Nicaragua - Republic of Nicaragu

Nicaragua - Republic of Nicaragu

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America. However, although it is indeed the largest Central American nation, it is also the least densely populated one. It is bordered on the north by Honduras and on south by Costa Rica. Its western coastline is on the Pacific Ocean, while the east side of the country is on the Caribbean Sea. The country's name is a portmanteau of Nicarao, employed by the Spanish colonialists for the Nahuatl-speaking indigenous tribe, and the Spanish word Agua, meaning water, named after one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world Lago Nicaragua and the indigenous leader Nicarao.

History of Nicaragua

Colonized by Spain in 1524, Nicaragua achieved independence in 1821 when it was a province of the Audience of Guatemala and became part of the United Provinces of Central America. It separated from the federation in 1838, becoming a completely sovereign republic.

The nation's early history was marked by the desire of U.S. commercial interests to make use of Nicaraguan territory. When gold was discovered in California, Cornelius Vanderbilt's Accessory Transit Company undertook a steamship and carriage business to link Greytown (present-day San Juan del Norte), at the mouth of the San Juan River (linking the Lago Nicaragua with the Gulf of Mexico), to the Pacific. Nicaragua's strategic position has ever since been of interest to the United States.

Nicaragua offered token assistance during World War 2, and was the first country in the world to ratify the UN Charter.

Sandinista revolution

Nicaragua has seen U.S. military interventions and lengthy periods of military dictatorship, the most infamous being the rule of the Somoza family (supported by successive U.S. governments) for much of the early 20th century. In 1979 the Somoza family was deposed, and a multi-factional coalition took control of the government. Conflicts within the coalition eventually resulted in power being consolidated by Daniel Ortega, who was elected President in 1984 elections in which some opposition parties refused to participate, complaining of government restrictions, but which were claimed to be free and fair by Western NGOs allowed into Nicaragua. Ortega and the FSLN leadership implemented a series of ambitious communist reforms to the country, but the new president's rule was undermined by increasing civil war in which the United States, under President Ronald Reagan, secretly funded anti-Communist rebel forces called Contras despite a 1982 Congressional amendment prohibiting aid. Interesting in this respect is the 2005 Nobel Lecture given by Harold Pinter: http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2005/

The 1990 elections and U.S. involvement

Multi-party elections held in 1990 saw the defeat of the Sandinistas by a coalition of right-wing parties led by Violeta Chamorro. The defeat shocked the Sandinistas as numerous pre-election polls had indicated a sure Sandinista victory and their pre-election rallies had attracted crowds of several hundred thousand people.

The unexpected result was subject to a great deal of analysis and comment, and was attributed by commentators such as Noam Chomsky and S. Brian Wilson to the Contra threats to continue the war if the Sandinistas retained power, the general war-weariness of the Nicaraguan population, and extensive U.S. funding of the opposition.

On the other hand, P. J. O'Rourke wrote in "Return of the Death of Communism" about "the unfair advantages of using state resources for party ends, about how Sandinista control of the transit system prevented UNO supporters from attending rallies, how Sandinista domination of the army forced soldiers to vote for Ortega and how Sandinista bureaucracy kept $3.3 million of U.S. campaign aid from getting to UNO while Daniel [Ortega] spent millions donated by overseas people and millions and millions more from the Nicaraguan treasury . . ."

Exit polls of Nicaraguans reported the largest plurality of voters voted for Charmorro due to American economic sanctions against the Ortega government. Exit polling also convinced Daniel Ortega that the election results were legitimate, and were instrumental in his decision to accept the vote of the people and step down rather than void the election.

Politics of Nicaragua

Nicaragua is a constitutional republic with an elected president holding executive power. The unicameral legislative body is the National Assembly, which has 92 members elected for 5-year terms. The President, and the runner-up are both members of the National Assembly, as well, and the government operates according to pseudo-parliamentary rules.

Geography

Nicaragua has three distinct geographical regions: the Pacific Lowlands, the North-Central Mountains and the Mosquito Coast. The Pacific Lowlands are in the west of the country, and consist of a broad, hot, fertile plain which supports most of Nicaragua's population. The capital, Managua, and the two main provincial cities, León and Granada all lie in this region. Punctuating this plain are several large volcanoes, many of which are active. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are common in this part of the country: much of central Managua was destroyed by an earthquake on December 23, 1972. There are upwards of 40 volcanoes in the country, including Mombacho and Momotombo.

The North-Central mountains is an upland region away from the Pacific coast, with a cooler climate than the Pacific Lowlands. About a quarter of the country's agriculture takes place in this region, with coffee grown on the higher slopes.

The Mosquito Coast is a large rainforest region, with several large rivers running through it. It has a hot and humid climate, and is very sparsely populated. The Río Negro borders the country with Honduras. The Caribbean coastline is much more sinuous than its generally straight Pacific counterpart: lagoons and deltas make it very irregular.

Economy of Nicaragua

Volcán Momotombo, a symbol of NicaraguaNicaragua's economy has historically been based on the export of cash crops such as bananas, coffee and tobacco. It is said that they produce the best rum in Latin America; the second best tobacco in the world (after Cuba); and have the third ranking in beef quality only behind Argentina and Brazil. During the Contra War, much of the country's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, and an economic blockade by the U.S. combined with the economic stagnation of the aligned Soviet bloc led to the virtual collapse of the economy. Inflation ran for a time at several thousand per cent. Since the end of the war, many state-owned industries have been privatized. Inflation has been brought to manageable levels, and the economy has grown quite rapidly in recent years.

The country is still a recovering economy and it continues to implement further reforms, on which aid from the International Monetary Fund is conditional. A new state agency (Pro Nicaragua) established in 2002 and the recent ratification of CAFTA have been instrumental for the democratic government of Nicaragua to launch an ambitious promotional campaign employing US-educated nationals with high-level executive expertise, to attract foreign investment and diversify the economy in such areas as BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and Garment Sourcing.

As in so many other developing countries, most of the poor people in Nicaragua are women. In addition, a relatively high percentage of the Nicaraguan homes have a woman as head of household: 39% of urban homes and 28% of the rural ones. (From The Role of Woman in the Economy - used by permission of the site author.)

In 2005, finance ministers of the leading eight industrialized nations (G-8) agreed to forgive Nicaragua's foreign debt, as it is one of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries.

Demographics of Nicaragua

About 69 percent of Nicaraguans are Mestizo (mixed European and Amerindian to varying degrees). People of unmixed European descent constitute about 17 percent of the population, and are the largest minority. They are mostly of Spanish descent, but the 19th century saw several small waves of immigration from other European-Mediterranean countries. In particular the northern cities of Esteli and Matagalpa have significant 4th generation German communities. Most of the Mestizo and European population live in the western regions of the country and especially in the cities of Managua, Leon and Granada.

About 9 percent of Nicaragua's population is considered black or afronicaragüense, with the black population concentrated on the country's sparesely populated eastern coast. The black population is mostly of West Indian (Antillean) origin, the descendents of indentured labourers brought mostly from Jamaica and Haiti when the region was a British protectorate. Nicaragua has the second largest black population in Central America after Panama. There is also a smaller number of Garifuna, a people of mixed Carib, Angolan, Congolese and Arawak descent.

Nicaraguan children on a ferry to Ometepe IslandThe remaining 5 percent 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. While very few pure-blooded Nicarao people still exist, the Caribbean peoples have remained distinct. In the mid-1980s, the government divided the department of Zelaya - consisting of the eastern half of the country - into two autonomous regions and thus granted the African and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule within the Republic.

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 lmost 8,000. These minorities speak Spanish while maintaining their ancestral languages as well.

Spanish is spoken by about 90% of the country's population; Nicaraguans speak standard Iberoamerican Spanish with some similarities to Galician Spanish—structurally similar to Argentinian Spanish which uses "vos" instead of "tu" along with the "vos" conjugation, but with a different intonation. The black population of the east coast region has English as its first language. Several indigenous peoples of the east still use their original languages.

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. Ninety per cent of Nicaraguans live in the Pacific lowlands and the adjacent interior highlands. The population is 54% urban.

An estimated 2 million Nicaraguans live outside of Nicaragua, popular destinations are Costa Rica, the United States, Mexico, Germany, and Spain.

Culture of Nicaragua

Nicaraguan culture has several distinct strands. The west of the country was colonized by Spain and has a similar culture to neighbouring Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, like El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. The people of western Nicaragua are mostly Mestizos and just under one quarter of European stock; Spanish is invariably their first language.

The eastern half of the country, on the other hand, was once a British protectorate. English is still predominant in this region and its culture is somewhat similar to Caribbean nations, although recent immigration by Mestizos has largely influenced younger generations and an increasing number of people are either bilingual or speak Spanish only. There is a large population of people of mixed African stock, as well as a smaller Garifuna population.

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. In the east, however, several indigenous groups have maintained a distinct identity. The Sumos and Ramas people still use their original languages.

See Timor -Leste for East Timor
Ecuador - Republic of Ecuador
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Equatorial Guinea - Republic of Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea - State of Eritrea
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See Côte d'Ivoire for Ivory Coast

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Jamaica (Commonwealth Realm)
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See Transnistria for Pridnestrovie
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Uganda - Republic of Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates (federal state)
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United States - United States of America (federal state)
Uruguay - Oriental Republic of Uruguay
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Wallis and Futuna (overseas collectivity of France)
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Y
Yemen - Republic of Yemen

Z
Zambia - Republic of Zambia
Zimbabwe - Republic of Zimbabwe