Could the Federal Republic of Central America feasibly have remained united, or were the problems that plagued it too deep-rooted?

by Kettehhia
Irishfafnir

It seems highly unlikely, especially given Costa Rica's almost complete isolation from the rest of the country. Quoting myself from a previous thread.

The Failure of Union Central America 1824-1960 devotes a large portion of the book to the failure of the Central American Republic. If you can read Spanish there is also a fairly good biography on Morazan available( he was a Washington type figure in South America). Central America did not work for many reasons. They never really fought a war for independence and as such there was little to unify the different states, they lacked that Washington type figure( or bolivar) who was important in maintaining cohesion in a new federal state . They were chronically poor unable to maintain even basic government functions. The other Central American States hated Guatemala who had about half the population and most of the wealth and who had enjoyed privileged status dating back to the Spanish rule. There was also often competition over the creation of an independent Bishop from Guatemala( generally El Salvador and to a lesser extent Nicaragua) The terrain itself was horrible and inland roads were seriously lacking, for instance it took 3 months to travel from Guatemala city to Costa Rica. They also never created a national army, relying on the armies of the individual states to maintain control as a result the central congress was often hostage to whichever state happened to have the army nearest at hand at any given time ( normally Guatemala or El Salvador). Compound this with an insane amount of battles that occurred during the federation providing for a very destabilizing effect, the book I mentioned above cites 130 battles and around 100 men wielding executive power from 1824-1842. Eventually after 2 decades of war the states saw little benefit in maintaining the Union. What is interesting is that the "President" of the Republic Franciso Morazan won every single battle he very fought but still lost ( hes a very interesting figure if you are interested in Central America)