NICARAGUA

NICARAGUA. –

I. GEOGRAPHY

It is the largest (148,000 sq km), but least densely populated (1.2 million inhabitants; 7.8 per sq km), state in the Isthmian Americas.

The territory, situated between Honduras and Costa Rica, is divided into two unequal parts by the long tectonic trough containing the two great Lakes of Managua (1,134 sq km) and N. (8,400 sq km): to the E. lies a declining plateau with a gentle slope toward the marshy and deserted coast; to the W. a narrow fringe of mountains and plains, where the population is concentrated. At the narrowest point, between Lake N. and the Pacific, the two slopes of the mountainous (volcanic) barrier that crosses the country (in a NW–SE direction) are separated by a saddle only 51 m high: it would be relatively easy to construct a new interoceanic canal there, as has indeed been contemplated several times. The climate is tropical, hot, and uniform, with abundant precipitation; differences in altitude nevertheless produce appreciable local variations. The humid eastern regions are covered with dense forests (approximately one-third of the total area), rich in valuable timber (mahogany, cedar, rosewood); the areas along the Pacific give way to cultivation, among which coffee, cacao, tobacco, sugar cane, and bananas predominate. Of the minerals, the only one exploited is gold (6,000–7,000 kg annually), which heads the exports. The population consists of one-half mestizos, one-third Amerindians, and one-tenth Blacks. The principal centers, all on the eastern slope, are Managua (150,000 inhabitants), the capital, and León (40,000 inhabitants), both university seats.

Independent since 1821, N. is constituted as a republic, with a president and a bicameral congress, elected and serving six-year terms.

The Spaniards had not occupied the coastal region inhabited by the Miskito Indians (= Mosquito Coast); in the 17th century, the English attempted several occupations there, but, owing to the contrary attitude of the indigenous inhabitants, they limited themselves to placing the entire coast under their protectorate. This situation continued until 1848. Then, in 1860, by the Treaty of Managua, England recognized the full and absolute sovereignty of N. over the Mosquito Coast on the essential condition that these tribes enjoy complete autonomy.

As in the other Central and South American regions, the desire for independence also manifested itself in N.; but on 15 Sept. 1821, following the Mexican insurrection of A. de Iturbide, N. was occupied by the Mexican general Filisola, and only on 8 Apr. 1826 did N. succeed in freeing itself from Mexican subjection and giving itself an effectively independent constitution.

From that year onward, the internal life of N. would have many points in common with that of the other Hispano-American states: internal uprisings, dictatorships, periods of economic depression, and longer or shorter years of tranquility. In the second half of the 19th century, in order to put an end to the continual and often bloody antagonisms, the entire population decided to found a new capital, Managua, on the site of an ancient Andean settlement, in a central position equidistant from the two oceans; the city soon fully achieved the purpose for which it had been conceived.

When the First World War of 1914–18 broke out, the United States, by the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of 1914, ratified in 1916, obtained from the Republic, in exchange for the payment of three million gold pesos, the exclusive right to construct an interoceanic canal through N. (Rio S. Juan–Lago di N.–Brito), the lease, for ninety-nine years, of certain Nicaraguan islands in the Caribbean Sea, and the right to organize a naval base in the Gulf of Fonseca. By this Treaty, the Republic practically lost its independence, becoming a North American protectorate. After the First World War, José María Moncada, elected the new president in 1928, initiated a period of good government despite the continued presence of North American armed forces: in Dec. 1932 the United States withdrew its troops from the region, while in Jan. of the following year (1933) the new president, J. B. Sacasa, succeeded in bringing the internal insurrection to an end, restoring conditions of life in the country that were less tense than in the past. When the Second World War broke out, Somoza aligned himself with the United States, declaring war in Dec. 1941 on Germany, Japan, and Italy. Supplies for the North Americans, together with the intensification of cultivation and the increased demand for labor, neutralized the agricultural crisis, so that the situation in N. rapidly improved.

by the end of the sixteenth century already numbered 12 houses. The Dominicans and other religious Orders subsequently joined the Franciscans; they were expelled in 1872. On 2 December 1913, Pius X reorganized the hierarchy by establishing the ecclesiastical province of N., with the archbishopric of Managua and two suffragan dioceses, León and Granada, as well as the apostolic vicariate of Bluefields. On 19 December 1924, the diocese of Matagalpa was established and likewise placed under Managua.

The overwhelming majority of the population is Catholic; Catholicism is the state religion, according to the Concordat of 1861, ratified in 1862. Freedom of worship is recognized. The main body of the population is made up of mestizos, who constitute 50% of the inhabitants, numbering approximately 1,500,000. The apostolic vicariate of Bluefields, erected by decree of the Congregation of the Council of 2 December 1913, also includes the islands belonging to the country and is entrusted to the Capuchins of the province of Catalonia.

For literature, V. ISPANO-AMERICANA, LETTERATURA.

Art. 110 guarantees freedom of conscience, the expression of every belief, and the practice of all forms of worship, insofar as they do not conflict with morality, good customs, and public order. Forms of worship incompatible with the life or physical integrity of the human person are excluded. The same article explicitly prohibits the promulgation of laws that favor or restrict particular forms of worship. There are, however, provisions granting privileges, though these concern all religious denominations. Art. 84, in fact, exempts places intended for worship from taxation; it prohibits the State from converting them and objects of worship to other purposes; churches, denominations, and religious institutions of any worship that possess juridical personality have the same rights over their property as private individuals.

Art. 95, in dealing with workers’ rights, recognizes weekly rest as obligatory, but does not recognize Catholic religious holidays, including Sunday.

Secularism is more pronounced in the provisions concerning education and marriage. With regard to the former, Art. 100, which reproduces Art. 88 of the 1939 Constitution, states that primary education is compulsory, and that education provided by the State and public corporations is free and secular. In theory, according to an authoritative declaration entered in the official parliamentary records under the previous Constitution, “Secular education does not prevent ministers of religion from teaching their doctrines in schools, because the State does not prohibit it”;

In practice, this declaration never took effect, and with the promulgation of the new Constitution it must be considered null and void. Religious instruction in public schools remains officially abolished; it is provided in some schools thanks to the goodwill of teachers and the authorization granted by President Somoza to Catholic Action of the Republic in 1942. Also noteworthy, and not without unfortunate effects, has been state interference in the numerous and flourishing private Catholic schools, which in September 1949 joined a national federation affiliated with the inter-American federation of Bogotá (C.I.E.C.).

Nicaraguan legislation permits divorce. Moreover, in June 1941, a law was promulgated prescribing, under severe penalties, the precedence of the civil act over religious marriage. The Constitution, in art. 80, further establishes equal obligations for parents toward legitimate children and those born outside marriage.

Finally, the Constitution does not recognize the religious character of public cemeteries, in which ministers of all denominations may perform their respective rites (art. 112).

The Republic of N. maintains diplomatic relations with the Holy See through the Apostolic Nuncio residing in Managua and the plenipotentiary minister accredited to the Supreme Pontiff. Ippolito Rotoli