User:BigBear337/Act of Independence of Central America

By the turn of the nineteenth-century, it became clear that several unique regional identities had formed in Central America, although the authority for self-governance that each of these regions held was less discernible. Eventually though, the divisions would result in the dominance of Guatemala City and the wider area of Guatemala, which held the seat of the captaincy general, the only university in Central America, and most importantly, a large population of Peninsulares. The other regions, Comayagua (modern Honduras), Nicaragua, San Salvador (modern El Salvador), and Costa Rica, were less prosperous than Guatemala, but each held varying degrees of loyalty to the Spanish crown. The combination of the American and French Revolutions, the control of Peninsular Spaniards over Central America, and Spain's role in the Peninsular War would set the stage for independence movements.

The increasing lack of political cohesion in Central America took new forms after the independence acts were accepted. Divisions within the urban centers of San Salvador, Comayagua, and Nicaragua, split those regions in half, and in Costa Rica, its isolation from the rest of Central America combined with its previous loyalty to Spain to alienate it from the government in Guatemala. As Central America faced disintegration, two solutions presented themselves. The success of neighboring Mexico in its own war of independence led some in Central America to see it as the region's best chance of continued unity, while others wished for absolute independence for their own gain, for idealistic reasons, or because they feared Mexico could not protect their economic interests.

These guarantees, otherwise known as the Plan of Iguala, promised the continuation of the Catholic faith in the region, final independence from Spain, and the creation of a constitutional monarchy. However, most importantly for Central America, the plan called for unity among the various regional entities of northern Spanish America under one kingdom. This division had already been proposed, first by Charles II of Spain and then in the Cortes of 1820. It was intended that the Spanish colonies would be split into two kingdoms, with one encompassing the territories north of modern-day Panama and the other encompassing New Granada and the lands south of it. While the proposed division did not occur as planned, the plan did establish a legal precedent for the idea of political unity between Mexico, Guatemala, and the "Provincas Internas" and helped set the stage for the unification with Mexico.