Summary

Praise for the previous edition:
"The narrative is clear...Foster manages to capture the essence of the history of the region and provides an important building block for what...will be a budding field of research.”—Choice

"Because of its breadth and depth, this book should be useful to teachers and students of geography, world history, economics, and U.S. history...Recommended."—The Book Report, starred review

Central America is a tiny region, broken into seven even smaller nations. More than 5 million North Americans visit these countries every year, exploring Mayan ruins in Guatemala and Belize, discovering the rain forests of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, snorkeling in Honduras, and cruising through the Panama Canal.

A Brief History of Central America, Second Edition explores the history of the Central American isthmus from the pre-Columbian cultures to the contemporary nations that make up the region today: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. This second edition brings the history of the region up to date with new developments, including the continued struggle in the aftermath of the civil wars, the impact of the free trade agreement signed with the United States, and recent elections.

Coverage includes:

• The Land and Its First Peoples
• The Spanish Conquest
• Life in the Colony
• The Federation of Central America
• The Making of the Coffee Republics
• Challenge to the Old Order
• Civil Wars
• The Challenge of Peace and Democracy.

Specifications

Black-and-white photographs and illustrations. Maps. Index. Bibliography. Suggested reading. Chronology. Basic facts. Sidebars. Tables.

About the Author(s)

Lynn V. Foster is a writer, former research scholar, and adjunct faculty member in the Hispanic Studies Department of the University of Massachusetts at Boston. She is the author of several books, including Facts On File’s A Brief History of Mexico, Updated Edition and Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World.