Background
José Santos Zelaya was born on 1 November 1853 in Managua.
politician president statesman
José Santos Zelaya was born on 1 November 1853 in Managua.
José Santos studied in France.
In 1859 Nicaragua had entered a period in which Conservatives from Granada succeeded one another in office every four years. The circle was broken when, after the death of Evaristo Caraza (1887-1889), Vice President Roberto Sacasa was unable to finish his term of office. A Conservative, General Francisco Gutiérrez, began the revolt, and Liberal forces led by General Santos Zelaya, supported Gutiérrez and drove Sacasa out of office. He was succeeded by Salvador Machado, another Conservative, but in July 1893, the Liberals staged their own revolt, and Zelaya became president.
Conservatives played a major role in organizing an uprising against Zelaya, but its nominal leader was the local governor, a Liberal and Zelaya appointee. General Juan José Estrada. Zelaya resigned on December 17, 1909. His departure began a period of Conservative dominance and U.S. armed intervention in Nicaragua.
With a Positivist outlook acquired through years of study in France, Zelaya worked to separate church and state, especially in education. He built libraries and museums, and attempted to modernize agriculture, industry, and the army— and thus help himself stay in office.
Relations between Nicaragua and the United States were initially cordial, as the United States joined Nicaragua in pressuring Great Britain to withdraw its military forces from disputed territory along the Mosquito Coast. But relations deteriorated after 1902, when the United States decided to construct its transisthmian Canal through Panama instead of Nicaragua. Then, alarmed at the prospect of Nicaraguan dominance of the region after Nicaraguan forces in 1906 defeated both the Honduran Army and a force sent from El Salvador, the United States and Mexico invited the Central American nations to meet in Washington.
Zelaya rejected the “right” of the United States, which also signed the Conference Treaty, to intervene in Central American affairs. Moreover, he discussed a canal across Nicaragua with various foreign powers and gave a British firm the right to construct and operate a railroad across Nicaragua. The United States, however, considered it essential that Nicaragua s potential canal route be kept out of European hands. Consequently, when Zeyala s presidency was threatened by a revolt in 1909, his opponents were assured of success by open financial and military support form the United States.
