END OF THE WAR
A month of vicious fighting occurred between the Sandinistas and Guardia Nacional before the Somoza dynasty surrendered. Aid to Somoza from the United States ceased after footage of a reporter being shot by a soldier of the Guardia Nacional and they no longer had the means to continue fighting. The revolution in Nicaragua ended on the 19th of July, 1978 after Anastasio Somoza Debayle fled to Miami on the 17th of July while his regime crumbled. The Sandinistas flooded the capitol and the nation celebrated unanimously. The U.S. made attempts to reach an agreement to reinstitute the Guardia Nacional fairly but the rebels would accept only complete surrender. The country was left crumbled and wrecked by war with only ruins of infrastructure. An assembly was gathered to decide on how to restructure the government. Huge amounts of property and other assets owned by the Somoza family were seized by the new government.
REPERCUSSIONS
The death toll of the Nicaraguan Revolution was high due to a confusing definition of how, when and where someone must die to be considered a casualty of the war. There were an estimated 35,000 deaths caused by the revolution. A large portion of these deaths are assumed to have been civilian. Those Nicaraguans who did survive the revolution were likely to be without homes. Not only homes but a huge amount of infrastructure had been destroyed previous to and during the revolution. After the war there were approximately 600,000 people without homes and 150,000 people living as refugees or in exile. The Government Assembly for National Reconstruction accepted foreign aid to rebuild infrastructure and begin a literacy campaign which resulted in the reduction of illiteracy from 53% to 12%. The new leftist structure of Nicaraguan government was not accepted by the United States and resulted in the dissolution of foreign relations. With support from the United States government, the remnants of the Guardia Nacional reestablished themselves as the 'Contrarrevolucion Nacional' or the Contra to fight against the Nicaraguan government. The long term repercussions of a civil war created an unstable situation in Nicaragua, with the added difficulty of the continuation of the fight against the former Guardia Nacional.
A month of vicious fighting occurred between the Sandinistas and Guardia Nacional before the Somoza dynasty surrendered. Aid to Somoza from the United States ceased after footage of a reporter being shot by a soldier of the Guardia Nacional and they no longer had the means to continue fighting. The revolution in Nicaragua ended on the 19th of July, 1978 after Anastasio Somoza Debayle fled to Miami on the 17th of July while his regime crumbled. The Sandinistas flooded the capitol and the nation celebrated unanimously. The U.S. made attempts to reach an agreement to reinstitute the Guardia Nacional fairly but the rebels would accept only complete surrender. The country was left crumbled and wrecked by war with only ruins of infrastructure. An assembly was gathered to decide on how to restructure the government. Huge amounts of property and other assets owned by the Somoza family were seized by the new government.
REPERCUSSIONS
The death toll of the Nicaraguan Revolution was high due to a confusing definition of how, when and where someone must die to be considered a casualty of the war. There were an estimated 35,000 deaths caused by the revolution. A large portion of these deaths are assumed to have been civilian. Those Nicaraguans who did survive the revolution were likely to be without homes. Not only homes but a huge amount of infrastructure had been destroyed previous to and during the revolution. After the war there were approximately 600,000 people without homes and 150,000 people living as refugees or in exile. The Government Assembly for National Reconstruction accepted foreign aid to rebuild infrastructure and begin a literacy campaign which resulted in the reduction of illiteracy from 53% to 12%. The new leftist structure of Nicaraguan government was not accepted by the United States and resulted in the dissolution of foreign relations. With support from the United States government, the remnants of the Guardia Nacional reestablished themselves as the 'Contrarrevolucion Nacional' or the Contra to fight against the Nicaraguan government. The long term repercussions of a civil war created an unstable situation in Nicaragua, with the added difficulty of the continuation of the fight against the former Guardia Nacional.