ABSTRACT
The roots of the contemporary Nicaraguan revolution go back to the early nineteenth century, when sharp economic and political cleavages were developing within Spanish colonial society. The collapse of the Central American Republic in 1838 failed to end the violent civil struggle in Nicaragua. In 1961 Nicaragua joined the Central American Common Market, a measure promoted by the United States under the Alliance for Progress in the hopes of preventing Cubanstyle revolutions by encouraging economic growth. The security forces of revolutionary Nicaragua derived from the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional and remain part of it, a phenomenon that angers opposition spokesmen. Independence from the United States, the major expression of Nicaraguan anti-imperialism, has been manifested in many ways, from votes in the United Nations to support for Argentina in the Malvinas dispute. Yet the new system has changed in ways that mark a historical frontier.
