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The Federal Republic of Central America
The short-lived union of five Central American states after independence from Spain
For a brief stretch after independence, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica formed a single country. The Federal Republic of Central America, first called the United Provinces of Central America, was an attempt to turn the old Spanish Captaincy General of Guatemala into a modern federation on the model of the United States. Its blue and white banded flag, its motto of God, Union, and Liberty, and the memory of its leading president, Francisco Morazán, still echo across the isthmus. It collapsed in civil war after less than two decades, but the idea of Central American union has returned again and again, in failed revivals in the 1800s and in today's regional integration system.
The federation spanned the narrow land bridge between Mexico and Gran Colombia, roughly 424,000 square kilometers by the measure of its five member states. A spine of volcanic highlands ran its length, where Guatemala City, the farmlands of El Salvador, and the valleys of Honduras held most of the population. On the Pacific side lay fertile volcanic plains, while the Caribbean side was a lowland of rainforest and lagoons, including the Mosquito Coast, where Britain held influence. Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America, sat close to the Pacific in the south. The federation's land is now the five independent republics of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Chiapas, part of the colonial captaincy, joined Mexico in 1824 and stayed outside the union.
Central America declared independence from Spain on September 15, 1821, was annexed by the short-lived Mexican Empire, and broke away on July 1, 1823, as the United Provinces of Central America. A federal constitution followed in November 1824. Conflict between Liberals, who favored federal reform and limits on church power, and Conservatives, rooted in Guatemala City, led to civil war from 1826 to 1829. Morazán, a Honduran Liberal general, won and served as president for most of the 1830s, moving the capital to San Salvador in 1834. A rural uprising in Guatemala led by Rafael Carrera and growing resistance in the states broke the union apart. In 1838 the federal congress allowed the states to leave, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica did so, and El Salvador, the last holdout, declared itself independent in 1841.