Chapter XXI: Nicaragua, and American “co-Operation”

The morning after we sailed from Amapala in Honduras our steamer stopped at Corinto, the chief Pacific port of Nicaragua. A railroad runs from there to Managua, the capital, and beyond, touching the principal towns. Except for some private tracks, it is the only railway in Nicaragua; yet it is barely 175 miles long—a very small mileage, considering the country’s size. Nicaragua’s area of nearly 50,000 square miles makes it the largest country in Central America, though Guatemala really has more land. Including its two big lakes, Nicaragua is about as large as the state of New York. It extends from ocean to ocean, but most of its 650,000 people live in the western third of the country, which is higher and more healthful. The central cordillera, or main mountain range, between four and five thousand feet high, is only twelve to thirty miles from the Pacific. As most of the country, east of this, is low, unpleasant, and unhealthful, all the cities and big towns are on the Pacific slope.

The railroad goes inland a short distance, then turns south. It skirts the mountains, including smoking Momotombo. In this region are frequent eruptions. Thirty miles from Corinto the train reaches León, formerly the capital, then crawls on southward to Managua, the present capital, on the southern shore of Lake Managua.

Corinto, the principal Pacific port of Nicaragua.
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León and Granada both wanted to be the capital. The dispute was settled by giving the honor to neither, but to Managua. This city, unimportant then, now has 40,000 inhabitants. It is not a pleasant place. For one thing, it is only 140 feet above sea level, which is far too low in a tropical country. Despite occasional breezes from the lake front, it swelters in heat nearly all the time. Like Corinto and León, it is a city of sand. A barren expanse of desert faces the old cathedral. Vegetation sprouts from a fallen spire. Dust covers the grassless central _plaza_; it is two inches deep in the main avenues; it settles on the low roofs and seeps in everywhere.

Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco

This large and well-built school is in the city of Managua, Nicaragua.
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There is no water fit to drink. When the Spaniards established themselves in America they were usually careful to build their capitals up in the mountains. But they did not bother so much about water. In those days most of Europe thought bathing unhealthful, and as the people drank wine to quench thirst, water was needed only for cooking and for the horses. Nearly all the old Spanish capitals still have a very poor water supply.

It is not strange that Nicaragua, being low and hot, with the least invigorating climate in Central America, is one of the most backward countries south of the United States. Nearly all of its people have the hookworm disease, which makes them feel tired all the time. A big American charitable foundation has been fighting this disease throughout Central America; but it will probably remain as long as the people go barefoot, for the parasites that cause it work their way in through the skin.

Recreations of the People

However, there are some energetic Nicaraguans in the cities. Managua has taken up baseball and even boxing—though that sport has long been opposed in Latin-America as a brutal amusement of the barbaric “gringos”! The aristocrats of Central America are very fond of theatrical entertainments, and there is a national theater in nearly every capital. But as the expense of bringing actors from Europe is high, performances are rare in such little places as Managua, even though the government helps to pay for them. Those who want amusement usually fall back on the evening concerts in the _plaza_.

It may seem queer to speak of the composition of verses as a favorite “indoor sport,” but that is just what it is among the educated young men. In Spanish-America nearly everyone who knows how to write tries to be a poet. The newspapers print many amateur poems, but do not pay for them. However, the authors consider the honor of appearing in print before all their friends sufficient reward. Occasionally a real poet is discovered among the crowd, like one pearl in a ton of oysters. Nicaragua gave to the world Rubén Darío, considered by some critics the greatest modern poet writing in the Spanish language.

Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco

Loading coffee at a plantation in Nicaragua.
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This country, with all its handicaps, has many natural advantages—good rivers and thick forests, minerals in the ranges, and a large amount of land suitable for cultivation. Men who should know say that it could develop wealth greater than that of any other Central American country. It has almost all tropical products. Mahogany, rosewood, logwood, sandalwood, and other valuable hardwoods grow in its forests, in which gums, dyes, and medicinal products also are found. The rich soil of the western cultivated region grows splendid maize. Coffee, sugar and bananas are produced. In the little-cultivated eastern and central parts of the country, there are many herds. But the Nicaraguans do not make the most of their opportunities. Their country is almost as undeveloped as Honduras, and its exports and imports are less than those of the much smaller Salvador.

Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco

A glimpse of Lake Nicaragua, famous in the history of attempts to open
a passageway between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
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The Nicaraguan Canal Question

Lake Nicaragua, which bears an important relation to the history of the country, is the largest body of fresh water between our Great Lakes and Lake Titicaca in the Andes. It is 115 miles long and 45 miles wide—almost as large as all Salvador. A little north of this lake and twenty-five feet higher is Lake Managua, thirty-five by twenty miles in extent. When gold was discovered in California, many Americans went there by way of Nicaragua, before the Panama Railroad was built. Commodore Vanderbilt ran steamers across Lake Nicaragua to a low place in the mountains and he had stagecoaches carry the prospectors from there to the coast, where they embarked for California. Many of them saw gold in the rivers, and on their return from California some stayed in Nicaragua. Thus Americans came to control the mines in that country, as they do in other parts of Central America and in Mexico.

Map showing proposed Nicaragua Canal route, with opening cut between
Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific. The San Juan River connects Lake
Nicaragua with the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean).
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For a long time Nicaragua was considered a better location than Panama for a canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Lake Nicaragua is only 110 feet above sea level, and drains into the Caribbean through the San Juan River. Moreover, the cordillera, between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, is quite low. Dredging the San Juan River would allow ocean vessels to come up to the lake, and from there a canal could be dug to the Pacific, only eleven miles away.

The possibility of a Nicaraguan canal was discussed in the United States Congress as early as 1826, and Henry Clay was sent to investigate. The principal disadvantage of a canal in that location would be the long distance between the two oceans. Much dredging would be required, for most of the San Juan River is so shallow that only small launches can navigate it. Yet if ever traffic outgrows the Panama Canal, which is quite possible, Nicaragua will furnish another steamer road between the Atlantic and the Pacific. In 1916 the United States paid Nicaragua $3,000,000 for an option of ninety-nine years on this canal route. This gives us first rights there until the year 2015. As a matter of fact, the $3,000,000 never left New York. It was paid to the bankers who had loaned money to Nicaragua.

An Interesting History

The history of Nicaragua is especially interesting to us, because the United States Government and individual Americans have had so large a part in it. Like the countries north of it, Nicaragua was once a center of Indian civilization. There are stone sculptures and ruins of an early civilized race, and remains of ancient Indian dialects. Columbus sailed along the Mosquito Coast in 1502; Granada was founded in 1524. During the three centuries of Spanish rule Nicaragua was part of the one Central American colony, with its capital at Guatemala City. Two years after it became independent in 1821, Nicaragua joined the Federation of Central America, which lasted for sixteen years. Then came civil war, followed by war not only with Honduras and Costa Rica but with England. The English claimed all the Mosquito Coast, but gave up their claim, except to Belize, in 1860. Since then there has been the usual Central American story of one dictator after another, with not very many presidents getting their office legally. From 1893 to 1909 Nicaragua was ruled by José Zelaya, a dictator much like Diaz of Mexico. He began well, but soon became a great tyrant. Because the illiterate peons, who made up so large a part of the population, took no interest in political matters, he could run the country much as he pleased. Zelaya helped Nicaragua to make some progress, but he took away from the people what little political self-confidence they had gained.

Our Relations with Nicaragua

Americans as individuals had already been much interested in Nicaraguan affairs before official United States “co-operation” began in 1909. As in Mexico, large investments had been made by American capitalists. Zelaya had been having himself re-elected over a period of seventeen years when a revolution was started by General Juan Estrada at Bluefields, an isolated port on the Caribbean. Zelaya incurred the displeasure of the United States, through the execution of two Americans, and he was finally forced to resign and flee to Mexico. American Marines were landed at Bluefields to protect our interests.

In 1910 Estrada was elected president by the Nicaraguan Congress and his government was recognized by the United States; but he resigned after a few months. In 1912, when Adolfo Diaz was president, another revolution broke out, and again American forces were landed. As a result, Diaz’ position was strengthened. Thereafter a “legation guard” of a hundred Marines was retained at Managua for a number of years. By keeping political conditions stable under several administrations, the presence of these troops was of benefit to American bankers and others whose money was being used to develop the country’s resources. After the withdrawal of United States troops in 1925, political unrest and intrigue again appeared. In 1926 when, after an interval, Diaz had again taken office as president, his election was contested by a former vice president, Juan B. Sacasa. Diaz, recognized by the United States and other leading nations, asked for American aid. Again Marines were landed to help preserve order.

Panama Mail S. S. Co., San Francisco

Loading coffee at San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. It has to be carried
out from shore in a lighter and then transferred to the ocean-going
vessel.
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Some European and American newspapers, and some of our members of Congress and public speakers, criticize the United States Department of State for its Nicaraguan policy, speaking of it as unjustified “intervention” rather than beneficent “co-operation.” The policy is not popular, either, with all the people of Nicaragua. The wisdom of doing as we have is too debatable to go into here. I have given an outline of the facts because our policy has been affected not only by the need to protect American lives and property, but also by the possibility that some day the United States may wish to take up its option on the Nicaragua route for a new canal.

The Results of “Co-operation”

Unsettled conditions led American bankers to take charge of the huge Nicaraguan national debt, and to arrange to manage the railroad. They came, in time, to control nearly everything of value in the republic. It is undoubtedly true that Nicaragua made some progress under American supervision, but not much is visible to the hurried visitor. Managua is in no better repair now than when the Marines first came; most of the cities and towns are more dilapidated than those of Honduras. But the national debt was reduced from $32,000,000 to $9,000,000, and the _córdoba_, or Nicaraguan dollar, was brought up to the same value as our dollar.

In the old days anyone who thought he was important expected at least a pass on the railroad, and if he was very influential he expected a private car. The car would be attached to a regular passenger train, and this train would have to stop and wait several hours while the private-car man paid visits along the line. This was all changed under American “co-operation.” The railroad began to run on a schedule and to pay a profit. The Nicaraguan Government proceeded to buy back control of both the railroad and the national bank.

The Adventurous William Walker

It would be too bad to leave Nicaragua without telling the story of William Walker. That most notorious filibuster in Central American history was born in Tennessee. In his youth he studied medicine in Edinburgh and Heidelberg. Later he worked for newspapers in New Orleans and San Francisco. Public attention was first attracted to him in 1853 when he attempted to conquer the state of Sonora, just across the Border, and was nearly killed by Mexicans.

Believing that some day the North would force the abolition of slavery in the United States, Walker decided he would establish a slave monarchy in Nicaragua. When the two political parties of Nicaragua, the aristocrats and the democrats, were fighting tooth and nail in 1855, this American adventurer landed with fifty-eight blue-shirted men who, though carrying few weapons, soon captured Granada. Walker had himself appointed secretary of war and commander-in-chief of the Nicaraguan army. By the end of the year he had induced the United States Government to recognize his puppet president. Not long afterward, accusing this president of conspiracy, Walker ordered him shot and declared himself president. Then he fought a war with Costa Rica, and proclaimed English the official language. Nicaragua did not allow slavery, but Walker had the anti-slavery clause in its constitution annulled, and offered American slave owners a land of refuge.

However, his rule led to an insurrection. He had taken Commodore Vanderbilt’s steamers on the Nicaraguan lakes and sold them to another American capitalist. By way of reprisal, Vanderbilt loaned money to Walker’s enemies and helped to get him defeated. Walker surrendered to the commander of an American naval vessel and was taken back to New Orleans. From there he went on a lecture tour!

Always restless and ambitious, he returned to Nicaragua in 1857 with a following of American adventurers. The Nicaraguans drove him out, and he turned his attention to Honduras. On his first attempt to invade that country he was shipwrecked. Later he took the city of Trujillo, but he could not hold it. In time he was captured by a British warship, handed over to the Honduras Government, courtmartialed, and shot.

United Fruit Company

Old Spanish church in Trujillo, the Honduras coast city once captured
by William Walker.
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