The Oxford Handbook of Central American History

Central America is a region defined primarily by its geographical configuration as a canal-friendly isthmus, and its three-century history as the Spanish Kingdom of Guatemala. Having gained independence in 1821, the Kingdom broke up into the nations of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica after two turbulent decades as a federated republic. Political instability and violence, poverty and inequality, ethnic strife, military rule, and a historic economic dependence on the export of coffee and bananas marked the region's history. Owing to its isthmian geographyand political strife, Central America became a frequent target of US government intervention. Intense US political, economic, and military action both preceded and accompanied the revolutionary civil wars of the 1970s and 1980s. With British Honduras's independence from Great Britain in 1981 asBelize, and the acquisition by Panama of full sovereignty over its territory in 1999, Central America increasingly def