Spanish conquest of Nicaragua

The volcanoes lie along the western edge of a rift valley running southeast from the Gulf of Fonseca to the San Juan River, which forms a part of the border with Costa Rica.

[16] When the Spanish first arrived in what is now Nicaragua there were three principal indigenous groups living in the western portions of the country; these were the Chorotega (also known as the Mangue),[17] the Nicarao, and the Matagalpa (also known as Chontal, from the Nahuatl term for "foreigner").

They broke off from the Pipil around the early 13th century and settled in pockets of western Nicaragua along the Pacific coast, with their heaviest concentration in what is now the department of Rivas.

[23] The Chibchoidean peoples of the interior were culturally related to South American groups, and had developed more complex societies than that of the Miskito, who were of Caribbean origin.

The first century after Spanish contact witnessed the demographic collapse of the native populations, resulting principally from exposure to Old World diseases and their exportation as slaves, but also from a combination of war and mistreatment.

Private adventurers thereafter entered into contracts with the Spanish Crown to conquer the newly discovered lands in return for tax revenues and the power to rule.

[28] In the first two decades of the 16th century, the Spanish established their domination over the islands of the Caribbean Sea, and used these as a staging point to launch their campaigns of conquest on the continental mainland of the Americas.

[33] The Spanish heard rumours of the rich empire of the Aztecs on the mainland to the west of their Caribbean island settlements and, in 1519, Hernán Cortés set sail to explore the Mexican coast.

[31] The conquistadors were all volunteers, the majority of whom did not receive a fixed salary but instead a portion of the spoils of victory, in the form of precious metals, land grants and provision of native labour.

[38] Gabriel de Rojas was an officer of Dávila who probably travelled from Spain with him; he was a younger brother drawn from a notable family that had risen to prominence in the service of Henry IV of Castile,[39] and was a veteran of the conquest of Tierra Firme (Caribbean South America).

[45] Crossbows had 60-centimetre (2 ft) arms stiffened with hardwoods, horn, bone and cane, and supplied with a stirrup to facilitate drawing the string with a crank and pulley.

In 1493, the Spanish Pope Alexander VI issued the Bulls of Donation that justified the colonisation of the New World for the express purpose of converting the native inhabitants to Christianity.

[50] The Spanish Crown and the Church insisted that the conquered peoples were human souls meriting legal rights and protection, while some colonists claimed they were subhuman, and a valid resource for forced labour.

[52] One of the first actions performed upon entering an indigenous settlement was to plant a cross on top of the local shrine, to symbolically replace the native religion with the authority of the Church.

[60] The Spanish Crown issued a license to explore the Pacific coast to Gil González Dávila and Andrés Niño in Zaragoza in October 1518;[61] they set out from Spain in September 1519.

[63] On 21 January 1522,[64] with the approval of Pedrarias Dávila, who was governor of Castilla de Oro (modern Panama), they travelled northwest across Costa Rica and the Isthmus of Rivas into southwestern Nicaragua.

[77] From Quauhcapolca, Gil González Dávila advanced to the indigenous settlement of Coatega,[77] near the Mombacho volcano,[78] where he was met by another powerful ruler, Diriangén, leader of the Chorotega.

They spent the next night in a state of alert upon a hilltop; the next day they continued their retreat in defensive formation, crossing lands abandoned by the Indians until they reached the safety of their ships on the Pacific coast.

Andrés Niño had returned to the anchorage a few days previously, but all the ships were in poor repair and the Spanish expedition was forced to make the arduous journey back to Panama in canoes.

[104] Around this time, the natives of the Cordillera de los Maribios mountains, about 5 leagues from León (about 21 km or 13 mi), killed a large number of indigenous men and women, dressed themselves in their skins and met the Spanish in battle, but were routed.

Although he had won the day, González was aware that Hernández de Córdoba was unlikely to let matters rest, and he also received news that a new Spanish expedition had arrived on the north coast of Honduras.

[112] As events played out in Honduras, and Gil González lost the initiative, some of his men deserted and marched south to join the forces of Hernández de Córdoba in Nicaragua.

[117] Hernández de Córdoba sent a second expedition into Honduras, carrying letters to the Audiencia of Santo Domingo and to the Crown, searching for a good location for a port on the Caribbean coast, to provide a link to Nicaragua.

[118] Cortés responded courteously and offered supplies while the expedition was passing through Honduras, but sent letters advising Hernández de Córdoba to remain loyal to Pedrarias Dávila.

[123] Hernández de Córdoba's position in Nicaragua was consolidated by his foundation of three colonial towns there, although his contract for conquest specifically limited his license to two years from the day he sailed from Panama.

[127] Pedrarias Dávila set out from Nata by sea with soldiers and artillery, and landed on the island of Chira, in the Gulf of Nicoya, opposite the colonial settlement of Bruselas on the mainland (then within the jurisdiction of Nicaragua, but now in Costa Rica).

There he established a base of operations, and the indigenous inhabitants received him in peace; from these Dávila learned that Hernández de Córdoba had evacuated Bruselas a few days previously.

[138] In 1508, Diego de Nicuesa was given the governorship of the Governorate of Veragua, a region stretching along the Caribbean coast from the Belén River in Panama to Cape Gracias a Dios, on the current border between Nicaragua and Honduras.

In 1562, a new license of conquest was issued to the governor of Honduras, Alonso Ortiz de Elgueta, who sent pilot Andrés Martín to scout the coast from Trujillo as far as the mouth of the San Juan River.

[59] Francisco Hernández de Córdoba's foundation of the colonial towns of León and Granada was described in a letter to the king of Spain, written by Pedrarias Dávila in 1525.