English settlement in Nicaragua

Settlement of English people along the Caribbean Coast, or Miskito Coast, of Nicaragua began in 1633. The area was controlled by Britain until 1860, and eventually integrated into Nicaragua by 1894. The Miskito Coast region divided into two autonomous regions within Nicaragua after 1987.

The first English settlers of the Miskito Coast arrived in 1633, exchanging products through primitive trade with the Miskitos. The English exchanged manufactured goods such as guns, machetes, beds, mirrors etc., in exchange for cocoa, animal skins, sarsaparilla, rubber, wood, and turtle shells. The formation of an English colony in the region led Spain to protest, but England managed to create a colony on the Caribbean Coast. This colony had two different, but complementary, production methods; one a capitalist basis and the other communal. Capitalist production was based on the import of African slaves to work on sugar cane and cotton plantations, and the harvesting of Mahogany. Arguably, the English were responsible for transporting most of the African slaves that were forcibly resettled in Nicaragua. The obtained products were sold to other English colonies in North America, the Caribbean and London.

Communal production, typical of the area and strengthened by new settlers, was based on the appointment of a Miskito King. The first such King, Oldman, was appointed during the English Interregnum and continued during the reign of Charles II of England and Scotland and after the Acts of Union between England and Scotland. In 1847, the British occupied the Nicaraguan side of the Miskito Coast.

In 1860 Britain and the United States signed a treaty following the development of international negotiations between the two countries. As a result, from 1894 the UK gradually ceded its territories in the region and in 1905 handed the territory to US companies. The latter occupation lasted until 1930.

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