Nueva Segovia () is a department in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the coun ...

. It covers an area of 3,491 km² and has a population of 275,291 (2021 estimate). The capital is

Ocotal Ocotal () is the capital of the Nueva Segovia Department in Nicaragua, Central America and the municipal seat of Ocotal Municipality. History The region currently occupied by the city of Ocotal was occupied by different ethnic groups that had pr ...

History of Las Segovias

''Las Segovias'' is a region encompassed by the five departments of northern Nicaragua:

Estelí Estelí (), officially Villa de San Antonio de Pavia de Estelí is a city and municipality within the Estelí department. It is the 3rd largest city in Nicaragua due to the high urbanization of its municipality, at 83%, with an urban population of ...

Jinotega Jinotega () (derived from Náhuatl: ''Xiotenko'' ‘place next to the jiñocuajo trees’) is the capital city of the Department of Jinotega in north-central Nicaragua. The city is located in a long valley surrounded by the cool climate and Da ...

, Madriz, Matagalpa, and Nueva Segovia. The natural boundaries, are bordered on the north by the mountains around Dipilto,

Jalapa Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the 2005 census the city reported a population of 387,879 and the municipality of which ...

and Mozonte, which extend to the

Coco River River Wangki in Miskitu or Río Coco, in Spanish, formerly known as the Río Segovia, Cape River, or Yara River, is a river located on the border of northern Nicaragua and southern Honduras. It is the longest river that runs entirely within the Ce ...

. On the southern border, the area is bounded by the mountains around the towns of La Trinidad and San Nicolás, which sweep downward to the valleys between

Sébaco Sébaco is a town and a municipality in the Matagalpa department of Nicaragua. Situated at the junction of the Pan-American Highway and the Rio Grande de Matagalpa, Sébaco is the largest city of the agricultural Sébaco Valley, one of the mo ...

and

El Sauce El Sauce is a municipality in the La Unión department of El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on th ...

. Towards the east the river valleys bordering La Concordia,

San Sebastián de Yalí San Sebastián de Yalí is a municipality in the Jinotega department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative ...

and

Wiwilí de Jinotega Wiwilí may refer to: * Wiwilí de Jinotega, Nicaragua * Wiwilí de Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua {{disambiguation ...

form the demarcations of the natural boundary. Finally, on the west the boundary extends from the slope of a mountainous triangle which extends to the

coastal plain A coastal plain is flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and a piedmont area. Some of the largest coastal plains are in Alaska and the southeastern United States. The Gulf Co ...

adjacent to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

encompassing

, San José de Cusmapa, and San Juan de Limay. In pre-Columbian times the region was inhabited by Native American people known as Mayangnas and Matagalpas. Later arrivals include the

Nahua The Nahuas () are a group of the indigenous people of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. They comprise the largest indigenous group in Mexico and second largest in El Salvador. The Mexica (Aztecs) were of Nahua ethnicity, a ...

from Mexico and the Chorotega peoples from Cholula. One of the first regions of Nicaragua to be colonized by the Spaniards, the

conquistadors Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

established the city of ''Vieja'' and later ''Antigua'', to implement the ''Corregimiento'' system over the indigenous inhabitants. The ''corregidor'' served as a type of mayor to administrate a district, exploiting the local populations to mine gold and other minerals for Spain. The Spanish period decimated the indigenous population reducing its numbers from estimates of 75,000 people to 4,500 at the end of their occupation. After gaining its independence, Nicaragua drafted the Constitution of 1858, which established seven departments: Chinandega, Chontales, Granada, León, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, and Rivas. The Department of Jinotega was created from Matagalpa in 1892. Simultaneously, the Estelí Department was created from Nueva Segovia. Nueva Segovia was further divided in 1936 with the creation of the Madriz Department. In 1926, during the

United States occupation of Nicaragua The United States occupation of Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933 was part of the Banana Wars, when the US military invaded various Latin American countries from 1898 to 1934. The formal occupation began in 1912, even though there were various othe ...

''Las Segovias'' became the center of the

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run ta ...

led by

Augusto César Sandino Augusto C. Sandino (; May 18, 1895 February 21, 1934), full name Augusto Nicolás Calderón de Sandino y José de María Sandino, was a Nicaraguan revolutionary and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the United States occupat ...

, who established a network of espionage agents and collaborators from the local population. In 1933, during the negotiations for peace in the region, Sandino asked newly elected president

Juan Bautista Sacasa Juan Bautista Sacasa (21 December 1874 in León, Nicaragua – 17 April 1946 in Los Angeles, California) was the President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1933 to 9 June 1936. He was the eldest son of Roberto Sacasa and Ángela Sacasa Cuadra, the for ...

to create a large autonomous department covering the area of ''Las Segovias''. Sandino's plan would have allowed him to administer the department and manage the civilian and military authorities. The government rejected the plan, giving the rebels only a small colony on the banks of the Coco River, where the former troops were allowed to farm.

Municipalities

# Ciudad Antigua # Dipilto # El Jícaro #

Macuelizo Macuelizo () is a Municipalities of Honduras, municipality in the Honduras, Honduran Departments of Honduras, department of Santa Bárbara Department, Honduras, Santa Bárbara. It's located a few kilometers north of the CA-4 highway, which connec ...

# Mozonte # Murra #

# Quilalí # San Fernando # Santa María # Wiwilí de Nueva Segovia

References

External links

Portal del Norte de Nicaragua
{{Authority control Departments of Nicaragua