Overview

Abstract

The post-colonial period was a turbulent, even traumatic episode in Spanish American history. Many an emerging nation strove, and failed, to strike a balance between liberty and order. Political instability, in fact, became common throughout the region. This said, post-colonial Nicaragua showed an abnormally pronounced tendency to oscillate between bloody anarchy and petty tyranny. Costa Rican political leaders looked upon the Nicaraguan scene in horror, and openly voiced fears of contamination by their neighbors. Even the Guatemalans and the Salvadorans, themselves prone to keen internal conflicts, pointed to the Nicaraguans as an object lesson on the disastrous consequences of intractable fractiousness.¹