Central America is the narrow bridge of land at the southern end of North America. It borders Mexico on the north and Colombia on the south. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west, and the Caribbean Sea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean, lies to the east. Central America consists of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. The region covers about 202,000 square miles (522,000 square kilometers) and has a population of about 50 million.
Central America has a narrow coastal plain on its Pacific coast and a wide lowland region on its Caribbean (Atlantic) coast. Mountainous regions with many active volcanoes make up much of Central America’s interior. Severe earthquakes and hurricanes frequently have struck Central America, causing many deaths and much damage.
Central America has a diverse population. In Guatemala, Indigenous (native) people who speak Maya languages make up about 40 percent of the population. In El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, people of mixed Indigenous and European ancestry are the chief group. Panama’s population includes people of African, European, and Indigenous descent. Many people in Belize and along Central America’s Caribbean coast have African ancestry. Most Costa Ricans, also called Ticos, are of European or mixed European and Indigenous descent. Many Nicaraguans also live in Costa Rica.
Spanish is the chief language spoken in all the Central American countries. However, English is the official language of Belize. In Guatemala, Indigenous people speak a number of Maya dialects.
Most people of Central America live in upland valleys with a pleasantly mild climate. Most also live in urban areas, including Guatemala City; Panama City; San José, Costa Rica; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and San Salvador, El Salvador. Many people in cities work in the informal economy that exists outside of government control and taxation structures. They typically find jobs as cooks, maids, day laborers, street vendors or salespeople, or other service providers. Some find higher-paying jobs in maquiladoras—that is, assembly plants owned by businesses based in another country. Underemployment and unemployment are common urban problems.
In the rural highlands, many people work their own small farm plots. Some find jobs on coffee farms and in other medium-sized agricultural enterprises. The Caribbean coast has large commercial agricultural operations. Bananas are the chief product in this lowland region.
Central America has great income inequality, with much of the wealth controlled by a small upper class. About 50 percent of the people live in poverty. In rural areas, the percentage of people living in poverty is even higher. Honduras and Nicaragua are among the poorest nations in all of Latin America.
The constitution of every Central American country provides for the democratic election of representatives. Most of the countries have a republican form of government with an elected president. Belize is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. A prime minister leads the government. A governor general represents the British monarch and serves as chief of state.
This article traces the history of Central America. For additional information on the region, see the articles on Latin America and North America, and the articles on each Central American country.
Early history
Before Europeans arrived in the Americas, northern Central America was home to the great Maya civilization. Maya culture flourished from about A.D. 250 to 900, a time called the Classic Period. The Maya never were unified into an empire. They instead formed shifting coalitions of battling city-states. The Maya made significant advances in engineering and architecture. They built cities of towering temples, water management systems, and astronomical observatories. They used symbols to represent zero long before Europeans did so. They also developed an advanced hieroglyphic form of writing, using picture symbols to represent ideas and sounds.
Maya writing deciphered by scholars suggests the Maya were a warlike people who could be extremely cruel to their enemies. Beginning around A.D. 900, the Maya civilization began to decline. All the great Classic Maya cities had been abandoned when Spaniards arrived in Central America in the 1500’s. Today, most descendants of the Maya live in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. They carry on many ancient Maya customs.
The Spanish colonial period
In 1501, Rodrigo de Bastidas and Juan de la Cosa of Spain became the first Europeans to explore the Central American coast. In 1502, the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sailed the Caribbean coast from Honduras to Panama and claimed the area for the monarchy of Spain, which was sponsoring his voyages. Spanish conquistadors (conquerors) soon invaded and took control of the region. Most of the Indigenous people died. Many were killed by diseases, such as smallpox and measles, that the conquistadors and the enslaved Africans they brought with them carried. The remaining Indigenous people gradually abandoned traditional ways as Spanish missionaries converted them to Roman Catholicism and commercial agriculture grew.
In 1570, the Spanish established an audiencia (administrative center) in Guatemala. The Audiencia of Guatemala ruled over all of Central America except Panama. It was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which governed most of Spain’s North American colonies from Mexico City. Panama became part of an audiencia administered from what is now Bogotá, Colombia, within a viceroyalty that covered territory in South America. Most Spaniards in Central America had considerable control over their local affairs. This was possible because Spain generally did not pay much attention to the region, which had little mineral wealth. Spain’s government focused more on silver-rich Mexico and Peru.
Panama developed separately from the rest of Central America, serving as a transit point between the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. The Spaniards built a trail across the Isthmus of Panama, near the site of the present-day Panama Canal. Work crews hauled silver from South America across the isthmus to Portobelo, Panama, and from there shipped it to Spain
The road to independence
In 1808, Napoleon I of France (also known as Napoleon Bonaparte) invaded Spain and exiled its king, Ferdinand VII. Napoleon made his brother Joseph king of Spain. Many Spaniards resisted French occupation. Ferdinand returned to Spain in 1814. A liberal revolt limited royal authority in 1820, but the king regained power in 1823. As a result of all this political chaos, Spain lost control over its colonies. On Sept. 15, 1821, the Audiencia of Guatemala declared its separation from Spain, a move that caused almost no fighting. Panama also broke away from Spanish rule in 1821. It became a province of the new nation of Gran Colombia, a forerunner of Colombia that also included Ecuador and Venezuela.
What is now Belize had belonged to the Audiencia of Guatemala. But the Spaniards had established few settlements there and had done little to exercise their rule. British sailors set up a town in the area in 1638. In the years that followed, the British established other settlements. In 1862, the United Kingdom took formal possession of the region, making it the colony of British Honduras. Belize did not become an independent country until 1981.
In 1822, the newly independent lands that had formed the Audiencia of Guatemala became part of Mexico. In 1823, they separated from Mexico and formed a federation called the United Provinces of Central America (later the Republic of Central America). However, the federation soon began to collapse under various pressures, including efforts by rich landowners and Roman Catholic clergy to regain former privileges. Rivalries also developed between the local and federal governments. In the late 1830’s, the federation broke up into a number of independent republics.
Developments in the 1900’s
The Panama Canal.
In the 1800’s, the United States was seeking rights to build a canal across Central America to greatly reduce travel times between the region’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts. With U.S. military backing, Panama separated from Colombia in 1903 and formed an independent nation. Panama gave the United States long-term control over a canal zone 10 miles (16 kilometers) wide upon which to build and operate the canal. The canal, one the greatest engineering achievements in the world, opened in 1914. Over time, nationalist sentiment grew among Panamanians, and pressure built for the United States to turn over the canal to Panama. The 1977 Torrijos-Carter treaties, named for Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos and U.S. President Jimmy Carter, led to the transfer of the canal to Panama in 1999.
Economic matters.
Central America experienced rapid economic change during the 1900’s. The Great Depression of the 1930’s caused tremendous economic hardship and accelerated the growth of the labor movement and labor unrest in the region. Powerful landowners saw the labor movement as a threat. They supported civilian dictators who used the military to subdue efforts to organize workers.
After World War II ended in 1945, new commercial activities led to increased economic prosperity throughout the region. Cotton plantations began to appear on the Pacific coast, and cattle ranching became increasingly popular because of growing markets for beef abroad. These economic changes were accompanied by an increase in popular opposition against wealthy landowners and the Roman Catholic Church.
Central America continued to experience economic growth during the 1960’s and 1970’s. In the 1970’s, however, several factors ended this growth. The countries of Central America had to pay much higher prices for imported oil and agricultural chemicals, while the prices they received for exports dropped. They also had borrowed billions of dollars at high interest rates to finance their development and began to experience problems paying back their loans. In addition, a population explosion led to widespread unemployment in the region.
The Cold War period,
from 1947 to 1991, was a time of intense rivalry between Communist nations led by what was then the Soviet Union and non-Communist nations led by the United States. During this period, U.S. officials perceived what they took to be a Communist threat to their influence in Central America. In an effort to curb the spread of Communism, the U.S. government provided significant support to conservative military leaders there. Reform-oriented civilian politicians often faced determined opposition and accusations of being Communists allied with the Soviet Union. In Guatemala, for example, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped overthrow the freely elected civilian government of President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán in 1954.
In the late 1970’s, much of Central America continued to experience poverty and authoritarian government that favored obedience over freedom. Civil wars broke out in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, with rebels demanding social justice and real democracy. The U.S. government viewed such conflicts as part of a Soviet effort to establish Communism in Central America. In El Salvador and Guatemala, authoritarian governments that received U.S. support committed massive human rights violations, resulting in the deaths and emigration of hundreds of thousands of people. In Nicaragua, rebels called Sandinistas overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979. The United States, at first working with Argentina, helped to create, arm, and train a counter-rebel force called the Contras. All three civil wars ended in the 1990’s.
The 2000’s
By the early 2000’s, the period of civil wars had ended. Central America was free of military dictators, and democratically elected civilian governments held power in every country. Nevertheless, the region still faced many challenges. Problems included widespread poverty and unemployment, weak economies, and environmental damage caused by agricultural and industrial activities.
Also in the early 2000’s, gang violence gripped El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, causing some of the highest homicide rates in the world in these nations. The violence produced great waves of emigration, mostly to the United States. Money sent home by emigrants became a major source of income in Central America.
In November 2020, two powerful hurricanes—Eta and Iota—struck Central America and nearby areas. Altogether, the storms killed more than 250 people and affected millions of others. They caused billions of dollars in damage, including to homes, crops, and infrastructure. Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua were particularly affected. At the time, Central America also was struggling with a worldwide outbreak of the COVID-19 respiratory disease.
