User:BigBear337/History of Central America

When Mexico became a republic the following year, it acknowledged Central America's right to determine its own destiny. On 1 July 1823, the congress of Central America declared the Absolute Declaration. The primary provision of this declaration was the absolute independence of Central America from Spain, Mexico, and any other foreign nation, including North America. With regards to Spain, the declaration stated that Spain had usurpsed the rights of the colonies in Central America for three centuries, and reiterated the earlier independence acts of 1821. On the issue of Mexico and annexation into a greater Spanish American state in North America, the declaration labelled Mexican involvement in Central American independence as forceful and unlawful. This served to de-legitimize Mexican actions during the previous two years and separate Central America as a political entity. Further, a Republican system of government was established under a unitary system. Though Guatemala would attempt to unify the provinces of Central America with its adoption of federalism, regional divisions endured. The conflicts between powerful urban centers in each region, including Guatemala itself, would make it difficult to unify provinces internally, and it was all the harder to do so as a wider region. The conflict between republicans and monarchists also made political unity difficult in Central America. These qualities would exist for decades after the region's separation from Spain and Mexico and would help to create the modern boundaries of Central America.

The kingdom of Guatemala, as Central America was more commonly known as during Spanish and Mexican rule, had been annexed into Mexico in 1822 under the rule of emperor Agustín de Iturbide. The annexation was not without controversy, however, and tensions simmered between the republicans and nationalists favoring complete independence on one side and monarchists, who often favored annexation into Mexico, on the other. These tensions took varying forms depending on the region in question. In El Salvador, the provincial council openly defied annexation into Mexico. Meanwhile, in other regions, inner tensions between cities such as Leon Granada in Nicaragua made any sense of unity fleeting at best. Shortly after the annexation, opposition against the monarch from Central American nationalists and republicans continued to grow. These groups pushed for independence from Mexico. Iturbide's unsuccessful leadership of Central America and the seeming collapse of the Mexican Empire caused his party to fail against the uprising rebels and on July 1, 1823, Central America gained its independence.