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Nicaragua Colonial Rule
Although Nicaragua had been part of the
audiencia
(audience or court) of Panama, established in 1538, it was
transferred to the Viceroyalty of New Spain when Spain
divided
its empire into two viceroyalties in 1543. The following
year,
the new audiencia of Guatemala, a subdivision of
the
Viceroyalty of New Spain, was created. This
audiencia
extended from southern Mexico through Panama and had its
capital
first at Gracias, Honduras, and then at Antigua, Guatemala
after
1549. In 1570 the audiencia was reorganized and
reduced in
size, losing the territory of present-day Panama, the
Yucatán,
and the Mexican state of Tabasco.
The five-man audiencia, or court, was the
highest
governmental authority in the territory. During most of
the
colonial period, the president of the audiencia
held the
additional titles of governor and captain general (hence,
the
alternative name of Captaincy General of Guatemala) and
was
charged with administrative, judicial, and military
authority.
The governor, or captain general, was appointed by the
Spanish
king and was responsible to him; in fact, the colony was
sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of Guatemala.
The audiencia was divided into provinces for
administrative purposes, and the leading official in each
province was generally called an alcalde mayor, or
governor. León was the capital of the Province of
Nicaragua,
housing the local governor, the Roman Catholic bishop, and
other
important appointees. An elite of creole (individuals of
Spanish
descent born in the New World) merchants controlled the
economic
and political life of each province. Because of the great
distance between the centers of Spanish rule, political
power was
centered with the local government, the town council or
ayuntamiento, which ignored most official orders
from the
Spanish crown.
Throughout the seventeenth century, trade restrictions
imposed by Spain, natural disasters, and foreign attacks
devastated the economy of the Captaincy General of
Guatemala. The
local government neglected agricultural production,
powerful
earthquakes in 1648, 1651, and 1663, caused massive
destruction
in the Province of Nicaragua, and from 1651 to 1689,
Nicaragua
was subjected to bloody incursions from English, French,
and
Dutch pirates. In 1668 and 1670, these buccaneers captured
and
destroyed the city of Granada, center of the province's
agricultural wealth. The Captaincy General of Guatemala
was
generally neglected by Spain. Within the captaincy
general, the
Province of Nicaragua remained weak and unstable, ruled by
persons with little interest in the welfare of its people.
In the late 1600s, the Miskito, who lived in
Nicaragua's
Caribbean lowlands, began to be exploited by English
"filibusters" (irregular military adventurers) intent on
encroaching on Spanish landowners. In 1687 the English
governor
of Jamaica named a Miskito who was one of his prisoners,
"King of
the Mosquitia Nation," and declared the region to be under
the
protection of the English crown. This event marked the
beginning
of a long rivalry between Spanish (and later Nicaraguan)
and
British authorities over the sovereignty of the Caribbean
coast,
which effectively remained under British control until the
end of
the nineteenth century.
After more than a century of exploiting the mineral
wealth of
the New World, the Spanish realized that activities other
than
mining could be profitable. The Province of Nicaragua then
began
to experience economic growth based on export agriculture.
By the
early 1700s, a powerful elite was well established in the
cities
of León, Granada, and, to a lesser extent, Rivas.
Events in Spain in the early 1700s were to have
long-lasting
repercussions in Nicaragua. The War of the Spanish
Succession
(1701-14) resulted in the Bourbons replacing the Hapsburgs
on the
Spanish throne. The Hapsburgs had supported strict trade
monopolies, especially in the Spanish colonies. The
Bourbons were
proponents of more liberal free-trade policies. Throughout
the
captaincy general, groups were hurt or helped by these
changes;
the factions supporting changes in trading policy came to
be
known as liberals while those who had profited under the
old
rules were known as conservatives. Liberals generally
consisted
of growers with new crops to sell, merchants, or export
interests. Conservatives were generally composed of
landowners
who had profited under the old protectionism and who
resisted new
competition. In time, conservatism also became associated
with
support for the Roman Catholic Church; the liberals took a
more
anticlerical stand.
Throughout the captaincy general, cities came to be
associated with one or the other of these political
factions,
depending on the basis of the economy of each. Typically,
each of
the five provinces of the captaincy general had one city
that
championed the liberal cause and another that spoke for
the
conservatives. In Nicaragua, León was primarily involved
in
exporting animal products such as leather and tallow and
soon
became the center for free-trading liberalism. The
conservative
elite in Granada, however, had made their fortunes under
the old
protectionist system and resisted change. Competition
between the
two cities over influence on colonial policy became
violent at
times, and each city supported armed groups to defend
itself and
its ideas. In time, the hatred and violence between the
two
cities and the two factions became institutionalized, and
often
the original ideological difference was forgotten.
Independence
in the next century only exacerbated the struggle as it
eliminated Spain as a referee. The violent rivalry between
liberals and conservatives was one of the most important
and
destructive aspects of Nicaraguan history, a
characteristic that
would last until well into the twentieth century.
Politicians
frequently chose party loyalty over national interest,
and,
particularly in the 1800s, the nation was often the loser
in
interparty strife.
Liberal-conservative rivalry was not only a domestic
issue
but also an international one. The other provinces in the
captaincy general, and later the successor nations, had
similar
liberal and conservative factions. Each faction did not
hesitate
to support its compatriots, often with armed force, in
another
province. After independence, the intercountry
interference
continued unabated; conservatives or liberals in each of
the five
successor states frequently sent troops to support like
factions
in its neighboring countries. This constant intervention
and
involvement in its neighbors' affairs was a second and
equally
pernicious characteristic of Nicaraguan politics
throughout its
independent existence.
Data as of December 1993
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