Bluefields (Nicaragua)

Bluefields
Coordinates: 12 ° 1 ′ N , 83 ° 46 ′ W Bluefields on the map of Nicaragua	Bluefields
	Bluefields
Basic data
Country	Nicaragua
Department	RACCS
City foundation	1601
Residents	45,547 (2005)
	City insignia
Detailed data
surface	4.638 km 2
Population density	9,820 people / km 2
Time zone	UTC −6
	Because of the high disposal costs, shipwrecks dominate the coastline off Bluefields

Bluefields is the capital of the autonomous region of Costa Caribe Sur on the Caribbean coast of the Central American state of Nicaragua ; the region is also called Miskito Coast after the indigenous people . The city has 45,547 inhabitants (as of 2005). Only about 3% of them are Miskitos .

The municipio Bluefields covers 4,638 km².

Street in Bluefields

history

The place Bluefields goes back to a pirate settlement. It was first mentioned in documents in 1601. It was later named after the Dutch privateer Abraham Blauvelt (also spelled "Bleeveldt" or "Blaauwveldt").

In 1740 a British naval command occupied Bluefields Bay. From then on the British regarded Bluefields as their " protectorate ". They left its administration largely to a “king” of the Miskito by British grace.

In 1844, Prince Carl of Prussia and Prince Otto Victor I. von Schönburg-Waldenburg commissioned three emissaries to investigate whether the area around Bluefields was suitable for a colony. In 1846 107 colonists came to Bluefields from Königsberg , but their attempt to settle in Carlstadt , named after Prince Carl, the son of Prince Otto Victor, failed: a large number of the colonists succumbed to tropical diseases; the survivors moved on to other colonies. Thereupon Prince Otto Victor I. von Schönburg-Waldenburg moved the Moravian Brethren to begin a mission there. In 1849, Heinrich Pfeiffer and Johann Lundberg, the first two missionaries, arrived. The Moravians mentioned in Bluefields Moravian Brethren shaped the religious, cultural and in parts also the economic development of the place well into the early 20th century.

Citing the fact that the entire Caribbean coast of Central America had once belonged to Spain, Nicaragua , which has been independent since 1838, declared itself to be its legal successor and laid claim to Bluefields and the Miskito coast as a whole. In 1860, Great Britain and Nicaragua agreed in the Treaty of Managua to formally assign the area to the state of Nicaragua; however, its internal autonomy should be preserved.

In February 1894, however, Nicaraguan troops occupied the city. As a result, British troops moved in, which in turn moved the US government to have Marines occupy Bluefields "to protect the legitimate interests" of US citizens . It seemed easier for the US to gain economic control of the area if it belonged to a (weak) Nicaragua than if the British stood in the way. Given the overwhelming power of the USA, the British had to give in the following year (1895). Bluefields thus actually fell to Nicaragua. On October 11, 1903, President José Santos Zelaya gave the place city rights.

Until 1986, the city was the capital of the province of Zelaya, which in that year was divided into the autonomous regions Atlántico Sur and Atlántico Norte (since 2015 Costa Caribe Sur and Costa Caribe Norte ).

traffic

Bluefields port

There is no continuous land connection to the capital Managua , 383 km away . The journey from the capital takes place first by bus to El Rama and from there by boat on the Rio Escondido to Bluefields.

language

The official language in Bluefield is Spanish, but the native language of the locals is Creole English ( Mískito Coast Creole , also Nicaragua Creole English ). 85% of the residents of the Costa Caribe Sur region are bilingual.

Educational institutions

Colegio Moravo ( secundaria )
Instituto ' Cristóbal Colón '

Town twinning

Racine , Wisconsin, USA

Personalities

Barbara Carrera (* 1945), American actress and model
Harry E. Brautigam Ortega (1948–2008), economist and bank president

literature

Deborah Robb Taylor: The times & life of Bluefields. An intergenerational dialogue . Academia de Geografía e Historia de Nicaragua, Managua 2005, ISBN 99924-846-2-4 .

Footnotes

↑ Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INEC): Censo de Población y IV de Vivienda . Vol. 4: Población - Municipios . INEC, Managua 2006, p. 69.
^ Eduardo Pérez Valle: Expediente de Campos Azules. Historia de Bluefields en sus documentos en el 75 aniversario de su erección en ciudad . Managua 1978, p. 15.
^ Deborah Robb Taylor: The times & life of Bluefields. An intergenerational dialogue . Academia de Geografía e Historia de Nicaragua, Managua 2005, p. 34.
^ Ephraim George Squier: Notes on Central America, particularly the states of Honduras and San Salvador. Their Geography, Topography, Climate, Population, Resources, Productions etc. etc. and the proposed Honduras Inter-Oceanic Railway . Sampson Low, Son, & Co., London 1856, p. 363.
^ Götz Dieter von Houwald : The Germans in Nicaragua . In: Hartmut Fröschle (ed.): The Germans in Latin America. Fate and achievement . Erdmann, Tübingen 1979, ISBN 3-7711-0293-6 , pp. 631-650, here p. 632.
↑ Report on the investigation of some parts of the Mosquito Country, carried out on the highest order of Prince Carl von Prussia and Sr. Highness of the Prince of Schoenburg-Waldenburg . Duncker, Berlin 1845, p. 1.
↑ Peter Letkemann: Stranded on the Mosquito Coast. The fate of an East Prussian emigration in 1846 . In: Udo Arnold, Mario Glauert, Jürgen Sarnowsky (eds.): Prussian regional history. Festschrift for Bernhart Jähnig on the occasion of his 60th birthday (= individual publications of the Historical Commission for East and West Prussian State Research , Vol. 22). Elwert, Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-7708-1177-1 , pp. 377-390, here p. 387.

^ Benjamin F. Tillman: Imprints on native lands. The Miskito-Moravian settlement landscape in Honduras . University of Arizona Press, Tucson 2011, ISBN 978-0-8165-2454-9 , p. 24.

^ Karl Offen, Terry Rugeley: The awakening coast. An anthology of Moravian writings from Mosquitia and eastern Nicaragua, 1849–1899 . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 2014, ISBN 978-0-8032-4896-0 , p. 16.

↑ Markéta Křížová: The Mosquito Shore in the 19th century - colonial competition, cultural syncretism and global context of local developments . Lecture at the Third European Congress on World and Global History , London 2011.

^ The Bluefields Incident . In: Periodical Accounts Relating to the Foreign Missions of the Church of the United Brethren , Vol. 2 (1894), No. 18, pp. 313-324.

^ Art. Bluefields Incident . In: Kenneth J. Blume: Historical Dictionary of US Diplomacy from the Civil War to World War I . Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2005, ISBN 0-8108-5377-9 , pp. 69-70, citation p. 69.

^ Alfred Vagts : Germany and the United States in world politics . Macmillan, London / New York 1935, Vol. 2, p. 1464.

^ Art. Bluefields Incident . In: Kenneth J. Blume: Historical Dictionary of US Diplomacy from the Civil War to World War I . Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2005, pp. 69-70, here p. 70.

Web links

Commons : Bluefields - collection of images, videos and audio files

[1] Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INEC): Censo de Población y IV de Vivienda . Vol. 4: Población - Municipios . INEC, Managua 2006, p. 69.

[2] Eduardo Pérez Valle: Expediente de Campos Azules. Historia de Bluefields en sus documentos en el 75 aniversario de su erección en ciudad . Managua 1978, p. 15.

[3] Deborah Robb Taylor: The times & life of Bluefields. An intergenerational dialogue . Academia de Geografía e Historia de Nicaragua, Managua 2005, p. 34.

[4] Ephraim George Squier: Notes on Central America, particularly the states of Honduras and San Salvador. Their Geography, Topography, Climate, Population, Resources, Productions etc. etc. and the proposed Honduras Inter-Oceanic Railway . Sampson Low, Son, & Co., London 1856, p. 363.

[5] Götz Dieter von Houwald : The Germans in Nicaragua . In: Hartmut Fröschle (ed.): The Germans in Latin America. Fate and achievement . Erdmann, Tübingen 1979, ISBN 3-7711-0293-6 , pp. 631-650, here p. 632.

[6] Report on the investigation of some parts of the Mosquito Country, carried out on the highest order of Prince Carl von Prussia and Sr. Highness of the Prince of Schoenburg-Waldenburg . Duncker, Berlin 1845, p. 1.

[7] Peter Letkemann: Stranded on the Mosquito Coast. The fate of an East Prussian emigration in 1846 . In: Udo Arnold, Mario Glauert, Jürgen Sarnowsky (eds.): Prussian regional history. Festschrift for Bernhart Jähnig on the occasion of his 60th birthday (= individual publications of the Historical Commission for East and West Prussian State Research , Vol. 22). Elwert, Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-7708-1177-1 , pp. 377-390, here p. 387.

[8] Benjamin F. Tillman: Imprints on native lands. The Miskito-Moravian settlement landscape in Honduras . University of Arizona Press, Tucson 2011, ISBN 978-0-8165-2454-9 , p. 24.

[9] Karl Offen, Terry Rugeley: The awakening coast. An anthology of Moravian writings from Mosquitia and eastern Nicaragua, 1849–1899 . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 2014, ISBN 978-0-8032-4896-0 , p. 16.

[10] Markéta Křížová: The Mosquito Shore in the 19th century - colonial competition, cultural syncretism and global context of local developments . Lecture at the Third European Congress on World and Global History , London 2011.

[11] The Bluefields Incident . In: Periodical Accounts Relating to the Foreign Missions of the Church of the United Brethren , Vol. 2 (1894), No. 18, pp. 313-324.

[12] Art. Bluefields Incident . In: Kenneth J. Blume: Historical Dictionary of US Diplomacy from the Civil War to World War I . Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2005, ISBN 0-8108-5377-9 , pp. 69-70, citation p. 69.

[13] Alfred Vagts : Germany and the United States in world politics . Macmillan, London / New York 1935, Vol. 2, p. 1464.

[14] Art. Bluefields Incident . In: Kenneth J. Blume: Historical Dictionary of US Diplomacy from the Civil War to World War I . Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2005, pp. 69-70, here p. 70.