Political theorists tend to write about the countries of Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) either as individual nation-states or as the pawns and victims of international intervention. What these approaches ignore is the shared history of these countries, which were a single nation until domestic and colonial forces dissolved it in the early nineteenth century. This book argues for the importance of examining the connected history, close relationships, and mutual impact of the societies of Central America upon one another. Eschewing w ... More

Political theorists tend to write about the countries of Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) either as individual nation-states or as the pawns and victims of international intervention. What these approaches ignore is the shared history of these countries, which were a single nation until domestic and colonial forces dissolved it in the early nineteenth century. This book argues for the importance of examining the connected history, close relationships, and mutual impact of the societies of Central America upon one another. Eschewing well-trod theoretical approaches that do not account for the existence of transnational dynamics before the current stage of globalization, this book identifies recurring trends of state fragmentation and attempts at reunification or social and political association in the region over the past two centuries.