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World > North America > Nicaragua
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Nicaragua |
Introduction:
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The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the 19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador caused the US to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through much of the 1980s. Free elections in 1990, 1996, and 2001, saw the Sandinistas defeated, but voting in 2006 announced the return of former Sandinista President Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra. Nicaragua's infrastructure and economy - hard hit by the earlier civil war and by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 - are slowly being rebuilt.
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| Official name: |
Republic of Nicaragua |
| Capital: |
name: Managua
geographic coordinates: 12 09 N, 86 17 W
time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard Time) |
| Government type: |
republic |
| Population: |
5,675,356 (July 2007 est.) |
| Languages: |
Spanish 97.5% (official), Miskito 1.7%, other 0.8% (1995 census)
note: English and indigenous languages on Atlantic coast |
| Official Currency: |
Nicaraguan Cordoba Oro (NIO) |
| Currency code: |
NIO |
| Area: |
total: 129,494 sq km
land: 120,254 sq km
water: 9,240 sq km |
| Climate: |
tropical in lowlands, cooler in highlands |
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Map of Nicaragua
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