Here’s some homework for next week. Read the Department of State fact page on Nicaragua, paying closer attention on the History section.
Here’s a few sentences to ponder over the next week:
Initially invited by the Liberals in 1855 to join their struggle against the Conservatives, an American named William Walker and his “filibusters” seized the presidency in 1856. The Liberals and Conservatives united to drive him out of office in 1857.
From 1927 until 1933, U.S. Marines stationed in Nicaragua engaged in a running battle with rebel forces led by renegade Liberal Gen. Augusto Sandino, who rejected a 1927 negotiated agreement brokered by the United States to end the latest round of fighting between Liberals and Conservatives.
After the departure of U.S. troops, National Guard Cmdr. Anastasio Somoza Garcia outmaneuvered his political opponents–including Sandino, who was assassinated by National Guard officers–and took over the presidency in 1936. Somoza and two sons who succeeded him, maintained close ties with the United States.
The Reagan administration provided assistance to the Nicaraguan resistance and in 1985 imposed an embargo on U.S.-Nicaraguan trade.
