Latin-American History/Greater Republic of Central America

The United Provinces of Central America was a short-lived Latin American experiment in republican democracy. It lasted from July 1823 to approximately 1840. It was intended to be a federal republic modeled after the USA. The coat of arms on the nation's flag from 1823–1824 referred to the federation as the Provincias Unidas del Centro de América ("United Provinces of Central America") but its 1824 constitution, coat of arms and flag called it the "Federal Republic of Central America" (República Federal de Centroamérica / Centro América). It is also sometimes referred to in English as the "United States of Central America".

The republic consisted of the states of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. In the 1830s an additional state was added, Los Altos, with its capital in Quetzaltenango, occupying parts of what are now the western highlands of Guatemala and the Mexican state of Chiapas. During the period of 1838–1840 the federation dissolved in civil war.