Francisco Morazán fought to keep Central America one nation, and lost
For about a decade, five future countries formed a single federal republic, and its dominant figure was Francisco Morazán. A largely self-taught Honduran, he served as the federation's president three times and pushed sweeping liberal reforms. When the union splintered, conservatives carved it into the five nations that exist today.
Born in Tegucigalpa in 1792, Morazán struggled for schooling. His father was a criollo, a Spaniard born in the Americas, and colonial rules barred such people from universities and professions, so his baptism record simply listed him as Spanish. There were no public schools, and when a new teacher refused to teach Latin to criollos he had to quit his lessons, later picking up mathematics, drawing and law from convents and a notary's office.
Central America broke from Spain without bloodshed in 1821, then argued over joining Mexico's short-lived empire. Morazán joined a Tegucigalpa militia opposing annexation. After Mexico's emperor fell in 1823, the region declared itself independent as the United Provinces of Central America, renamed the Federal Republic the following year. When federal president Manuel José Arce sent troops to depose Honduras's leader in 1827, Morazán escaped capture, raised men with Nicaraguan and Salvadoran help, and in November crushed the federal force at La Trinidad after five hours of fighting, becoming Honduras's head of state.
That victory made him the leader of the region's liberals. Leading a volunteer army of around 1,400 into El Salvador in 1828, he took on federal troops, and by 1829 he held the federal presidency. His government introduced freedom of the press, speech and religion, made marriage a civil matter and ended state-backed church tithes. Those measures made powerful enemies, and years of fighting between liberals and conservatives followed.
Morazán held the federation together by military skill until 1837, when it fractured beyond repair. Conservatives gathered behind Rafael Carrera, and Central America divided into separate states. Morazán kept fighting, later leading El Salvador and, briefly in 1842, Costa Rica, but that September he was executed. He is remembered as a visionary who tried to build one large, progressive nation.
Source: Francisco Morazán
