Nicaragua’s Conservative Republic, 1858–93

Arturo J.Cruz, Jr argues that political learning, trust building, and institutional innovation by political elites broke Nicaragua's post colonial cycle of anarchy and petty despotism, leaving in its place an increasingly inclusive oligarchic democracy that made possible state led economic development for the next thirty years.

Subsequent economic development gave rise to new social groups and localist power centres that remained politically disparate, and in turn forged an outsiders' coalition to bring down the Republic.