Nicaragua - History, Politics, Geography, Economy, Demographics, Culture, Miscellaneous topics, Further reading

Official name Republic of Nicaragua, Span República de Nicaragua

Local name Nicaragua Timezone GMT -6 Area 148 000 km²/57 128 sq mi population total (2002e) 5 024 000 Status Republic Date of independence 1821 Capital Managua Languages Spanish (official), indigenous Indian languages and English (creole-English) Ethnic groups Mestizo (69%), White (17%), Black (9%), Indian (Sumu, Mikito, Ramaguie peoples) (5%) Religions Roman Catholic (95%), Protestant (5%) Physical features Mountainous W half, with volcanic ranges rising to over 2000 m/6500 ft (NW); two large lakes, L Nicaragua and L Managua, behind the coastal mountain range; rolling uplands and forested plains to the E; many short rivers flow into the Pacific Ocean and the lakes. Climate Tropical climate; average annual temperatures, 26°C (Jan), 30°C (Jul) at Managua; rainy season (MayNov), high humidity; average annual rainfall 1140 mm/45 in; country devastated by hurricane Mitch in 1998. Currency 1 New Córdoba (NIC) = 100 centavos Economy Agriculture (accounts for over two-thirds of total exports); cotton, coffee, sugar cane, rice, corn, tobacco; oil, natural gas. Gold, silver, chemicals, textiles. GDP (2002e) $11·16 bn, per capita $2200 Human Development Index (2002) 0·635 History Colonized by Spaniards, early 16th-c; independence from Spain, 1821; left the Federation of Central America in 1838; dictatorship under Anastasio Somoza, 1938; Sandinista National Liberation Front seized power in 1979, and established a socialist junta of national reconstruction; under the 1987 constitution (revised in 1994), a President and a Constituent Assembly are elected for 6-year terms; former supporters of the Somoza government (the Contras), based in Honduras and supported by the USA, carried out guerrilla activities against the junta from 1979; ceasefire and disarmament agreed in 1990.

República de Nicaragua
Republic of Nicaragua


Flag	Coat of arms

Anthem: Salve a ti, Nicaragua

Capital
(largest city)

Managua
12°9′N 86°16′W

Official language

Spanish (official) (English and indigenous languages on Caribbean coast)

Government

Republic

- President

Enrique Bolaños

Independence

From Spain

Area

- Total

129,494 km² (97th)
50,193 sq mi

- Water (%)

07.14

Population

- July 2005 estimate

5,487,500 (108th)

- Density

42/km² (157th)
109/sq mi

GDP (PPP)

2005 estimate

- Total

$20.996 billion (108th)

- Per capita

$3,636 (119th)

HDI (2003)

0.690 (medium) (112th)

Currency

Córdoba (NIO)

Time zone

(UTC-6)

Internet TLD

.ni

Calling code

+505

Nicaragua (Spanish: República de Nicaragua, IPA [re'puβlika ðe nika'raɰwa]) is a democratic republic in Central America.

The country's name is derived from Nicarao, the name of the Nahuatl-speaking tribe which inhabited the shores of Lago de Nicaragua before the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and the Spanish word Agua, meaning water, due to the presence of the large lakes Lago de Nicaragua and Lago de Managua in the region.

At the time of the Spanish conquest, Nicaragua was the name given to the narrow strip of land between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean.

The Nicarao tribe migrated to the area from northern regions after the fall of Teotihuacán, on the advice of their religious leaders.

History

In 1524, Conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded the first Spanish permanent settlements, including two of Nicaragua's principal towns: Granada on Lake Nicaragua and León east of Lake Managua. Settled as a colony of Spain within the kingdom of Guatemala in the 1520s, 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. this was delegated to Honduras in 1859 and transferred to Nicaragua in 1860, though it remained autonomous until 1894.

Much of Nicaragua's early politics following independence was characterized by the rivalry between the liberal élite of León and the conservative élite of Granada. Fearing the possibility of his plans for expansion, several Central American countries united to drive him out of Nicaragua in 1857, ironically supported by American industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had earlier sponsored Walker's filibuster of Nicaragua.

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 long-standing dispute with the United Kingdom over the Atlantic Coast in 1894, and re-incorporated the Mosquito Coast into Nicaragua.

Nicaragua offered assistance during World War II, and was the first country in the world to ratify the UN Charter.

Nicaragua has seen many outside interventions and lengthy periods of military dictatorship, the longest one being the rule of the Somoza family for much of the 20th century.

The Marines eventually reached an agreement with the Sandinista guerrillas.

From his position in the National Guard, Somoza effectively took over the country. Luis Somoza Debayle, the eldest son of the late dictator, officially took charge of Nicaragua after his father's death.

Luis was in power only for a few years when he died of a heart attack.

Some Nicaraguan historians point to the 1972 earthquake that devastated Managua as the final 'nail in the coffin' for Somoza.

Somoza acquired monopolies in industries that were key to rebuilding the nation, not allowing other members of the upper class to share the profits that would result from the increased economic activity. In 1976 a synthetic brand of cotton, one of Nicaragua's economic pillars of the epoch, was developed.

These economic problems propelled the Sandinistas forward in their struggle against Somoza by leading many middle and upper class Nicaraguans to see the Sandinistas as the only hope for ridding the country of the brutal Somoza regime. The January 1978 assassination of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, the editor of the most important newspaper in Nicaragua and an ardent opponent of Somoza, is believed to be the spark that that led to extreme general disapointment against Somoza.

The Sandinistas, supported by much of the populace, elements of the Catholic Church, and regional and international governments took power in July of 1979.

United States President Jimmy Carter, who had cut off aid to Somoza the previous year, initially chose to give aid to the new government, but this lessened towards the end of his presidency and was completely cut off by President Reagan due to evidence of Sandinista support of FMLN rebels in El Salvador. Prior to US aid withdrawal, Bayardo Arce, an FSLN politician, had stated that "Nicaragua is the only country building its socialism with the dollars of imperialism."

After a brief breathing space, the Sandinistas were faced with an ongoing and debilitating international terrorist war waged by the Contra proxy-rebels of Ronald Reagan's US presidency.

Daniel Ortega was overwhelmingly elected President in 1984, but the years of the war had taken an unparalleled toll on Nicaragua's economy and left many families in quite difficult situations. Although the elections were certified fair by Western NGOs allowed into Nicaragua, Ortega and the FSLN had, in fact, been actively suppressing opposition parties while leaving moderate parties alone claiming that the moderates “presented no danger and served as a convenient façade to the outside world”.

Nicaragua won a historic case against the US at the International Court of Justice in 1986 (see Nicaragua v. United States), and the US was ordered to pay Nicaragua some $12 billion in reparations for violating Nicaraguan sovereignty by engaging in attacks against it.

1990s and the Post Sandinistan Era

Multi-party elections held in 1990 saw the defeat of the Sandinistas by a coalition of anti-sandinista (from the left and right of the political spectrum) parties led by Violeta Chamorro, the widow of Pedro Joaquín Chamorro.

On the other hand, P.

Exit polls of Nicaraguans reported the largest plurality of voters voted for Charmorro due to American economic sanctions against the Ortega government.

Chamorro received an economy entirely in ruins. The per capita income of Nicaragua had been reduced by over 80% during the 1980s, due to financial and social costs of the Contra war with the Sandinista-led government. Chamorro's main contribution to Nicaragua was the disarmament of groups in the northern and central areas of the country.

In subsequent elections in 1996, Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas of the FSLN were again defeated, this time by Arnoldo Alemán of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC). President Alemán came to a strategic understanding with Ortega and the FSLN, and Nicaragua's politics seemed to settle into a two party system, with the PLC and FSLN co-operating in dividing certain government spoils and positions and helping to shut out smaller parties.

In the 2001 elections, the PLC again defeated the FSLN, with Enrique Bolaños winning the Presidency.

Politics

Politics of Nicaragua takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Nicaragua is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Nicaragua's current president is Enrique Bolaños Geyer .

Geography

Occupying a landmass of 129,494 km² - roughly the size of Greece or the state of New York and 1.5 times larger than Portugal, Nicaragua contains 7% of the world's biodiversity and the second largest rainforest in the Americas.

Nicaragua is a unitary republic.

Nicaragua has three distinct geographical regions: the Pacific Lowlands, the North-Central Mountains and the Atlantic Lowlands.

The Pacific Lowlands

Located in the west of the country, these lowlands consist of a broad, hot, fertile plain. The lowland area runs from the Gulf of Fonseca to Nicaragua's Pacific border with Costa Rica south of Lake Nicaragua.

In addition to its beach and resort communities, the Pacific Lowlands is also the repository for much of Nicaragua's Spanish colonial heritage.

The Central Region

This is an upland region away from the Pacific coast, with a cooler climate than the Pacific Lowlands.

Bird life in the forests of the central region includes the Resplendent Quetzal, goldfinches, hummingbirds, jays and toucanets.

The Atlantic Lowlands

This large rainforest region, with several large rivers running through it, is very sparsely populated and is the second-largest rainforest in the Americas after the Amazon in Brazil.

Nicaragua's tropical east coast is very different from the rest of the country. Around the area's principal city of Bluefields, English is widely spoken along with the official Spanish and the population more closely resembles that found in many typical Caribbean ports than the rest of Nicaragua.

A great variety of birds can be observed including eagles, turkeys, toucans, parakeets and macaws.

Economy

Nicaragua's economy has historically been based on the export of cash crops such as bananas, coffee and tobacco. Nicaragua's rum is renowned as among the best in Latin America, and its tobacco and beef are also well regarded.

As in many other developing countries, a large segment of the economically poor in Nicaragua are women.

The country is still a recovering economy and it continues to implement further reforms, on which aid from the IMF is conditional. As of 2004, Nicaragua is the 4th poorest nation in the Americas after Bolivia, Honduras and Haiti, with a per capita GDP of around $2,900.

The Nicaraguan unit of currency is the Córdoba (NIO) and was named after Francisco Hernández de Córdoba its national founder.

Tourism

In the last 15 years or so, the tourism sector has seen an economic boom, positively affecting the Nicaraguan life and economy.

According to the Ministry of Tourism of Nicaragua, the colonial city of Granada, Nicaragua is the preferred spot for tourists.

The economic benefits which can be derived from tourism cannot be disputed; More investment and support from the government is expected after the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement was signed.

Demographics

According to the 2005 census, Nicaragua has a population of 5,483,400, an increase of 20% on the 1995 census figure of 4,357,099.

Nicaraguans of European or mixed European and indigenous stock (mestizos) make up a combined 86% of the population, with about 69% being mestizos and 17% being of European descent (mostly Spanish, German, Italian and French).

In the nineteenth century, there had been a substantial indigenous minority, but this group was also largely assimilated culturally into the Hispanic mainstream. Primarily in the 19th century, Nicaragua saw several waves of immigration from other European nations.

About 9% of Nicaragua's population is black, or Afronicaragüense, and mainly resides in the country's sparsely populated Caribbean or Atlantic coast. Nicaragua has the second largest black population in Central America after Panama.

The remaining 5% is comprised of the unmixed descendants of the country's indigenous inhabitants. Nicaragua's pre-Colombian population consisted of the Nahuatl-speaking Nicarao people of the west after whom the country is named, and six other ethnic groups including the Miskitos, Ramas and Sumos along the Caribbean coast.

There is also a small Middle Eastern-Nicaraguan community of Syrian, Armenian, Palestinian and Lebanese people in Nicaragua with a total population of about 30,000, and an East Asian community of Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese people of almost 8,000.

Culture

The population of Nicaragua is very young with approx.

Education is free for all Nicaraguans.

Nicaraguan culture can further be defined in several distinct strands.

The eastern half of the country, on the other hand, was once a British protectorate.

Of the cultures that were present before European colonization, the Nahuatl-speaking peoples who populated the west of the country have essentially been assimilated into the latino culture.

Language and Religion

Spanish is spoken by about 90% of the country's population;

Roman Catholicism is the major religion, but evangelical Protestant groups have grown recently, and there are strong Anglican and Moravian communities on the Caribbean coast.

90% of Nicaraguans live in the Pacific lowlands and the adjacent interior highlands. An estimated 800 thousand Nicaraguans live outside of Nicaragua.

Miscellaneous topics

Communications in Nicaragua Foreign relations of Nicaragua Military of Nicaragua Miskito Mosquito Coast Nicaraguan Cuisine Nicaraguan Diaspora Transportation in Nicaragua Asociación de Scouts de Nicaragua List of Films and Books about Nicaragua