Nicaragua: History

Before European contact, the territory now known as Nicaragua was home to diverse indigenous peoples, including the Nicarao, Chorotega, and Miskito, who developed distinct agricultural and trading societies across the Pacific lowlands, central highlands, and Caribbean coast.

Spanish colonization began in the early sixteenth century, and the territory was administered as part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala until Central America declared independence from Spain in 1821. Nicaragua briefly joined the Mexican Empire and then the Federal Republic of Central America before becoming a fully sovereign state in 1838.

The twentieth century brought decades of rule by the Somoza family, ended by the 1979 Sandinista Revolution and followed by a civil war between the Sandinista government and Contra rebels through the 1980s. Since the return to electoral democracy in 1990, Nicaragua has continued to navigate political transitions into the modern era.