1.
CENTRAL AMERICA
Belize
Guatemala
Honduras
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Panama

2.
NICARAGUA

3.
NICARAGUA
• Nicaragua, country of Central America.
• It is the largest of the Central American republics.
• Nicaragua can be characterized by:
• its agricultural economy,
• its history of autocratic government,
• and its imbalance of regional development.
• Almost all settlement and economic activity are concentrated in the western half of the
country.
• the only country in Latin America to be colonized by both the Spanish and the British.
• population is made up mostly of mestizos
• national capital is Managua, which also is the country’s largest city and home to about
one-sixth of the population.

4.
NICARAGUA
• Nicaragua is bounded by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the
east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
• The western half of Nicaragua is made up generally of valleys separated by
low but rugged mountains and many volcanoes. This intricately dissected
region includes:
• Cordillera Entre Ríos, on the Honduras border;
• the Cordilleras Isabelia and Dariense, in the north-central area;
• and the Huapí, Amerrique, and Yolaina mountains, in the southeast.
• The mountains are highest in the north, and Mogotón Peak (6,900 feet), in the
Cordillera Entre Ríos, is the highest point in the country.

5.
NICARAGUA
• The eastern half of Nicaragua has low, level plains. Among the
widest Caribbean lowlands in Central America, these plains
average 60 miles (100 km) in width. The coastline is broken by
river mouths and deltas and large coastal lagoons as well as by
the coral reefs, islands, cays, and banks that dot Nicaragua’s
continental shelf—the widest in Central America.

6.
VOLCANOES
• To the west and south of the central mountain core is a string of
40 volcanoes—some of which are active—that stretches northwest-
southeast along the Pacific coast.
• These volcanoes are surrounded by low plains extending from the Gulf of
Fonseca in the north to the Bay of Salinas in the south and are separated
from the mountains by the great basin that contains
Lakes Nicaragua, Managua, and Masaya.
• They are divided into two groups: the Cordillera de los Marrabios in the north
and the Pueblos Mesas in the south. The highest volcanoes include San
Cristóbal (5,840 feet), Concepción (5,282 feet), and Momotombo (4,199
feet).

7.
NICARAGUA
• People and Ethnic Groups
• The majority of Nicaraguans (between three-fifths and two-
thirds of the total population) are mestizos—persons of mixed
European and indigenous (Indian) ancestry.
• Whites, of European descent, constitute less than one-fifth of
the total population, while people of African descent,
indigenous people, and other groups collectively constitute
nearly one-fourth of the total population.

8.
NICARAGUA PEOPLE
• The indigenous groups are split into two regions:
• the west coast has a small number of Monimbó and Subtiava groups, as
well as the Matagalpa (whose language is extinct), who live in the west-
central city of the same name, while the Miskito, Sumo, and Rama reside
on the east coast.
• Also living in the eastern region are the Garifuna (formerly called Black
Caribs), who are descendants of the Carib people and
Africans exiled from British colonies in the eastern Caribbean (Lesser
Antilles) in the 18th century, and Creoles, English-speaking blacks mainly
from Jamaica.
• Spanish-speaking mestizos constitute the largest single group on the
east coast.

9.
LANGUAGES
• The vast majority of Nicaraguans speak Spanish. It is the sole
official language in all but the east coast regions where, under the
1987 constitution and the Atlantic Coast Autonomy Law enacted
the same year, Miskito, Sumo, Rama, and Creole English have
equal status with Spanish. On the west coast, indigenous
languages have disappeared, even though their influence
remains in place-names and many nouns in Nicaraguan Spanish.

10.
RELIGION

11.
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
• The western volcanic mountains and surrounding lowlands and lakes contain
the majority of the country’s population, most of its cities, and the bulk of its
industry. The valleys of the western central mountains contain a substantial
population. In the second half of the 20th century, many former inhabitants of
the western region migrated to the large but sparsely populated eastern
region to farm, raise cattle, or exploit timber resources. The area remains an
agricultural centre, though some light industry has emerged.

12.
ECONOMY
• Nicaragua is one of Latin America’s poorest countries and suffers
from high unemployment rates and a large external debt.
Remittances from Nicaraguans living abroad and foreign
assistance are the country’s main sources of foreign income,
though income from tourism has increased since the 1990s. A
large proportion of Nicaraguans live in poverty.

13.
AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, AND
FISHING
• Agriculture, forestry, and fishing engage as much as one-third of the labour
force and produce about one-fifth of the total national income.
• The valleys of the western central mountains yield about one-fourth of the
national agricultural production.
• Major crops for domestic consumption include corn (maize), beans, rice,
sorghum, plantains, and cassava (manioc).
• Various fruits and vegetables also are produced for local consumption.

14.
LIVESTOCK
• Cattle are significant as a source of hides, meat, and dairy
products in the west and of meat in the east. The cattle industry
grew rapidly after World War II until the late 1970s, when internal
conflicts and government policy prompted many ranchers to
reduce their herds or move them to neighboring countries. Other
livestock include goats, hogs, horses, and sheep.

15.
FORESTRY
• Much of Nicaragua’s forests have been cleared for ranching and
farming, and income from the sale of timber has helped repay
outstanding international loans. Since 2000 reforestation
programs have attempted to replace the forest cover that had
been exploited through illegal logging operations.

16.
FISHING
• Shrimping is the most important marine activity. Almost all of the shrimp,
caught in both the Pacific and the Caribbean, are exported; lobsters also are
exported in moderate quantities. Nicaragua’s fish resources, however, are
relatively unexploited because of lack of investment, and marine fishing
remains largely a subsistence activity.

17.
RESOURCES
• Nicaragua is rich in natural resources, most of which have not been exploited
on a large scale because of lack of financing. Mineral resources include
known deposits of gold, silver, zinc, copper, iron ore, lead, and gypsum. Of
these minerals, only gold has been mined intensively.
• Nicaragua has the largest geothermal potential in Central America. In
addition, some of the country’s largest sugar mills have contracts with the
government to supply bioelectricity year-round using bagasse during
sugarcane season and fuelwood derived from eucalyptus during the off-
season. Eucalyptus plantations have been established for this purpose.

18.
MANUFACTURING
• Nicaragua’s manufacturing sector is in an incipient stage of development and
is based on the production of consumer products, many of which require the
importation of raw materials. Beginning in the late 20th century, the
government actively supported the diversification of production and the use
of domestic raw materials by establishing maquiladoras (manufacturing
plants that import and assemble duty-free components for export) in free-
trade zones and by adopting free-trade agreements.
• Manufactures include refined petroleum, matches, footwear, soap and
vegetable oils, cement, alcoholic beverages, and textiles.

19.
GOVERNMENT
• The president is elected by popular vote for a five-year term; in 2009 the
Nicaraguan Supreme Court lifted a constitutional ban on consecutive
reelection, allowing the incumbent president to serve an additional term in
office. Assembly terms are five years and run concurrently with the
presidential term. Power is divided among four governmental
branches: executive, legislative, judicial, and electoral. The last mentioned is
the Supreme Electoral Council, which is responsible for organizing and
holding elections.