III.

The Federation

The United Provinces drew up a constitution in 1824 that established a national government under a president and a unicameral congress, but left a great deal of authority to the five individual states. Modeled in part on the liberal Spanish constitution of 1812 and the Constitution of the United States, the document abolished slavery, guaranteed individual liberties, and contained other liberal provisions, but it also recognized Roman Catholicism as the established church of the republic. Only men who owned property could vote.

These provisions reflected deep divisions among the elite class within the region, divisions that would eventually doom the union. Even before independence from Spain, the upper-class creoles (people of Spanish descent born in the Americas) were split between liberal and conservative factions, which fought over political control, economic power, and the role of the Catholic clergy. Conservatives generally favored the traditional structure of Central American society, which was controlled by large landowners and a powerful Catholic clergy. The liberals promoted republican government and free-market capitalism, similar to practices in Europe and the United States. Liberals also sought to limit the role of the church and often supported a strong central government, while conservatives supported the church and wanted individual states to remain powerful.

In Central America, conflicts arose between liberal and conservative factions within each state and also among states. These conflicts were deepened by longstanding regional rivalries. Guatemala City, for example, became a center of conservative power, while San Salvador, which had long resented the dominance of the old colonial capital, was a base for liberals. In Nicaragua, the conservative city of Granada and the liberal headquarters of Leon fought bitterly.

In 1825 the United Provinces held its first national election. Salvadoran liberal Manuel José Arce defeated the Honduran moderate José Cecilio del Valle to become the federation’s first president. The election was disputed, but the Congress finally settled it in Arce’s favor. To strengthen his position, Arce sought to gain support from Guatemalan conservatives over the issue of religious authority. El Salvador wanted to have its own bishop rather than being subject to the bishop of Guatemala, which Salvadorans viewed as a sign of subordinate status to their rival. Arce promised Guatemalan conservatives that he would not support the Salvadoran request, an action that alienated his liberal backers. In April 1826 Arce arrested the liberal Guatemalan state governor, Juan Barrundia, and replaced him with the conservative Guatemalan Mariano Aycinena. Meanwhile, the states failed to turn over adequate revenues to the federal government, and it soon went deeply into debt to British bankers.

Civil war broke out in 1826 between liberals and conservatives in the federation, and a frustrated Arce resigned the following year. The war ended in 1829 when liberal forces, led by Honduran General Francisco Morazán, conquered Guatemala City. Elected president of the federation the following year, Morazán introduced radical reforms, restricting the power of Catholic clergy, introducing trial by jury, encouraging foreign investment and immigration, and turning communal, church, and public lands over to private owners. These liberal policies were unpopular among the rural people, who resented attacks on the church, government demands for forced labor, and seizure of their land for private landowners. In El Salvador, Morazán faced a major revolt by Native Americans, led by Anastasio Aquino, from 1833 to 1835. Meanwhile, Nicaragua and Costa Rica were aloof from the federation as they struggled with their own internal political problems.

In 1834 del Valle defeated Morazán’s bid for reelection as president, but del Valle died of natural causes on his way to the inauguration. Morazán, who had received the second highest number of votes, remained in office and continued his reforms, exiling many conservative opponents and moving the federal capital from Guatemala City to San Salvador. But after suppressing the Aquino revolt, a more serious uprising spread across Guatemala, which would result in the collapse of the federation.

The Guatemalan revolt was led by Rafael Carrera, a conservative former army officer from a poor Guatemalan family. Supported by Native Americans, other rural residents, and clergy, Carrera toppled the liberal governor of Guatemala, Mariano Gálvez, and captured Guatemala City in 1838. Morazán sent federal troops to fight Carrera, but the union was beginning to disintegrate. Those who favored states’ rights gained control of the federal Congress and declared that the states were free and independent political bodies. Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica seceded from the federation, refusing allegiance to Morazán’s government. However, they still called themselves states and did not proclaim independent republics until many years later. Morazán continued in office, but only a shadow of a federal government remained.

The effective end of the United Provinces came in March 1840, when Carrera routed Morazán in battle at Guatemala City. Morazán fled into exile, ending the national government. Morazán returned in 1842 and took over the Costa Rican government in an attempt to restore the federation, but he was quickly overturned. On September 15, 1842, he was executed by a Costa Rican firing squad.