Confederation of Central America
The Confederation of Central America, was a short-lived attempt to reunify the former Federal Republic of Central America, which had fallen the previous year in 1841. It was founded by Francisco Morazán Quesada in 1842, who was executed in the same year, weakening the movement, and eventually leading to its collapse three years later. It had planned to include El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
It was one of many failed attempts to re-unify Central America after the initial federation, and like the others, it fell in a couple of years due to instability.
Initially, the Confederation appointed Antonio José Cañas as its ruler with the title of supreme delegate, but each state retained its own head of state, and the effective authority of this office was practically nonexistent.
Fruto Chamorro Pérez was the last supreme delegate of the Confederation, which effectively dissolved in mid-1845 due to rivalries caused by conservative and liberal governments in each of the member states.
Collapse of the Federal Republic
The cracks of the Federal Republic were already showing in 1838, as on 30 May of that year, the Federal Republic declared any of the states could become an independent republic. Nicaragua declared independence on 30 April. Honduras followed on 26 October, followed by Costa Rica on 15 November. On February 2 1839, all of Central America's elected government officials left office. On 17 April, Guatemalan President Rafael Carrera issued a decree dissolving the Federal Republic of Central America; the Federal Congress accepted his decree on 14 July. On 30 January 1841, El Salvador declared independence from the Federal Republic of Central America. Due to the last member state leaving, the Federal Republic officially collapsed. At the fall of the federal republic, four of its five successor states were led by opponents of federal rule and proponents of their respective states' secession: Braulio Carrillo, Francisco Malespín, Carrera, and Francisco Ferrera.Rise of Francisco Morazán and Antonio Jose Canas
Francisco Morazan became the de facto president of Central America after Beltranene was removed from presidency in April 1828. On 22 June 1829, he appointed a new Federal Congress. He ran for the 1830 election, and the Federal Congress was given the authority to elect the president. The Congress voted for Morazan, who became president. After the collapse of the Republic, he was exiled by conservatives.In 1842, Morazan took power in Costa Rica, aiming to launch his restoration project, but found little support and was captured and executed in September 1842, weakening the Confederation and leading its collapse.
Delegations from El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua proclaimed Antonio José Cañas the president of a new federal government on 17 March 1842, but the governments of Costa Rica and Guatemala did not recognize the proclamation.
Cañas's government ended in 1844, when El Salvador and Honduras invaded Nicaragua for granting asylum to Salvadoran and Honduran political exiles. While the Confederation in name lasted until about 1845.
Dissolution
The Confederation's life was brief and turbulent. Great Britain denied it diplomatic recognition, its relations with Guatemala were tense, and to make matters worse, a bloody war broke out between the three confederated states because in El Salvador the conservatives, led by Francisco Malespín, seized power; while in Nicaragua, the liberals of León governed in rivalry with the conservatives of Granada.In mid-1845, Supreme Delegate Chamorro Pérez proposed a draft of a new pact to the States, but his term ended without any decision being made. By that time, the Confederation was practically dissolved.