Central America

—Central American.

continental North America, S of Mexico, usually considered as comprising Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. 18,600,000; 227,933 sq. mi. (590,346 sq. km).

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Southern portion of North America (pop., 2002 est.: 37,036,000).

It extends from the southern border of Mexico to the northwestern border of Colombia and from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. It includes Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Some geographers also include five states of Mexico: Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas. Area: 201,480 sq mi (521,840 sq km). Two-thirds of the population is of mixed American Indian and Spanish ancestry. Language: Spanish (official), except Belize (English, official); also American Indian languages. Religion: chiefly Roman Catholicism. The region is largely hilly or mountainous, with humid swamps and lowlands extending along both coasts. Tajumulco Volcano, in western Guatemala, is the highest point, elevation 13,845 ft (4,220 m). The region has some 40 volcanoes, many of them active, and is prone to severe seismic activity. The volcanic zones have fertile soil and are productive agricultural areas. Central America was long inhabited by indigenous peoples, including the Maya, before the Spanish arrived and conquered the region in the early 16th century; they continued to rule for about 300 years. Christopher Columbus skirted the Atlantic coast from Honduras to the Gulf of Darien in 1502; the first European settlement (1510) was on the gulf. Spain organized the region (except Chiapas and Panama) into the captaincy general of Guatemala (с 1560). The English arrived in the 17th century, settling what became British Honduras (Belize). Independence from Spanish rule came in 1821, and in 1823 the United Provinces of Central America was formed (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica). British Honduras, still a colony, did not join the federation, and Panama remained part of Colombia. In 1824 the federation adopted a constitution, but in 1838 Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua seceded, thus effectively terminating the federation. Treaties of amity were drawn up at a conference of Central American states in Washington, D.C. (1923). The Central American Common Market was established in 1960 to create a customs union and promote economic cooperation.

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Introduction

  southernmost region of North America, lying between Mexico and South America and comprising Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Belize. (Geologists and physical geographers sometimes extend the northern boundary to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Tehuantepec, Isthmus of) in Mexico.)

      Central America makes up most of the tapering isthmus that separates the Pacific Ocean, to the west, from the Caribbean Sea. It extends in an arc roughly 1,140 miles (1,835 km) long from the northwest to the southeast. At its narrowest point, in Darién (Panama), the isthmus is only about 30 miles (50 km) wide, and there is no location in Central America that is more distant than 125 miles (200 km) from the sea.

      Humid swamps and lowlands extend along both the west and east coasts, but four-fifths of Central America is either hilly or mountainous. The western band of Pacific coastal lowland is narrow and overshadowed by mountain ranges, and, except in Nicaragua and Honduras, the eastern plains along the Caribbean are also narrow. Elevation steadily increases west of the Caribbean lowlands, until, toward the Pacific Coast, plateau highlands culminate in mountain ridges and some 40 volcanic cones, some of which attain elevations of more than 12,000 feet (3,700 metres). Some of Central America's volcanoes erupt violently from time to time, and earthquakes frequently occur in the region. The weathered volcanic lavas produce a fertile soil, however, and the highlands of the volcanic zones have consequently become highly productive agricultural zones and areas of dense population.

      The climates of Central America are essentially tropical, tempered by proximity to the sea, by elevation, by latitude, and by local topography; in consequence, they may vary substantially over short distances. Elevation mitigates the climatic effects of Central America's tropical latitude so that average temperatures in the highlands are much lower than those in the coastal lowlands. Rainfall occurs primarily during the summer and is heaviest between May and November. January through March are the driest months. In general, the Caribbean side receives about twice as much rain as the Pacific region.

 Central America's natural vegetation is varied. Tropical rainforests occupy the eastern lowlands, while evergreen forests clothe the lower slopes along the Pacific coast, and pine and oak forests grow at somewhat higher elevations. Much of Central America's timberland, however, has been cleared by slash-and-burn cultivators, who move on when the soil is exhausted. This extensive form of cultivation has become less sustainable as fallow periods are shortened in response to rising demographic pressures and as the forest soils lose their ability to recuperate. The Central American forests are relatively sparsely populated with mammals, generously populated with reptiles, and extremely rich in birds and insects. Monkeys, tree frogs, iguanas, and snakes are abundant.

      Central America can be roughly divided into a less populous Caribbean half and a slightly more congested Pacific coastal slope, separated by a sequence of relatively densely settled highland regions. The region's rate of population increase is one of the highest in the world, though infant mortality is high and life expectancy is generally low (less so in Costa Rica and Panama). Spanish is the dominant language of Central America and the official language in six of the countries; English is the lingua franca of much of the Caribbean coast and the official language of Belize. Many Indian languages are also spoken throughout the region.

 Roman Catholicism is the professed religion of four out of five Central Americans; almost all others adhere to various Protestant faiths. In the more remote areas (principally inhabited by Indians), traditional religious practices and Roman Catholicism coexist. By the 21st century, Evangelical Protestantism made substantial inroads into traditionally Roman Catholic communities.

      At least two-thirds of Central Americans are of mixed ancestry. Until the beginning of the 19th century, immigration was officially limited to citizens of Spain, and the Spanish were thus the only significant European contributors to the ethnic mixture of the area. Three-fifths of the people of Central America are of mixed European and Indian descent (called Ladinos in Guatemala and mestizos elsewhere), and one-fifth are Indian. Smaller communities of mulattoes (people of mixed European and African descent), zambos (mixed Indian and African descent), descendants of Europeans, and descendants of Chinese, South Asian, and African indentured labourers make up the remainder. Most of the region's Indian population is in Guatemala (the Maya, making up more than two-fifths of that country's total population). Many of the remaining Indians live in adjoining Honduras and El Salvador; elsewhere, only in Belize are Indians a significant element (about one-tenth) of the population.

 From the mid-19th century Central America's economy was based on the production of coffee and bananas for export. Cotton, sugar, and beef were exported in increasing amounts after World War II. Corn (maize), beans, and squash traditionally have been grown as staple foods. Vigorous economic growth during the 1960s and '70s was followed by national indebtedness and low or negative economic growth rates in the 1980s. Throughout the 1980s and into the '90s, armed conflict, civil wars, high inflation, and poor social conditions contributed to a deteriorating economy, and most countries had to seek foreign aid from the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. The civil unrest of the 1980s displaced up to 1,000,000 people, including an estimated 500,000 Salvadorans who entered the United States. Tens of thousands of others migrated to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and other countries in the region. Near the end of the 1990s, the region's economies rebounded, and the privatization of companies and utilities, along with the spread of free trade, aided growth (however, Nicaragua's economy still suffers, and Honduras was set back by Hurricane Mitch in 1998). By the end of the 20th century, Central America's governments had attempted to revitalize the economy by fostering the diversification and expansion of nontraditional exports and free-trade zones, and assembly plants (maquiladoras (maquiladora)) were established to encourage the expansion and decentralization of manufacturing.

      Growing diversification in the economies of the region, however, has not provided a more equitable distribution of wealth. Manufacturing is sharply hampered by Central America's limited mineral and energy resources and by the restricted size of its market. Much industrial employment is in the form of cottage industries, and artisans outnumber factory workers. The processing of food, beverages, and tobacco and the making of textiles, clothing, shoes, furniture, and leather are the main industries. Agriculture still employs a larger proportion of workers than any other sector—except in Panama, where services, largely related to the Panama Canal, are of major economic importance. Tourism has increased mainly in Belize, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.

      By 2001 Ecuador and El Salvador had adopted the U.S. dollar as their monetary unit, and it was an accepted form of currency in Panama and Guatemala. The main trading partners outside the region are the United States, Canada, and countries in western Europe. By the mid-2000s, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica had entered into the Central America–Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) with the United States.

      This article covers the history of the area from prehistoric and pre-Columbian times to the present. Additional information on the region's physical and human geography can be found in articles on the individual countries of the region (see Belize; Guatemala; El Salvador; Honduras; Nicaragua; Costa Rica; Panama). Area 201,594 square miles (522,129 square km). Pop. (2006 est.) 40,338,000.

Pre-Columbian Central America

      Central America (Central American and northern Andean Indian), an archaeological bridge connecting North (North America) and South America, was, before the arrival of the Europeans, home to various nomadic and sedentary cultures. Mayan (Maya) civilization occupied much of the northwestern part of the isthmus, from Chiapas and Yucatán, now part of southern Mexico, through Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador and into Nicaragua. Although the Maya were the most advanced pre-Columbian civilization in the hemisphere, they were never unified. Unlike the Aztec and Inca empires, their autonomous city-states remained independent, presaging the political fragmentation that would characterize Central America to the present day. What unity existed was cultural rather than political. In addition to the Maya, other Indian cultures occupied Central America, bringing influences from both North and South America.

      There is scant evidence of human life in Central America before 8000 BCE. Primitive human habitation in the region before that date is likely, perhaps as early as 40,000 BCE, but civilized society did not emerge until the 2nd millennium BCE. Between 4000 and 1000 BCE, people of the region made the transition from hunting and foraging to plant cultivation. Pottery in the Parita Bay region of Panama, dating from about 2130 BCE, reflected South American cultural influence, which eventually reached as far north as Guatemala and Chiapas. Mexican influence in Chiapas dates from at least 1500 BCE, and thereafter it extended as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Central America thus became a meeting ground for Mesoamerican (Mesoamerican civilization), South American, and Caribbean peoples. After 1000 BCE, organized sedentary farming communities became numerous, and active commerce and communications developed among them. Although cassava (manioc) and other tubers were important to Indians of the Caribbean coast, corn (maize) was the primary staple food of most Central Americans, accompanied by a wide variety of beans, squash, and other vegetables and fruits.

      The Olmec culture and other Mexican influences substantially affected the development of Mayan civilization, while central Mexican Nahuatl (Nahua) influence challenged the Maya and stretched along the Pacific coast, notable especially among the Pipil of El Salvador and the Chorotega and Nicarao of Nicaragua. In Panama and Costa Rica, South American Chibcha influence was prevalent, while Caribbean cultural patterns penetrated the coastal plain from Panama to Honduras. Fugitives from the European conquistadores in the Caribbean increased this influence considerably at the close of the 15th century. The Miskito, Sumo, Rama, and other tribes on the Nicaraguan and Honduran Caribbean shores have survived to the present.

Emergence of the Maya

 After 500 BCE an advanced Mayan civilization emerged in the highlands of Guatemala and El Salvador. A large population developed at the city of Kaminaljuyú, on the outskirts of present-day Guatemala City, and other Mayan cities arose from Chiapas southeastward to Nicaragua. Early in the 1st millennium CE, Classic Maya civilization arose in the Petén region of northern Guatemala, as well as in Belize and Honduras; this probably was the result of migration from the highlands, although Pre-Classic Mayan cultures had also developed in this lowland region contemporaneously with such highland centres as Kaminaljuyú. Large new cities arose at Uaxactún, Tikal, Quiriguá, Copán, and elsewhere, characterized by great stone temples, pyramids, and markets. Although the highlands remained heavily populated, these lowland cities became the centres for a higher civilization. Overcrowding, famine, climatic change, or major geologic catastrophes may have contributed to migration, but contact between the highland and lowland peoples continued as merchants carried cultural, economic, and social traits from one place to another. Tazumal, for example, in western El Salvador, was influenced by Copán, the Mayan scientific centre in northwestern Honduras. Influence from as far away as Teotihuacán in the present-day Valley of Mexico and El Tajín in Veracruz also continued.

      The lowland Mayan cities were located in an area that the Europeans thought of as uninhabitable because of the hot, humid climate and the accompanying insects and diseases. But the Maya developed the highest culture of pre-Columbian America, which reached its height between 600 and 900 CE. Maya priests made discoveries in astronomy and mathematics comparable to similar advancements in ancient Egypt. They developed an advanced system of writing, and their hieroglyphs on stone monuments (stelae), erected throughout the Maya lands, recorded their history. Brilliant Mayan artistic and scientific achievements in ceramics, sculpture, weaving, and painting, some of which were more advanced than European accomplishments of the same era, all showed remarkable artistic sensitivity. They developed an accurate calendar and complex systems of agricultural and water management. The Maya could not match their European counterparts in technology, however. Their architectural works were also less impressive than those of ancient and medieval European civilizations. The Maya were unable to develop energy-saving machines, the wheel being employed on children's toys but not adapted to any practical application. Animals were not domesticated, and all work was done by human hand labour directed by an elite group.

Decline of the Maya

 Mayan civilization began to decay after 900 CE, perhaps because of overpopulation, deforestation, and stresses in the social structure. A number of important cities emerged in the late Classic period, mostly on the periphery of the classic Mayan region, in present-day Chiapas and Yucatán. The peoples of these cities, much influenced by invaders from central Mexico, built striking stone architectural monuments, but their scientific and artistic achievements were less remarkable than the earlier advances of the Classic period, and their economies remained underdeveloped. In the meantime, internal civil war and intervention from central Mexico sapped Mayan strength and vitality.

      By the time of the Spanish conquest, Mayan civilization was thoroughly in decline, yet the Maya resisted subjugation longer than either the Aztecs of Mexico or the Incas of Peru. Returning to northern Guatemala, where they established the city of Tayasal as a place of refuge, some Maya maintained their autonomy until 1697. Not far away, the Lacandón Maya defied pacification throughout the Hispanic period, resisting from remote jungle and mountain refuges along the Usumacinta River. Disease and social disruption, brought with the Spanish conquest, annihilated a large part of the native population during the 16th century. Although estimates of the pre-Columbian population of Central America vary widely, it is generally agreed that the region's population did not again reach its pre-Columbian level until the 20th century.

The Spanish conquest

 Rodrigo de Bastidas was first to establish Spain's claim to the isthmus, sailing along the Darién coast in March 1501, but he made no settlement. A year later Christopher Columbus (Columbus, Christopher), on his fourth voyage, sailed along the Caribbean coast from the Bay of Honduras to Panama, accumulating much information and a little gold but again making no settlement. Other navigators from Spain followed, some seizing natives as slaves, and in 1509 Fernando V (Ferdinand II), the king of Spain, granted concessions for colonization of the region to Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa. Both suffered staggering losses from disease, shipwrecks, and hostile natives. Remnants of these expeditions—under the leadership of a stowaway, Vasco Núñez de Balboa (Balboa, Vasco Núñez de), who had earlier been with Bastidas—survived at Santa María la Antigua del Darién, on the Gulf of Urubá near the present-day Colombia-Panama border. Balboa turned the survivors into a disciplined and productive colony in 1510. Crossing the isthmus, Balboa discovered the “South Sea” ( Pacific Ocean) in 1513 and claimed for Spain all the lands it touched. Balboa cultivated good Indian relations, made extensive explorations, and found enough gold and pearls to make Castilla del Oro, as it was called, the first profitable colony in the New World. However, the explorations took their toll on the Indians of the region, however, many of whom were wiped out by European diseases.

Appointment of Pedrarias

      The king relieved Balboa with a trusted general, Pedro Arias Dávila (Arias Dávila, Pedro) (known as Pedrarias), although he allowed Balboa to continue his explorations on the Pacific coast. Pedrarias, however, distrusted the ambitious Balboa and, accusing him of treason, had him beheaded in 1517. Pedrarias expanded the colony (conquistador) but was responsible for enslaving and murdering the Indian population, despite royal orders for more humane treatment. In 1519 he established Panama City on the Pacific coast and moved the capital there in 1524, abandoning the hot, humid Darién.

      Pedrarias sent a kinsman, Gil González Dávila, to explore northward, and he found civilization on the shores of Lake Nicaragua (Nicaragua, Lake). The jealous Pedrarias forced him to flee to Santo Domingo before a Spanish colony could be planted, however, and instead sent Francisco Hernández de Córdoba in 1524, who established Granada on Lake Nicaragua and León not far from Lake Managua (Managua, Lake). But when Córdoba attempted to set up a kingdom independent of Panama, Pedrarias came to Nicaragua himself and put Córdoba to death after a year of civil war.

      While Pedrarias and Córdoba conquered lower Central America, the conqueror of Mexico, Hernán Cortés (Cortés, Hernán, marqués del Valle de Oaxaca), looked southward. In 1524 he sent Cristóbal de Olid by sea to Honduras and Pedro de Alvarado (Alvarado, Pedro de) overland to conquer Guatemala. Olid founded the port of Triunfo de la Cruz but immediately declared himself independent of Cortés, a common practice among the conquistadores. Accompanied by a large force of Indian warriors from central Mexico and preceded by a smallpox epidemic, Alvarado faced little opposition until he reached Guatemala. There he allied with the Cakchiquel Maya against the rival Quiché. He allegedly defeated the Quiché chief, Tecúm-Umán, in hand-to-hand combat at Xelajú, near present-day Quezaltenango. Alvarado went on to conquer the Pipil of El Salvador in the same year, but a bloody rebellion by the Cakchiquel took four more years to quell.

      In Honduras a three-way struggle developed between the forces of Pedrarias, Cortés, and González, who had returned to Central America to press Pedrarias's claim to Nicaragua. The discovery of gold in Honduras made the struggle more intense. Cortés first sent Francisco de Las Casas to relieve the rebellious Olid but then marched to Honduras himself to reprimand Olid. Before he arrived, however, Las Casas and González had united against Olid and put him to death. Cortés's difficult trip to Honduras thus turned out to be unnecessary, but, before leaving, he consolidated his control of the Honduran coast with the establishment of Puerto Natividad (renamed Puerto Cortés in 1869). The loyal Alvarado consolidated Cortés's control over Honduras as well as Guatemala and El Salvador, confronting the forces of Pedrarias, with whom rivalry continued for years.

      Alvarado went on to participate in the conquests of Peru and of northern Mexico while retaining his governorship of Guatemala. Uniquely, upon his death in 1541 in Jalisco, his widow, Beatriz de la Cueva, succeeded him as governor of Guatemala, chosen by leading officials in the Guatemalan capital upon news of Alvarado's death. The rule of Doña Beatriz, however, lasted but two days, for she died when a massive flood and mud slide destroyed the city on Sept. 10, 1541. Construction of a new capital, Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (present-day Antigua, Guat. (Antigua Guatemala)), began a few miles away in 1543.

Further conquest of the Indians

      Indian resistance delayed the conquest of Costa Rica until 1561, when Juan de Cavallón led a successful colonization expedition there. Although none of his settlements in the Nicoya Bay region survived, he and his men began the permanent Spanish occupation of Costa Rica. A year later Juan Vásquez de Coronado took over as governor of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and in 1564 he established Cartago as the seat of government in the central valley of Costa Rica, where a small but industrious population developed.

      Spanish domination of Central America was achieved by relatively few Spanish military forces but at a great cost in Indian lives. Remote areas, however, especially in northern Guatemala and along the Caribbean coast, remained outside Spanish control throughout the colonial period, eventually allowing Great Britain to colonize Belize and the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua.

      Yet the conquest was not entirely military. A Dominican friar, Bartolomé de Las Casas (Las Casas, Bartolomé de), made a notable effort to ameliorate treatment of the Indians in Central America. The brutality of the Spanish conquest had repelled Las Casas in the Caribbean. After his Dominican monasteries in Nicaragua and Guatemala failed to bring better treatment to the Indians, he went to a province of northern Guatemala to pacify it without military force. His experiment in this province, which he called the Verapaz, was only partially successful, but it served as the basis for his arguments to the Spanish crown against abuse of the Indians. The resulting New Laws of 1542 began the suppression of the encomienda system of exploitation of Indian labour.

The Habsburg (Habsburg, House of) period (1524–1700)

Unification of the isthmus

      Political jurisdiction over Central America under Spanish rule evolved slowly because of the rivalries between conquistadores. These rivalries led to violence and civil war among the Spaniards in the early years of colonial rule and retarded the unification of Central America. Decentralization of authority characterized the Habsburg (Habsburg, House of) period, despite royal efforts to maintain close control through its agents. Municipal councils (ayuntamientos) were the most important governing units in the early days. By 1530 Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chiapas, and Panama all functioned under separate royal orders, but the death of Pedrarias in 1531 and the prestige of Alvarado contributed to the unification of the isthmus thereafter. In 1535 the establishment of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (New Spain, Viceroyalty of) at Mexico City included the northern portion of Central America, but the establishment of an audiencia at Panama in the same year continued the confusion over jurisdiction in Nicaragua. In 1543 Spain unified the entire isthmus from Tabasco and Yucatán to Panama as the Audiencia de los Confines, with its capital centrally located in Honduras in 1544 at the gold-mining boomtown of Gracias. The gold soon gave out, however, and the town was otherwise isolated and remote. Responding to protests from Panama City and Santiago (Antigua Guatemala) de Guatemala, in 1548 the crown moved the capital back to Santiago de Guatemala. Philip II moved the capital to Panama from 1563 to 1567, but finally, after removing Panama, Tabasco, and Yucatán from Santiago de Guatemala's jurisdiction, he restored Santiago as the capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala, which stretched from Chiapas to Costa Rica.

Rise of the Creole elite

      Santiago grew to become, for a time, the third largest city in the hemisphere (after Mexico City and Lima) and established itself as a bureaucratic, ecclesiastical, and commercial metropolis. The Creole elite that emerged there favoured the development of Guatemala over the other provinces of the kingdom, causing provincial resentment and contributing to the eventual political fragmentation of the isthmus. Royal authority over the region was exercised by an audiencia, presided over by the royally appointed president, who also carried the titles of governor and captain general. Creole power was centred in the municipal council of Santiago and in their control of the land and labour of the Indians through the institutions of encomienda and repartimiento, which involved the collection of tribute and forced labour. While Creole elites developed in each province and their bloodlines often were connected to the Guatemalan elite, the provincial elites were less wealthy and powerful than their Guatemalan counterparts. The Roman Catholic Church participated closely with the state in developing colonial Central America, but it was strongest near the seats of authority and weakest in remote areas such as Costa Rica.

Colonial economy and society

      Spain encouraged the mining of precious metals, but Central American deposits were thin, and agriculture came to dominate the economy of the colony. Cacao (the source of cocoa beans), mostly grown on the Pacific coast, was the principal export of the 16th century, but in the 17th century it declined because of competition from areas with better access to markets. indigo eventually replaced it as the principal Central American export. Yet most people were involved only in subsistence agriculture, and large haciendas, in feudal style, raised cattle and grains for the local population. In the 17th century especially, as European rivals and Caribbean-based buccaneers raided Spanish commerce and shore settlements, the Kingdom of Guatemala withdrew into a self-sufficient, feudal-like existence.

      The colonial social structure that became entrenched during the Habsburg period thus comprised two small upper classes, one representing official Spanish administrative and ecclesiastical authority and the other the Creole landholding elite, with a large mass of Indian or mestizo rural workers tied to the land. There were also small numbers of African slaves brought during the colonial period. In the cities there were small middle sectors of artisans, provisioners, and wage labourers, but they did not constitute a true middle class. Nor were the professionals of the cities a middle class, for they were more clearly associated with one or the other of the two upper classes.

      In Panama the river and mule trail across the isthmus was the principal economic resource for the commercial and bureaucratic elite that developed there. As the link between Europe and the rich mines of Peru, Panama was of strategic importance and received considerable military protection against attacks from marauding buccaneers such as the Welshman Henry Morgan (Morgan, Sir Henry), whose destruction of Panama City caused the Spanish to move the city several miles away and rebuild it in 1671. Politically, Panama was tied to the Viceroyalty of Peru (Peru, Viceroyalty of) until the 18th century, when it was included in the new Viceroyalty of New Granada (New Granada, Viceroyalty of), with its capital at Santa Fé (present-day Bogotá). Panama's importance as a commercial and slave-trading centre justified its having its own audiencia from 1753.

The Bourbon (Bourbon, House of) century (1701–1808)

      Accession to the Spanish throne by the Bourbon Philip V at the beginning of the 18th century plunged the empire into a costly war, opening a century in which war and international rivalry seriously altered Central American history. The close relations of the Bourbons to France and the penetration of Central America by English traders, especially via their settlements at Belize and the Mosquito Coast, brought significant foreign commercial, administrative, military, and ideological influences. While the Spanish may have diffused the Enlightenment, it nonetheless contributed to vital changes in Creole thinking. Bourbon policy, especially after 1750, was directly responsible for much of the change, as it centralized authority and reasserted the royal control that had diminished during the previous century, while beginning to limit the political and economic power of the clergy. It also built up the military and promoted agricultural exports, especially of Salvadoran indigo but also of Costa Rican cacao and tobacco. The Bourbon emphasis on exports began a trend in Central American economic history that would continue to the present. Indeed, the Bourbon reforms not only laid the foundation for much of Central America's political and economic development in the 19th century but they also heightened the strong regionalism on the isthmus, as provincial elites resisted the growing power of the Guatemalan mercantile and bureaucratic establishment.

      An earthquake destroyed Santiago de Guatemala in 1773, causing the capital to be moved to the present site of Guatemala City in 1776. As the century closed, the growing preference of the crown for appointment of Spaniards contributed to Creole resentment of royal policy. At the same time, there emerged in the Guatemalan capital a group of progressive Central Americans who promoted liberal economic and political ideas, especially through the publication of the Gazeta de Guatemala (“Guatemala Gazette”) beginning in 1793 and through the establishment of an economic society in 1795.

Independence (1808–23)

      Despite revitalization of the colonial economy and of Spanish military strength under the Bourbons, the French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic Wars brought disintegration to Spain's empire. The Kingdom of Guatemala suffered hard times resulting from the disruption of Spanish shipping in wartime. Combined with locust plagues and competition from other producing areas, this caused a decline in indigo exports during the first two decades of the 19th century. The French invasion of Spain in 1808 increased the difficulties by adding burdensome taxes and demands for “patriotic donations” to support the resistance against the French; nevertheless, the kingdom remained loyal to the Spanish government at Cádiz during those difficult years. That government, ruling in the name of the captive Prince Ferdinand, made major reforms in an effort to maintain colonial loyalty and support. The Cádiz constitution of 1812 provided for colonial representation in the Spanish parliament and elections for municipal and provincial offices. These innovations triggered intense political activity, greatly increasing the importance of municipal and provincial councils.

      A strong captain general, José de Bustamante y Guerra (1811–18), and Creole fear of Indian uprisings were factors that prevented Central Americans from seizing power as had been done in South America. The government easily put down such attempts in the state of San Salvador (which did not become El Salvador, the name by which it is now known, until 1841), Nicaragua, and Guatemala. In 1814, after the defeat of Napoleon, Ferdinand VII promptly annulled the 1812 constitution. This ungrateful act caused Creole opposition to Spanish rule in Central America to mount, especially against the repressive rule of Bustamante. The restoration of the constitution in 1820 once more permitted popular political activity in Central American towns and led to the emergence of factions that would form the basis of the liberal and conservative parties destined to dominate Central America for the following century.

      A council of notables in Guatemala City accepted the independence plan of the Mexican Creole and former caudillo (military chieftain) Agustín de Iturbide (Iturbide, Agustín de) on Sept. 15, 1821, but there were wide differences of opinion among the municipalities on the next step. Some favoured independence from Mexico as well as from Spain, and some of the provinces also wanted independence from Guatemala. This divisive action by the municipalities was a product of their newly acquired vitality under the constitution, but it also reflected their resentment against centralized authority in Guatemala. Conservatives in Guatemala succeeded in annexing the kingdom to Iturbide's Mexican empire, but this led immediately to civil war, as San Salvador and Granada refused to accept the decision. Mexican and Guatemalan troops subdued San Salvador after a long siege, but in the meantime Iturbide's empire collapsed and was succeeded by a liberal republic that allowed Central America to go its own way.

The United Provinces (United Provinces of Central America) (1823–40)

      A liberal-dominated assembly elected from all the provinces convened in Guatemala, and on July 1, 1823, it declared the independence of the former kingdom under the name the United Provinces of Central America. In 1824 it adopted the constitution of the Federal Republic of Central America, a document similar in its liberal features to the Spanish constitution of 1812, providing for a federation of Guatemala, San Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Chiapas had elected to stay with Mexico, and Panama had become part of the Republic of Colombia in 1821.

The first election

      The 1824 constitution provided for a single-house legislature and reserved considerable autonomy for the states, yet it offered an adequate framework for a strong union. Political difficulties from the outset and the failure of federal leaders to enforce the constitutional provisions led to its disintegration. The provincial jealousies and ideological differences that had emerged in the late colonial period had already sown the seeds of Central American disunion. The first presidential election, in 1825, was disputed and began a pattern of civil war and bad faith. Manuel José Arce, a liberal Salvadoran army officer, won that election over a moderate Honduran attorney and prominent intellectual, José Cecilio del Valle, despite the appearance that del Valle had more popular votes. The intrigue connected with the electoral process alienated not only conservatives supporting del Valle but also extreme liberals who accused Arce of selling out to conservatives in the congress in order to gain their votes. Arce did in fact ally himself with conservative interests in Guatemala City. When he deposed the liberal Guatemalan state governor, Juan Barrundia, and replaced him with a staunch conservative, the Salvadoran state government rebelled, touching off a civil war from 1826 to 1829. The bloody struggle established animosities between conservatives and liberals throughout the federation that would last well beyond the brief life of the United Provinces. The Honduran general Francisco Morazán (Morazán, Francisco) led the liberals to victory in 1829. Under his presidency during the following decade, the liberals exiled leading conservatives, including the archbishop and other clergy, and instituted sweeping anticlerical, economic, social, educational, and judicial reforms. Morazán also moved the federal capital to San Salvador in 1834.

Morazán's presidency

      Resistance to liberal policies against Indian (Central American and northern Andean Indian) interests surfaced in San Salvador in the rebellion of the Indian leader Anastasio Aquino beginning in 1833, but Morazán succeeded in repressing this insurrection. In the presidential election of 1834, the opposition candidate José Cecilio del Valle defeated Morazán, but he died before taking office, leaving Morazán as president. In Guatemala, opposition to the liberal policies of Gov. Mariano Gálvez, including anticlericalism, encouragement of foreign immigration, land grants, judicial reform, and a general head tax, combined with panic caused by a cholera epidemic, led to peasant revolts beginning in 1837. Behind the charismatic leadership of Rafael Carrera (Carrera, Rafael), the peasants not only toppled Gálvez but also sharply divided the liberals in Guatemala and allowed the conservatives to gain control. Taking advantage of these problems, the western departments of Guatemala, under liberal leadership, seceded and formed a sixth state, called Los Altos. Carrera quickly reconquered these departments in January 1840, however, and, when Morazán brought federal troops into the conflict, Carrera defeated him soundly at Guatemala City in March 1840. The federation was already in disarray, as Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica had seceded in 1838. Morazán fled to Panama.

Formation of the republics (c. 1840–c. 1870)

      Rafael Carrera quickly dismantled the liberal program in Guatemala and supported conservative caudillos in other Central American states. Although many entertained the possibility of reunification, all attempts failed, and conservative rulers in all the states opposed reunification.

      Morazán returned in 1842 and seized power in Costa Rica, seeking to make it a base for restoration of the federation. He found little support for this and was himself ousted by Costa Rican conservatives and executed in San José on Sept. 15, 1842.

 In 1847 Guatemala declared itself a sovereign republic and was quickly followed by Costa Rica in 1848 and eventually by the other regional states. The alliance of Nicaraguan liberals with the American filibuster William Walker (Walker, William) in 1855 caused Central Americans from all five states to unite against Walker, who made himself president of Nicaragua in 1856. In what became known as the “National War,” this united army defeated Walker in 1857. Yet attempts to turn this effort into a new federal union gained little support from the conservative elites in each state; thus, the most lasting legacy of the conservative period was the fragmentation of the United Provinces into the five city-state republics. The middle of the century also witnessed strong British-U.S. rivalry in Central America for commercial rights and control of transisthmian transportation routes. Early 19th-century British commercial dominance later gave way to U.S. economic, diplomatic, cultural, and military dominance in the region.

The liberal period (c. 1870–c. 1945)

      The death of Rafael Carrera in 1865 signaled a liberal resurgence throughout Central America. By 1872 the liberals had returned to power in all the states except Nicaragua, where the legacy of alliance with Walker had so discredited the liberals that it delayed their return to power until 1893. Liberal domination of Central America from about 1870 through the mid-20th century resulted in a completion of anticlerical reform and a strong emphasis on agricultural exports as the key to national modernization. Coffee became the most important commodity promoted by liberals, and it supported the rise of planter elites in most of the states. Banana exports, developed in the coastal regions by U.S. fruit companies (notably United, Standard Fruit and Steamship, and Cuyamel) in collaboration with the liberals, also were important in developing the transportation and communications infrastructure and in bringing Central America more fully into the North Atlantic trading economy. Despite their liberal political rhetoric, military dictatorships were the characteristic political institution of the period, as the planter elites depended on greater military strength to defend their interests—the only exception to this being Costa Rica, most of the time.

Modern Central America (c. 1945 to the present)

      By the middle of the 20th century, the powerful political and economic elites associated with the export-led economies promoted by the liberal parties faced strong challenges from middle- and working-class representatives. This challenge to the elite parties took many different forms, from formation of broader-based political parties to violent revolution, accounting for most of the political crises of the mid- and late 20th century. The demands for significant socioeconomic reforms brought revolts to every state, and Central American politics in the late 20th century became characterized by a powerful conflict between free-market and Marxist development models. Only in Nicaragua did a leftist insurgency take control, and it eventually yielded power when defeated in an election; prolonged leftist guerrilla movements in El Salvador and Guatemala came to an end through negotiated settlements. As in Latin America in general, the closing years of the century saw, in all the Central American states, formally democratic regimes in power but wrestling with severe economic problems. Also influencing political trends, particularly in Guatemala, was the growth of Evangelical Protestantism.

      Although the liberals had traditionally favoured Central American unification, at least in principle, the strength of local elites in each of the republics prevented numerous attempts at reunification from succeeding even under liberal rule. Modern manifestations of the continued concept of Central American nationalism and desire for unification were seen, however, in the formation of the Organization of Central American States (Central American States, Organization of) in 1951, followed by the formation of the Central American Common Market in 1960 and the 1987 Central American peace plan, also called Esquipulas II, instigated by Pres. Oscar Arias Sánchez (Arias Sánchez, Oscar) of Costa Rica. The last included plans for a Central American national parliament along lines similar to those that established the European Union. While state sovereignty and the strength of the individual city-state elites remain strongly rooted in the Central American political tradition, there continues to be a strong residue of sympathy for Central American reunification. In the early 21st century, the U.S. Congress ratified the Central America–Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) to facilitate trade between U.S. and Central American markets. By 2007, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica had promulgated the agreement, though approval of it had lagged in Costa Rica because of ongoing opposition from certain sectors of its populace (it was voted on in a national referendum). In general, CAFTA-DR divided Central Americans into two camps: peasant, labour, and indigenous groups staunchly opposed it, while businesses and the government believed it would attract more foreign investment and promote economic growth.

Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr. David Bushnell

Additional Reading

Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Central America: A Nation Divided, 2nd ed. (1985), is the standard English-language general history of Central America. Héctor Pérez Brignoli, A Brief History of Central America (1989; originally published in Spanish, 1985), offers considerable political focus on the 20th century, from a Latin American perspective. Franklin D. Parker, The Central American Republics (1964, reprinted 1981), is still useful for its wealth of detail. Leslie Bethell (ed.), The Cambridge History of Latin America (1984– ), includes several perceptive chapters on Central American history from colonial times to the present.Sylvanus G. Morley and George W. Brainerd, The Ancient Maya, 4th ed. rev. by Robert J. Sharer (1983), is the standard history of the Maya. Doris Stone, Pre-Columbian Man Finds Central America: The Archaeological Bridge (1972), offers an excellent introduction to Central American archaeology, especially lower Central America. Frederick W. Lange and Doris Stone (eds.), The Archaeology of Lower Central America (1984), contains an anthology of carefully researched articles. William R. Fowler, Jr., The Cultural Evolution of Ancient Nahua Civilizations: The Pipil-Nicarao of Central America (1989), gives an excellent account of Nahautl influence along the Pacific coast.Murdo J. MacLeod, Spanish Central America: A Socioeconomic History, 1520–1720 (1973, reissued 1984), is a thorough and well-documented history of the Spanish conquest and the Habsburg period. William L. Sherman, Forced Native Labor in Sixteenth-Century Central America (1979), is an important scholarly work on early Spanish labour practices. Miles L. Wortman, Government and Society in Central America, 1680-1840 (1982), reviews the 18th-century history of the region and explains the impact of the Bourbon reforms on the region. Troy S. Floyd, The Anglo-Spanish Struggle for Mosquitia (1967), details the colonial rivalry for the eastern coast of Central America. Mario Rodríguez, The Cádiz Experiment in Central America, 1808 to 1826 (1978), superbly studies the independence period and the influence of the Spanish constitution of 1812 in Central America. Thomas L. Karnes, The Failure of Union: Central America, 1824–1975, rev. ed. (1976), describes the failure of the Central American federation and surveys attempts to revive it throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. E. Bradford Burns, The Poverty of Progress: Latin America in the Nineteenth Century (1980), an interpretive study, gives considerable attention to Central America and calls attention to the damage done to folk culture by the liberal economic policies of the 19th century. James Dunkerley, Power in the Isthmus (1988), offers a detailed political history of modern Central America, especially since 1920. Victor Bulmer-Thomas, The Political Economy of Central America Since 1920 (1987), combines political and economic analysis. Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr. (ed.), Central America: Historical Perspectives on the Contemporary Crises (1988), looks at the origins of present-day political problems.David Bushnell

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