1838, bitter feuds had pulled them apart.
Nicaragua has since suffered internal strife under a succession of dictators, Harrison says, while democratic Costa Rica has fared rela- tively well. One reason: Costa Rica was so poor that Spanish coloniz- ers never fully established the oppressive oligarchical plantation system that dominated Nicaragua.
Frequent direct U.S. intervention in Nicaragua (most recently, the presence of U.S. Marines between 1912 and 1933) stirred strong anti- Yanqui sentiment.
Today,...