Workshop

Almost forty years ago, on 19 July 1979, Nicaraguan guerrillas from the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN) overthrew the regime of Anastasio Somoza. Their victory ended the decades long dictatorship and ushered forth revolutionary change. The Nicaraguan Revolution was a defining moment, not only for Latin America and the Caribbean, but also for the United States, Western Europe, and many countries in the global South. Twenty years after Fidel Castro’s band of revolutionaries triumphed in Cuba in 1959, left-wing armed revolutionaries in Latin America had succeeded in toppling dictatorial rule.

The Nicaraguan Revolution mobilised peoples and governments around the world even before Somoza’s overthrow. In Europe and the Americas local activists and organisations collected money so that guerrillas could buy weapons, medicine, and food. After the revolution triumphed, solidarity and support for the revolution grew further still, as human rights groups, labour unions, and church organisations actively cooperated with the new Nicaraguan regime. Yet in the 1980s, Nicaragua became a focal point of a violent destructive Cold War struggle, in which tens of thousands of Nicaraguans died. This battle was fought not only on a domestic level, but it was also shaped by diplomats, solidarity activists, musicians and artists on a global stage. Today, as Nicaraguans are living through another period of political upheaval and civil crisis, the revolution’s origins, impact, and legacies are once again hotly contested.

And yet we still know surprisingly little about the global, international, and transnational dimensions of the Nicaraguan Revolution. To encourage scholarly collaboration, take stock of what is known to date, and to delineate new areas of research in the future, this one-day workshop, hosted by the Department of International History and the LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre, focused on the histories and legacies of the Nicaraguan Revolution. Bringing scholars together to engage in dialogue and debate with each other, it aimed to advance understanding of the international, transnational, and global dynamics of the Nicaraguan Revolution.

Download the full programme.

See images of the event.

The Department of International History (@lsehistory) teaches and conducts research on the international history of Britain, Europe and the world from the early modern era up to the present day.

The LSE Latin America and the Caribbean Centre (@LSE_LACC ) opened in January 2016 to serve as a focal point for LSE’s research and public engagement with the region.