202 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



Central America, taken in its narrowest political sense, that is, as tlie region 

 of isthmuses— excluding Chiapas, which belongs to Mexico, and the double crescent 

 of Panama, which is included in Colombia — has more than once constituted a single 

 political dominion. Under the Spanish rule the Royal Audienza of Guatemala, 

 which also comprised the present Mexican province of Soconusco, extended south- 

 wards to Chiriqui Bay. In 1823, when the independence of Guatemala was pro- 

 claimed, the southern provinces continued to form part of the new republic, of 

 which Guatemala was the capital. But in 1838, after much civil strife, this con- 

 federacy was definitely dissolved, and Central America became decomposed into the 



Fig. 86. — Old Steaits in Central Ameeica. 

 Scale 1 : '215.000.000. 



300 Miles. 



five autonomous States of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua and 

 Costa Rica. 



But in 1879, the constitution of Guatemala already anticipated an intimate 

 political union between the various republics, and engaged on its part to maintain 

 and cultivate " mutual family relations " with them. It also expressed the wish 

 of the people to again form part of a larger Central American nationality. All 

 natives of the neighbouring republics became by right Guatemalan citizens by 

 merely expressing a desire to that effect. At the same time, all these acts of 

 fraternal legislation were accompanied by warlike armaments, to compel the other 

 states to join the union should they prove refractory. In 1886, on the initiative 

 of Guatemala, a congress was held for the purpose of preparing a new scheme of 



