Nicaragua: 20th Century Developments

For much of the 20th century, Nicaragua was governed by the Somoza family, whose hereditary dictatorship began in 1937 when Anastasio Somoza García took the presidency after helping organize the National Guard, a force originally formed under United States oversight. The Somozas ruled for more than four decades, amassing extensive landholdings and control over key industries while suppressing political opposition.

Resistance to the dynasty grew through the mid-century, culminating in the founding of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in 1961, a group named for the earlier rebel leader Augusto César Sandino. Opposition intensified after the devastating 1972 Managua earthquake exposed government corruption in the distribution of relief aid, and the 1978 assassination of newspaper publisher Pedro Joaquín Chamorro helped spark a broader popular uprising.

The Sandinista offensive of 1979 forced Somoza into exile and brought a provisional government under Daniel Ortega to power. The following decade was marked by civil war between the Sandinista government and United States-backed Contra rebels, a conflict that ended with a negotiated peace and the 1990 election that transferred power to Violeta Chamorro, closing out a century shaped by dictatorship, revolution, and civil conflict.