Green Eggs and Ham

Geography-Location: central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras
Geographical coordinates: 13 degrees north and 18 degrees west
Area: 130,370 sq. km; land: 119,990 sq. km water: 10,380 sq. km
Coastline: 910 km
Climate: tropical in low lands, cool in high lands
Terrain: extensive Atlantic coastal plains rising to central interior mountains; narrow Pacific coastal plain interrupted by volcanoes
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Pacific Ocean- 0 m, highest point: mogoton 2,438 m
Natural Resources:   gold, silver, copper, tungsten, lead, zinc, timber, fish
Irrigated land: 610 sq. km
Natural hazards: destructive earthquakes; volcanoes; landslides; extremely susceptible to hurricanes
Current environment issues:   deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution
Largest country in Central America; contains the largest freshwater body in Central America, Lago de Nicaragua

History- the Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled by the Spanish from Panama in the 16th century. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821, and the country became an independent republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean coast in the first half of the 19th century, ceded control of region in subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought Marxist Sandinista Guerrillas to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist in El Salvador caused U.S. to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through much of the 1980s. free elections in 1990, 1996, and 2001, saw the Sandinistas defeated, but voting in 2006 announced the return of former Sandinista President Daniel Ortega Savedra. But today the country of Nicaragua is being rebuilt from its short civil war and 1998s hurricane Mitch.

Government- Type: Republic   Capital: Managua
Geographic coordinates: 12 09 N, 86 17 W
Time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during...