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|+Provincias Unidas del Centro de América |+República Federal de Centroamérica |- | style="background:#efefef;" align="center" colspan=2 | |- | align=center colspan=2 | |- | Capital | Guatemala City ; in 1834 moved to San Salvador |- | Created | 1823 |- | Dissolved | 1840 |- | Demonym | Centroamerican |} The United Provinces of Central America was a short-lived Latin America n experiment in republican democracy. It lasted from July 1823 to approximately 1840 . It was intended to be a Federal Republic modeled after the USA . The Coat Of Arms on the Nation 's Flag from 1823 – 1824 referred to the Federation as the ''Provincias Unidas del Centro de América'' ("United Provinces of Central America") but its 1824 Constitution , coat of arms and flag called it the "'''Federal Republic of Central America'''" (''República Federal de Centroamérica / Centro América''). It is also sometimes referred to in English as the "'''United States of Central America'''". The republic consisted of the states of Guatemala , El Salvador , Honduras , Nicaragua , and Costa Rica . In the 1830s an additional state was added, Los Altos , with its capital in Quetzaltenango , occupying parts of what are now the western highlands of Guatemala and the Mexican state of Chiapas . During the period of 1838 – 1840 the federation dissolved in Civil War . Politics Central American , the emblem of the French Revolution . In practice, however, the federation faced insurmountable problems. The liberal democratic project was strongly opposed by Conservative factions allied with the Roman Catholic Clergy and the wealthy landowners. Transportation and communication routes between the states were extremely deficient. The bulk of the Population lacked any sense of commitment towards the broader federation. The Federal Bureaucracy in Guatemala City proved ineffectual. War s soon broke out between various factions both in the federation and within individual states. The poverty and extreme political instability of the region prevented the construction of an inter-oceanic Canal (''see'' Nicaragua Canal and Panama Canal ), from which Central America could have obtained considerable economic benefits. Presidents
Dissolution of the Union The Union dissolved in civil war between 1838 and 1840 . Its disintegration began when Nicaragua separated from the federation on November 5 , 1838 , followed by Honduras and Costa Rica . The union effectively dissolved in 1840, by which time four of its five states had declared Independence . The union was only officially ended upon El Salvador's self-proclamation of the establishment of an independent republic in February 1841 . Various attempts were made to reunite Central America in the 19th Century , but none succeeded for any length of time:
Despite the failure of a lasting political union, the sense of shared history and the hope for eventual reunification persist in the nations formerly in the union. In 1856 – 1857 the region successfully established a military coalition to repel an invasion by U.S. adventurer William Walker . Today, all five nations fly Flag s that retain the old federal motif of two outer blue bands bounding an inner white stripe. (Costa Rica, traditionally the least committed of the five to regional integration, modified its flag significantly in 1848 by darkening the blue and adding a double-wide inner red band, in honor of the French tricolor). See also
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