Nicaragua
Geography - People - Economy - Government - Communications - Transportation - Military - Transnational IssuesCountry information - Nicaragua
Country name - conventional long form : Republic of Nicaragua
Country name - conventional short form : Nicaragua
Country name - local long form : Republica de Nicaragua
Country name - local short form : Nicaragua
Country name - former :
Country code : NU
Government type : republic
Capital - name : Managua
Capital - time difference : UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard Time)
National holiday : Independence Day, 15 September (1821)
Population : 5,785,846 (July 2008 est.)
Nationality - noun : Nicaraguan(s)
Nationality - adjective : Nicaraguan
Languages :
Currency (code) : gold cordoba (NIO)
Currency code : NIO
Major infectious diseases - degree of risk : intermediate
Major infectious diseases - note :
Nicaragua is located Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras. The climate is tropical in lowlands, cooler in highlands. The terrain is extensive Atlantic coastal plains rising to central interior mountains; narrow Pacific coastal plain interrupted by volcanoes.
Background
This entry usually highlights major historic events and current issues and may include a statement about one or two key future trends.Background : 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.
