A Comparison of the Nicaraguan and American Revolutions

In both the American and Nicaraguan Revolutions the armed forces appear to have served a dual purpose: to engage in armed struggle against the enemy and to socialize its members into the ideology of the revolution's leaders. However, the two revolutions had drastically different experiences once they established their respective governments. In the years after the Nicaraguan Revolution the country became embroiled in a devastating civil war, while the United States managed to escape such drastic conflict. Was the Continental Army because of its size and permanence a more effective socializing mechanism than the guerrilla force employed by the Sandinistas? In order to answer this guestion this paper examines three areas: how the Continental Army served as a more effective socializing mechanism than its irregular counterpart, the militia, the roots of the conflict between Nicaragua's Atlantic and Pacific Coasts and the similarities and differences between the two situations. The comparison was somewhat superficial because of the nature of the material available on the two revolutions. The effect service in the Continental Army had on its members can be seen in numerous diaries and memoirs written by people who served in the Army. Unfortunately, this depth of first hand accounts does not exist for the Nicaraguan example. Consequently, the comparison can only be speculative in nature. In the end, it appears as if the two situations have as many dissimilar features as similar features. Hence, it is not clear that the presence of a standing army, similar to the Continental Army, during the Nicaraguan Revolution would have contributed significantly to easing the tensions that emerged after the war against Somoza. What does emerge from the comparison is the need for an effective mechanism to bring people into the revolution's dominant ideology in order to ensure a stable post-revolutionary society.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Oregon

Year dc:date.issued

1990

Author dc:creator

• Messer, Peter

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dennis, Matthew

• American revolution
• Nicaraguan revolution
• Armed forces
• Continental army
• Guerrilla force
• Sandinistas

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-US
• UO theses and dissertations are provided for research and educational purposes and may be under copyright by the author or the author’s heirs. Please contact scholars@uoregon.edu with any questions or comments. In your email, be sure to include the URL and title of the specific items that you are inquiring about.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/31755

OAI record oai:identifier

https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Ascholarsbank.uoregon.edu%3A1794%2F31755