The Oxford Handbook of Central American History

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 both to its isthmian geography and habitual political strife, Central America became the most 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 ’80s. Devastating in their human costs, they delivered modest political reforms but world-record levels of criminal violence tied to drug trafficking. 

With British Honduras’ independence from Great Britain in 1981 as Belize, and the acquisition by Panama of full sovereignty over its territory in 1999, Central America increasingly defined itself as region of seven countries. 

The Oxford Handbook of Central American History offers critical analyses of major themes in the historiography of this seven-nation region of Latin America. Essays written by leading scholars of Central America engage both the neophyte’s search for basic orientation and context, and the experienced scholar’s interest in evaluative critiques of the historical literature. Individual chapters interpret the histories of each of the seven countries, but most focus on themes that cut across national boundaries, beginning with the history of the region’s extraordinarily diverse natural environment, and continuing with the indigenous peoples, the Spanish conquest and colonial rule, and the independence process. Other chapters interpret economic history, US relations, the