Spanish conquest of Nicaragua

The Spanish conquest of Nicaragua was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the natives of the territory now incorporated into the modern Central American republic of Nicaragua during the colonisation of the Americas. Before European contact in the early 16th century, Nicargua was inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples. In the west, these included Mesoamerican groups such as the Chorotega, the Nicarao, and the Subtiaba. Other groups included the Matagalpa and the Tacacho.

Gil González Dávila first entered what is now Nicaragua in 1522, with the permission of Pedrarias Dávila, governor of Castilla de Oro (modern Panama) but was driven back to his ships by the Chorotega. In 1524, a new expedition led by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded the Spanish towns of León and Granada. The western portions of Nicaragua along the Pacific littoral plain received the brunt of the Spanish activity in the territory for the next three decades. Within a century of the conquest, the native inhabitants had been all but eliminated due to war, disease, and exportation as slaves.

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, covering an area of 129,494 square kilometres (49,998 sq mi) – or 120,254 square kilometres (46,430 sq mi) without including the surface area of its two largest lakes. The country is bordered to the north by Honduras, and to the south by Costa Rica; it is bordered to the west by the Pacific Ocean and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. Nicaragua is divided into three broad regions, the Pacific Lowlands in the west, the Central Highlands, and the Caribbean Lowlands in the east. The Pacific lowlands are largely a coastal plain extending approximately 75 kilometres (47 mi) inland from the Pacific Ocean. A chain of volcanoes extends from the Gulf of Fonseca southeast towards Lake Nicaragua; many of them are active. The volcanoes lie along the western edge of a rift valley running southeast from the Gulf to the San Juan River, which forms a part of the border with Costa Rica. The two largest lakes in Central America dominate the rift valley: Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. Lake Managua measures 56 by 24 kilometres (35 by 15 mi), and Lake Nicaragua measures 160 by 75 kilometres (99 by 47 mi). The Tipitapa River flows south out of Lake Managua and into Lake Nicaragua, which empties into the Caribbean via the San Juan River. The Central Highlands reach altitudes of up to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above mean sea level, and consist of generally east-west running ranges that include the Cordillera Dariense, Cordillera de Dipilto, Cordillera Isabella, the Huapí Mountains, and the Yolaina Mountains.

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