza Debayle from 1967, succeeded their father. The latter established an even more dictatorial, corrupt, and anti-communist system than his predecessors.

• 1978–1979: The Sandinista uprising began following the Somoza-backed assassination of Joaquín Chamorro, president of the Democratic Union. After a year of struggle, the FSLN ended the Somoza dictatorship, which had already been abandoned by the U.S. government.

• 1979–1990: The Sandinistas, leading a country in ruins, faced a counter-revolution—the Contras—heavily financed and supported by the Americans, who imposed an economic blockade on the country starting in 1984. Meanwhile, the FSLN, led by Daniel Ortega, undertook various economic and social reforms with mixed success.

• 1988–1990: A peace plan ended the civil war and the U.S. embargo (1990).

• 1990–2007: Following the FSLN’s electoral defeat, the country entered a transition period, with the election of Violeta Chamorro in 1990, followed in 1996 by the former Somoza supporter Arnoldo Alemán, who was later sentenced to prison for embezzlement at the end of his term.

• 1998: In October, Hurricane Mitch devastated the country, causing massive damage and thousands of deaths.

• 2007: Daniel Ortega, a Sandinista figure and former president from 1979 to 1990, was re-elected as head of the country. He was re-elected again in 2012. That same year, Nicaragua joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, which includes a dozen Latin American and Caribbean countries.

• 2014: Revived in recent years, the Nicaragua Canal project saw the start of construction, funded by China. It was expected to be completed by 2020.

• 2018: The authoritarian drift of Daniel Ortega’s government and the harsh repression of popular protests plunged the country into a new crisis, one consequence of which was a decline in tourism, which had previously been booming.