History of Nicaragua Timeline

In 1811, Nicolás García Jerez, a priest, decided to make concessions with pro-independence figures. On December 13, 1811, they overthrew the local intendente Jose Salvador. The Spanish constitution of 1812 granted more independence to local administrations, and García Jerez was appointed intendente of Nicaragua.

In 1821 Guatemala declared its independence and all Central American provinces followed it. Nicaragua became part of the First Mexican Empire in 1822, was part of the United Provinces of Central America in 1823, and then became an independent republic in its own right in 1838.

Image source: Act of Independence of Central America

Initially invited by the Liberals in 1855 to join their struggle against the Conservatives, United States adventurer William Walker declared himself President in 1856 and made English the official language. Honduras and other Central American countries united to drive him out of Nicaragua in 1857, after which three decades of Conservative rule ensued.

Image source: William Walker (filibuster)

The Mosquito Coast area was designated to Honduras in 1859 and transferred to Nicaragua in 1860, though it remained autonomous until 1894.

Image source: Mosquito Coast

Walker was executed in neighbouring Honduras on September 12, 1860, ending his ambitions in Central America.

Taking advantage of divisions within the conservative ranks, José Santos Zelaya led a liberal revolt that brought him to power in 1893.

Image source: José Santos Zelaya

Zelaya ended the longstanding dispute with the United Kingdom over the Atlantic coast in 1894 and reincorporated the Mosquito Coast into Nicaragua.

In 1909, the United States provided political support to conservative-led forces rebelling against President Zelaya. On November 17, 1909, two Americans were executed by order of Zelaya after confessing to having laid a mine in the San Juan River with the intention of blowing up the Diamante.

Image source: United States occupation of Nicaragua

In August 1912, President Adolfo Díaz requested the resignation of Secretary of War General Luis Mena. United States Marines were stationed in Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933, except for a nine-month period beginning in 1925. From 1910 to 1926, the conservative party ruled Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan Campaign Medal was later issued for American service members who performed military duty there.

In 1914, the Bryan–Chamorro Treaty was signed, giving the United States significant rights in Nicaragua.

Image source: Bryan–Chamorro Treaty

Following another wave of immigrants in 1925, another violent conflict between liberals and conservatives known as the Constitutionalist War took place in 1926, when Liberal soldiers in the Caribbean port of Puerto Cabezas revolted against Conservative President Adolfo Díaz, recently installed as a result of United States pressure following a coup.

On May 4, 1927, representatives from the two warring factions signed the Pact of Espino Negro, negotiated by Henry Stimson, appointed by U.S. government officials.

Image source: Battle of Ocotal

Divisions within the Conservative Party in the 1932 elections paved the way for the Liberal Juan Bautista Sacasa to assume power. When the Americans left in 1933 as a result of Sandino's guerrilla war and the Great Depression, they set up the National Guard, a combined military and police force trained and equipped by the Americans.

Image source: Juan Bautista Sacasa

Fearing future armed opposition from Sandino, Somoza invited him to a meeting in Managua, where Sandino was assassinated on February 21, 1934 by the National Guard. President Sacasa's popularity decreased as a result of his poor leadership and accusations of fraud in the 1934 congressional elections.

Image source: Augusto César Sandino

Early in 1936, Somoza openly confronted President Sacasa using military force to displace loyal officials, leading to Sacasa's resignation on June 6, 1936. After winning the December 1936 presidential elections, Somoza took control of the country in 1937, and on January 1, 1937 resumed control of the National Guard, combining the roles of president and chief director of the military.

Image source: Anastasio Somoza García

In 1938, Somoza García named a Constituent Assembly that gave the president extensive power and elected him for another eight-year term.

In 1941, during World War II, Nicaragua declared war on Germany.

Image source: Declarations of war during World War II

From 1945 to 1960, the U.S.-owned Nicaraguan Long Leaf Pine Company (NIPCO) directly paid the Somoza family millions of dollars in exchange for favorable benefits, such as not having to re-forest clear cut areas. By 1961, NIPCO had cut all of the commercially viable coastal pines in northeast Nicaragua.

Image source: History of Nicaragua

On September 21, 1956, Nicaraguan poet Rigoberto López Pérez snuck into a party attended by the President and shot him in the chest. Luis Somoza Debayle became President (September 29, 1956 to May 1, 1963) and was effectively dictator until his death, while his brother Anastasio Somoza Debayle held great power as head of the National Guard.

Image source: Rigoberto López Pérez

In 1961, a young student, Carlos Fonseca, evoked the historical figure of Sandino and founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). President Luis Somoza Debayle, under pressure from the rebels, announced that national elections would be held in February 1963.

Image source: Sandinista National Liberation Front

In 1968, the World Health Organization found that polluted water led to 17% of all Nicaraguan deaths. In 1977, a study revealed that mothers living in León had 45 times more DDT in their breast milk than the World Health Organization safe level.

Image source: Water resources management in Nicaragua

The December 1972 Managua earthquake killed over 10,000 people and left 500,000 homeless. Somoza's brazen corruption, mishandling of relief—which prompted Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente to fly to Managua on December 31, 1972, a flight that ended in his death—and refusal to rebuild Managua flooded the ranks of the Sandinistas with disaffected Nicaraguans.

Image source: 1972 Nicaragua earthquake

On December 27, 1974, nine FSLN guerrillas invaded a party at the home of a former Minister of Agriculture, killing him and three guards while taking several leading government officials and prominent businessmen hostage. Martial law was declared in 1975, and the National Guard began razing villages suspected of supporting the rebels.

The country tipped into full-scale civil war with the 1978 murder of Pedro Chamorro, who had opposed violence against the regime. In May 1979, another general strike was called, and the FSLN launched a major push to take control of the country.

Image source: Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal

On July 19, 1979, a new government was proclaimed under a provisional junta headed by 33-year-old Daniel Ortega and including Violeta Chamorro, Pedro's widow, ending the Somoza family rule that lasted until 1979. Somoza ended up in Paraguay, where he was assassinated in September 1980, allegedly by members of the Argentinian Revolutionary Workers' Party.

Image source: Nicaraguan Revolution

One of the key large-scale programs of the Sandinistas was a National Literacy Crusade from March to August 1980.

Image source: Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign

With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, relations between the United States and the Sandinista regime became an active front in the Cold War. The Reagan administration imposed economic sanctions and a trade embargo against Nicaragua in 1981, and on May 1, 1985 Reagan issued an executive order imposing a full economic embargo, which remained in force until March 1990.

Image source: United States embargo against Nicaragua

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights investigated abuses by Sandinista forces, including an execution of 35 to 40 Miskitos in December 1981, and an execution of 75 people in November 1984.

American pressure against the government escalated throughout 1983 and 1984; the Contras began a campaign of economic sabotage and disrupted shipping by planting underwater mines in Nicaragua's Port of Corinto, an action later condemned by the International Court of Justice as illegal. In 1982, US Congress enacted legislation prohibiting further aid to the Contras; Reagan's officials attempted to illegally supply them out of proceeds of arms sales to Iran, triggering the Iran–Contra Affair of 1986–87.

Image source: Contras

The Sandinistas won the national election of November 4, 1984, gathering 67% of the vote, and Daniel Ortega was elected president. The primary opposition candidate, U.S.-backed Arturo Cruz, succumbed to pressure from the United States not to take part; three right-wing opposition parties boycotted the election. In 1993, the Library of Congress wrote that foreign observers generally reported the election was fair.

Image source: 1984 Nicaraguan general election

Nicaragua brought its case against the United States at the International Court of Justice in 1986, which ruled against US support for the Contras and condemned the mining of Nicaraguan ports.

Image source: Nicaragua v. United States

Mutual exhaustion, Sandinista fears of Contra unity and military success, and mediation by other regional governments led to the Sapoa ceasefire between the Sandinistas and the Contras on March 23, 1988.

The FSLN lost to the National Opposition Union by 14 points in elections on February 25, 1990. Due to the control and influence of the army by the Sandinistas, the period following saw the United States again introducing sanctions to Nicaragua from 1992 to 1995.

Image source: 1990 Nicaraguan general election

In February 1995, Sandinista Popular Army Cmdr. Humberto Ortega was replaced, in accordance with a new military code enacted in 1994. A new police organization law, passed by the National Assembly and signed into law in August 1996, further codified both civilian control of the police and professionalization of that law enforcement agency.

Image source: Humberto Ortega

The October 20, 1996 presidential, legislative, and mayoral elections were judged free and fair by international observers and by the groundbreaking national electoral observer group Ética y Transparencia, despite a number of irregularities due largely to logistical difficulties and a complicated electoral law.

Image source: 1996 Nicaraguan general election

The country partly rebuilt its economy during the 1990s but was hit hard by Hurricane Mitch at the end of October 1998, almost exactly a decade after the similarly destructive Hurricane Joan. Alemán continued to privatize the economy and promote infrastructure projects such as highways, bridges, and wells, assisted largely by foreign assistance received after the hurricane.

Image source: Hurricane Mitch

Alemán's administration was besieged by charges of corruption, resulting in the resignation of several key officials in mid-2000. In November 2000, Nicaragua held municipal elections.

Image source: Arnoldo Alemán

Presidential and legislative elections were held on November 4, 2001, the country's fourth free and fair election since 1990. Bolaños was inaugurated on January 10, 2002.

Image source: Enrique Bolaños

In November 2006 the presidential election was won by Daniel Ortega, returned to power after 16 years in opposition. Ortega gained some 38% of the vote in the single round, returning for his second term overall.

Image source: 2006 Nicaraguan general election

In 2007 Nicaragua was hit by Hurricane Felix, a category 5 hurricane, compounding the damage from earlier storms like Hurricane Mitch.

Image source: Hurricane Felix

Ortega ran again and won the 2011 Nicaraguan general election amid accusations of fraud by losing candidate Fabio Gadea Mantilla. The 2016 general election saw a partial electoral boycott by the opposition and again accusations of electoral fraud, as well as accusations that the abstention rate was higher than officially published by the government.

Image source: 2011 Nicaraguan general election

Starting April 19, 2018, criticism of the Ortega government over the canal, forest fires in the Indio Maíz nature reserve, and a planned reform of the social security system led to the 2018–2022 Nicaraguan protests, to which the government responded with violence and harsh repression.

Image source: Protests against Daniel Ortega

On July 20, 2026, Daniel Ortega announced the abolition of the electoral system in order to prevent the opposition from taking power.

Image source: Daniel Ortega