Nicaragua is located in the middle of the Central American isthmus, sharing its northern border with Honduras, and its southern border with Costa Rica. It has a long coastline along the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The Nicaraguan society is multiethnic and made up of indigenous, Afro-descendants, white and mainly mestizo people. Spanish is the country’s official language, although on the Caribbean coast they speak mostly Miskito, Mayagna and English-based Créole.

Inhabited by Pre-Columbus peoples, the current territory of Nicaragua was conquered by Spain in the 16th Century. After having been part of the Spanish Empire (1502-1821), the First Mexican Empire (1821-1823), the United Provinces of Central America (1823-1824), and the Federal Republic of Central America (1824-1838), Nicaragua emerged as an independent country in 1838, under the name of State of Nicaragua, and was called Republic of Nicaragua as from 1854. Nicaragua is a tropical country with volcanoes and, inland, it has two big lakes: Lake Managua (known by the country’s inhabitants by its aboriginal name of Xolotlán) and the Great Lake of Nicaragua (also known as Cocibolca or Lake Nicaragua).