| Like most of the Latin American countries, Nicaragua bases its economy largely within the agricultural sector. Throughout history, the agricultural sector of Nicaragua has followed a tortuous path, which explains in part the pattern of a slow development process and the final relationship between GDP growth and the export activity. Long before Nicaragua's independence, maize, tobacco, sugar, and cacao represented the most important crops, in the production of which almost the entire rural population was engaged. The period between the independence from Spain in 1821 and 1857 was characterized by a political transition, in which Nicaragua left the Central American Federation and went into the struggle between the two existing political parties, Liberals... |
