San Juan de Nicaragua
San Juan de Nicaragua
San Juan del Norte | |
|---|---|
Municipality | |
 | |
Río San Juan | |
| Area | |
| • Municipality | 640 sq mi (1,657 km2) |
| Population (2005) | |
| • Municipality | 1,307 |
| • Density | 2.0/sq mi (0.79/km2) |
| • Urban | 985 |
San Juan de Nicaragua, formerly known as San Juan del Norte or Greytown,[1] is a town and municipality in the Río San Juan Department of Nicaragua.
History
San Juan del Norte was founded by the
In 1707 and again in 1762, the area was captured by an alliance of
In 1841, the town was occupied by the Miskitos with
to the north.A year later, the town began rapid growth as the eastern terminus of a transport operation owned by
However, the town's prosperity was cut short when, on 13 July 1854, the
Greytown was rebuilt after its destruction and, in 1855, the American filibuster William Walker installed himself as President of Nicaragua and took control of the Accessory Transit Company's assets and revoked its charter. He himself was ousted in 1857 by elements backed by Vanderbilt. Walker and his followers attempted to retake Nicaragua in November 1857, when they entered Greytown harbor and camped at nearby Puntas Arenas. However, U.S. Marines soon surrounded the forces and captured Walker.
Vanderbilt then ceased operation of the transit service in exchange for a stipend from the rival Pacific Mail Steamship Company and the United States Mail Steamship Company, which operated similar routes across Panama. As a result, Greytown reverted to backwater status and remained a small settlement into the 20th century.
The town was legally placed under the sovereignty of Nicaragua and removed from Miskito control in 1860 but remained de facto under British protection through much of the remainder of the century. In 1894, Nicaraguan President José Santos Zelaya fully incorporated the region into the state, at which time Greytown had 1482 inhabitants.
In 1984, Greytown was attacked again during the Sandinista–Contra conflict in which a US helicopter, while supporting the Contras, fired on the town on 9 April 1984.[2]
A new town was built a few kilometers to the northwest and is called both New Greytown and Nuevo San Juan del Norte.
In 2002, the municipality of San Juan del Norte was officially renamed San Juan de Nicaragua and its capital renamed Graytown [
Geography
San Juan de Nicaragua lies on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast just to the south of the Mosquito Coast near the border with Costa Rica. It is located at the mouth of the San Juan River which flows east from Lake Nicaragua and is along the route of various proposals for a Nicaragua Canal to the Pacific Ocean.
The town's geography is influenced by the San Juan River delta with volcanic sediment deposits from Costa Rican volcanoes interacting with ocean currents and winds. This action fills the town's harbor with shifting sandbars and spits.
Climate
San Juan de Nicaragua has a very wet
| Climate data for Greytown | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 29.6 (85.3) |
30.2 (86.4) |
31.4 (88.5) |
31.7 (89.1) |
31.5 (88.7) |
30.3 (86.5) |
30.2 (86.4) |
30.0 (86.0) |
30.1 (86.2) |
29.9 (85.8) |
29.1 (84.4) |
29.0 (84.2) |
30.3 (86.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 25.4 (77.7) |
25.9 (78.6) |
27.0 (80.6) |
27.5 (81.5) |
27.4 (81.3) |
26.4 (79.5) |
26.6 (79.9) |
26.3 (79.3) |
26.0 (78.8) |
25.8 (78.4) |
25.4 (77.7) |
25.1 (77.2) |
26.2 (79.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 21.3 (70.3) |
21.6 (70.9) |
22.6 (72.7) |
23.3 (73.9) |
23.3 (73.9) |
22.6 (72.7) |
23.1 (73.6) |
22.6 (72.7) |
22.0 (71.6) |
21.8 (71.2) |
21.7 (71.1) |
21.2 (70.2) |
22.3 (72.1) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 454 (17.9) |
237 (9.3) |
139 (5.5) |
200 (7.9) |
372 (14.6) |
559 (22.0) |
785 (30.9) |
599 (23.6) |
384 (15.1) |
482 (19.0) |
764 (30.1) |
695 (27.4) |
5,670 (223.3) |
| Source: Climate-Data.org[4] | |||||||||||||
Population
As with the
Popular culture
- W. Douglas Burden describes the town in his Look to the Wilderness.[5]
Notes
- ^ Baynes, T. S.; Smith, W. R., eds. (1880). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 194.
- ^ "CASE CONCERNING MILITARY AND PARAMILITARY ACTIVITIES IN AND AGAINST NICARAGUA (Nicaragua v. United States of America)" (PDF). The Hague: International Court of Justice. 1986-06-27. Retrieved 2014-01-01.
- ^ Sánchez, Edwin (2006-03-03). "Alcalde de San Juan del Norte: 'Nos dieron el Gacetazo'". El Nuevo Diario (in Spanish). Managua. Archived from the original on 2007-07-06.
De acuerdo con La Gaceta del viernes 9 de agosto de 2002, yo debería fechar este despacho desde "Graytown", y no Greytown como los británicos rebautizaron a San Juan del Norte, porque para efectos oficiales no hay un poblado siquiera con este nombre.
- ^ "Climate: Greytown". Climate-Data.org. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
- ^ Burden, W. Douglas (1956). Look to the Wilderness. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 197–245.
References
- Peter H. Dana and Shannon Crum. 3D Modeling of Greytown, Nicaragua. The Geographer's Craft Project, Department of Geography, The University of Colorado at Boulder. 1995.
- History of the San Juan River at Rio Indio Lodge website
External links
- Plan map and Panoramic Views of Greytown from the 19th century including the burning of Greytown in 1854
10°55′N 83°42′W / 10.917°N 83.700°W
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