History of Central America
Central America is commonly said to include Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.
Central America is composed of seven independent nations: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
In 1811, independence movements broke out in El Salvador in reaction to events in the Peninsular War, and again in 1814 after the restoration of Ferdinand VII.
The Spanish Captain General, Gabino Gaínza, sympathized with the rebels and it was decided that he should stay on as interim leader until a new government could be formed.
Independence was short-lived, for the conservative leaders in Guatemala welcomed annexation by the First Mexican Empire of Agustín de Iturbide on 5 January 1822.
Central American liberals objected to this, but an army from Mexico under General Vicente Filísola occupied Guatemala City and quelled dissent.
These qualities would exist for decades after the region's separation from Spain and Mexico and would help to create the modern boundaries of Central America.
The Central American nation consisted of the states of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
Central American liberals had high hopes for the federal republic, which they believed would evolve into a modern, democratic nation, enriched by trade crossing through it between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans.
These aspirations are reflected in the emblems of the federal republic: The flag shows a white band between two blue stripes, representing the land between two oceans.
After independence, officials from the different regions gathered in a junta to decide the future of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala.
They decided to unite into a federation of five autonomous states, thus creating the UPCA, a term coined by Brigadier General Vicente Filisola, who was stationed in Guatemala City.
They felt that the “provinces alone were too small and weak economically to survive as sovereign states” so they “avert[ed] fragmentation of the isthmus”[9] and pushed for union.
Despite this, the beginning of the federation went relatively smoothly and negotiations helped them reform borders, capital cities were moved to accommodate the citizens, and economies of coffee grew high.
In the 1820s and through the 1830s Morazan took an active role in liberal movements throughout Central America, especially in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras against conservative parties.
These conflicts, along with cholera outbreaks, foreign intervention, and distress among those in poverty caused many insurgencies, resulting in various civil wars throughout Central America.
The abortive attempt proposed to restore the union as the Confederation of Central America and planned to include El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Guatemalan President Justo Rufino Barrios attempted to reunite the nation by force of arms in the 1880s and was killed in the process, like his 1842 predecessor.
The third union of Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador as the Greater Republic of Central America or "Republica Mayor de Centroamerica" lasted from 1896 to 1898.
The last attempt occurred between June 1921 and January 1922 when El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica formed a (second) Federation of Central America.
Today, all five nations fly flags that retain the old federal motif of two outer blue bands bounding an inner white stripe.
Costa Rica, traditionally the least committed of the five to regional integration, modified its flag significantly in 1848 by darkening the blue and adding a double-wide inner red band, in honor of the French tricolor.
During this time, political elites in the five Central American countries advanced reforms on agriculture, commerce, and redefined the relationship between the state, society and the economy.
The most relevant political figures during this period were the presidents Justo Rufino Barrios in Guatemala, Rafael Zaldivar in El Salvador, Braulio Carrillo Colina and Tomas Guardia in Costa Rica, Marco Aurelio Soto in Honduras, and José Santos Zelaya in Nicaragua.
On December 13, 1960, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua established the Central American Common Market (CACM).
The regional parliament seat deputies from the four former members of the Union (Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras), as well as from Panama and the Dominican Republic.
