After the withdrawal of Spain, relations between the “king” of the Mosquito Coast and the British government strengthened until again there were British officials in Bluefields. In 1848 they seized the small Caribbean port of San Juan del Norte, renaming it Greytown. The discovery of gold in California drew attention to the strategic position of Nicaragua for interoceanic traffic, and Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Accessory Transit Company began a steamship and carriage operation between Greytown and the Pacific. In 1856 William Walker, an American who had been invited to assist the Liberals in warfare (1855), made himself president of the country, but he was routed a year later by the efforts of the five Central American republics and the transit company.

Conservatives ruled from 1857 until 1893, bringing relative peace but little democracy to Nicaragua. As a compromise between Granada and León, Managua was made the capital in 1857. In 1860 a treaty with Great Britain provided for the nominal reincorporation of the east coast with the rest of the country, but as an autonomous reservation. Complete jurisdiction over the Miskito people was not established until the Liberal presidency (1893–1909) of José Santos Zelaya.

Zelaya, though a dictator, was a committed nationalist. He promoted schemes for Central American reunification and refused to grant the United States transisthmian canal-building rights on concessionary terms, thus encouraging the United States to choose Panama for the project. This, plus rumours that Zelaya planned to invite Japan to construct a canal that would have competed with the U.S. waterway, caused the United States to encourage Zelaya’s Conservative opposition to stage a revolt. When two U.S. citizens who participated in the revolt were executed, the United States landed marines in Bluefields and thus blocked a Liberal victory. Although Zelaya resigned, the United States refused to recognize his successor, José Madriz (1909–10). Further civil war led to the presidency of a Conservative, Adolfo Díaz (1911–17), on whose behalf the U.S. Marines intervened in 1912. A 100-man guard at the U.S. embassy symbolized that country’s support also for Conservative presidents Emiliano Chamorro Vargas (1917–21) and his uncle Diego Manuel Chamorro (1921–23). The Bryan-Chamorro Treaty, signed in 1914 and ratified in 1916, gave the United States exclusive canal privileges in Nicaragua (to prevent a competing canal from being built) and the right to establish naval bases.

The U.S. Marine guard’s withdrawal in 1925 led quickly to another crisis, with Chamorro Vargas in rebellion against a new regime. Díaz returned as a compromise president (1926–28), reinforced in 1927 by 2,000 U.S. Marines. Liberal leaders Juan Bautista Sacasa, José María Moncada, and Augusto César Sandino rose in rebellion, but after six months Sacasa and Moncada made peace, and subsequent elections under U.S. auspices brought the presidency to both of them (Moncada, 1928–33, and Sacasa, 1933–36). Sandino, however, fought on as long as the Marines remained in the country.

The Somoza years

The Marines withdrew upon the inauguration of Sacasa, and Sandino submitted to his government. A Nicaraguan National Guard, trained by the U.S. Marines and commanded by Gen. Anastasio Somoza García, was now responsible for maintaining order in the country. In 1934 high-ranking officers led by Somoza met and agreed to the assassination of Sandino. Somoza then deposed Sacasa with the support of factions of both Liberals and Conservatives, and in a rigged election he became president on January 1, 1937.

Somoza (known as Tacho) revised the constitution to facilitate the consolidation of power into his own hands and ruled the country for the next two decades, either as president or as the power behind puppet presidents. Export activities grew from the 1930s onward. However, the Somoza family and their associates, rather than the Nicaraguan people as a whole, were the main beneficiaries of the country’s income.

On September 21, 1956, a day after Somoza’s Nationalist Liberal Party of Nicaragua (Partido Liberal Nacionalista de Nicaragua; PLN) had nominated him for another term, a Liberal poet named Rigoberto López Pérez shot the president, who died eight days later. Congress at once gave Luis Somoza Debayle his father’s position, and in February 1957 he was dubiously elected to his own term (1957–63). Somoza Debayle ruled more gently than his father had. He accepted a settlement in favour of Honduras of a long-standing border dispute between the two countries (1960) and cooperated with the United States in the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba (1961). In 1961 three Marxists, including Carlos Fonseca Amador, founded the guerrilla Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional; FSLN) in opposition to the regime. It was named for Augusto César Sandino, and its members are called Sandinistas.

Following an essentially uncontested election in 1963, two puppet presidents, René Schick Gutiérrez and, upon his death in 1966, Lorenzo Guerrero Gutiérrez, held office with the support of the Somozas. Although the economy grew, mass poverty remained unchanged. Luis Somoza died early in 1967. Months later his brother Anastasio Somoza Debayle (“Tachito”) won yet another rigged presidential election against a token opponent, Fernando Agüero Rocha. In 1970 the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty was abrogated.

On May 1, 1972, constitutionally ineligible to succeed himself, Somoza relinquished the presidency to a triumvirate (composed of Agüero and two leaders of Somoza’s own party). On December 23 an earthquake in the city of Managua left 6,000 persons dead and 300,000 homeless. Somoza (commanding the National Guard) took charge as the head of a National Emergency Committee. Agüero, who protested, found himself replaced (March 1, 1973) on the triumvirate. The population suffered from the destruction as Somoza and his friends profited privately from international aid programs. In March 1974 a new constitution (the country’s eighth since 1838) made it possible for Somoza to be reelected president.

Before the end of the year, two genuine opposition groups attracted wide attention—the Sandinistas and the organization founded by Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, editor and publisher of La Prensa (“The Press”) of Managua, called the Democratic Union of Liberation (Unión Democrática de Liberación; UDEL). In December 1974 the Sandinistas staged a successful kidnapping of Somoza elites, for which ransom and the release of political prisoners were obtained. In response, the regime embarked on a two-and-a-half-year counterinsurgency effort that, in addition to leading to the death of Carlos Fonseca in 1976, took the lives of thousands of peasant noncombatants. In 1977 a group called Los Doce (The Twelve) sought an anti-Somoza alliance to include UDEL, the Sandinistas, and other organizations. Assassins murdered Pedro Joaquín Chamorro on January 10, 1978, and a general strike and violence followed. On August 22 the Sandinistas occupied the national palace, holding more than 1,000 hostages for two days and winning most of their demands. Although the National Guard regained partial control, the insurrection spread, with another general strike and the Sandinistas seizing and holding several major cities. The uprising was eventually quashed, at the cost of several thousand lives. The following June the FSLN staged its final offensive. City after city fell to the insurgents, backed by tens of thousands of local civilian combatants. On July 17 Somoza resigned and fled the country; two days later the Sandinistas entered Managua and accepted the surrender of what was left of his army, ending the long years of Somoza rule.