Settled as a colony of Spain in the 1520's, Nicaragua gained its independence in 1821. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador caused the US to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through much of the 1980's. Free elections in 1990 and again in 1996 saw the Sandinistas defeated. The country has slowly rebuilt its economy during the 1990's.
Demographic Data
Capital: Managua
Government type: Democracy
Government stability: 69.5%
Government efficiency: 58.7%
Population's support to government: 70.4%
Area: 120,254 square kilometers
Habitable land: 88.0%
Farmable land: 9.0%
Total population: 4,206 thousands
Population's growth: 2.6%
Country's development level: 5,680
Economic Data
GNP: 6,400,000,000
Industralisation: 62.9%
International funding: 16,000,000
Political Data
Secret services efficiency: 1,561
Military Data
Technological generation: 1
Number of rebels: 588
Rebels development: 5,112
Rebels technological access: 3,975