216 CHAPTER 9 DECOLONIZATION AND THE SEARCH FOR NATIONAL IDENTITIES, 1821–1870
United Provinces of
Central America
On the eve of independence, the fi ve republics—
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua,
and Costa Rica^2 —were provinces of the captaincy
general of Guatemala, with its capital at Guate-
mala City. Under the captain general and his audi-
encia, a small group of wealthy creole merchants,
organized in a powerful consulado, had dominated
the economic, social, and political life of the col-
ony. But Spain’s hold over its American colonies
had weakened after 1800 as a result of its involve-
ment in European wars, the resulting disruption of
trade, and growing political turmoil at home. Cen-
tral America drifted toward independence. When
Mexico proclaimed its independence in 1821, Cen-
tral America followed suit. City after city declared
its independence, not only from Spain but from
Guatemala and rival cities and towns, as well. The
captaincy general dissolved into a multitude of au-
tonomous cabildo (municipal) governments. The
transition to independence was complicated by the
efforts of Agustín de Iturbide to incorporate Central
America into his Mexican empire, efforts supported
by Central American conservatives and opposed
by many liberals. In 1822 a majority of cabildos
voted in favor of union with Mexico, but Iturbide’s
overthrow the next year permanently ended the
Mexican connection.
INDEPENDENCE AND THE FAILURE
OF UNION, 1810–1865
Despite provincial rivalries and resentment against
Guatemalan domination, a tradition of Central
American unity remained, and attempts were
made to strengthen that unity. In 1823 a constitu-
ent assembly met and created the federal republic
of Central America out of the fi ve former provinces:
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and
(^2) Although, for descriptive convenience, Belize and Panama
are usually included in Central America, the former was a
British colony and the latter a province of Colombia.
Neither, therefore, was linked historically to the region.
El Salvador. The constitution provided for a federal
government with free and independent state gov-
ernments and had a strong liberal tinge: it abol-
ished slavery and the special privileges of the clergy
and established the principles of laissez-faire, free
trade, and free contract of labor. The next year, a
Salvadoran liberal, Manuel José Arce, was elected
as the fi rst president of the republic. Meanwhile, the
states were forming their own governments. On
the state as on the federal level, conservatives and
liberals struggled for power: conservatism—the
ideology of the old monopolistic merchant clique,
many great landowners, and the church—had its
base in Guatemala; liberalism was the dominant
doctrine among many large and small landown-
ers of the other states and the small middle class
of artisans, professionals, and intellectuals. Behind
the façade of elections and universal male suffrage,
power throughout the area was held by great land-
owning and mercantile families, who often mobi-
lized their private armies of retainers and tenants
in a struggle for control of regions and states.
The superfi cial unity of Central America soon
dissolved as it became clear that the states were
neither willing nor able to fi nance both their own
governments and the federal government in Gua-
temala City. Efforts by Arce’s federal government
to assert its prerogatives by the establishment of
a strong army and the collection of taxes led him
to abandon liberalism, which ignited a destructive
civil war between 1826 and 1829. The struggle
ended with the defeat of the national government
and its conservative leadership by liberal forces
headed by Francisco Morazán and the reorganiza-
tion of the union on a basis of liberal hegemony.
Morazán, elected president of the federal re-
public and commander of its armed forces, both
based in San Salvador, defended it against conser-
vative plots and attacks. At the same time, a for-
mer conservative turned liberal, Mariano Gálvez,
the governor of Guatemala, launched a program
for the economic and social reconstruction of his
state. The program included the establishment
of civil marriage and divorce and secular schools
on all levels, anticlerical measures that allowed
nuns to leave their orders and reduced the num-
ber of church holidays, large land concessions to