Editing Nicaragua (section)

=== Pre-Columbian history ===
[[File:Nicaragua Ometepe pétroglyphes 1.jpg|thumb|An ancient [[petroglyph]] on [[Ometepe Island]]]]
[[Paleo-Indians]] first inhabited what is now known as Nicaragua as far back as 12,000&nbsp;BCE.<ref name="Dall2005">{{cite book|last=Dall|first=Christopher|title=Nicaragua in Pictures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vUP3hLbq6DEC&pg=PA66|date=1 October 2005|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books|isbn=978-0-8225-2671-1|pages=66–67}}</ref> In later [[Pre-Columbian era|pre-Columbian]] times, Nicaragua's [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous people]] were part of the [[Intermediate Area]],<ref name="Brief">{{cite book|last1=Pérez-Brignoli|first1=Héctor|last2=translated by Sawrey A.|first2=Ricardo B.|last3=Sawrey|first3=Susana Stettri de|title=A Brief History of Central America|url=https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofce00pr|url-access=registration|date=1989|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0520060494|edition=2nd}}</ref>{{rp|33}} between the [[Mesoamerica]]n and [[Andes|Andean]] cultural regions, and within the influence of the [[Isthmo-Colombian Area]]. Nicaragua's central region and its Caribbean coast were inhabited by [[Macro-Chibchan languages|Macro-Chibchan language]] ethnic groups such as the [[Miskito people|Miskito]], [[Rama people|Rama]], [[Mayagna|Mayangna]], and [[Cacaopera people|Matagalpas]].<ref name="Brief" />{{rp|20}} They had coalesced in Central America and migrated both to and from present-day northern Colombia and nearby areas.<ref>[http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40290 Gloria Helena Rey, "The Chibcha Culture – Forgotten, But Still Alive"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220131907/http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40290 |date=20 February 2012 }}, ''Colombia'', ''Inter Press Service (IPS) News'', 30 November 2007, accessed 9 November 2010</ref> Their food came primarily from hunting and gathering, but also fishing and [[slash-and-burn]] agriculture.<ref name="Brief" />{{rp|33}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Nicaragua: VI History|encyclopedia=Encarta|date=13 June 2007}}</ref><ref name="Newson">{{cite book|last1=Newson|first1=Linda A.|title=Indian survival in colonial Nicaragua|date=1987|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|location=Norman [OK]|isbn=978-0806120089|edition=1st}}</ref>{{rp|65}}

At the end of the 15th century, western Nicaragua was inhabited by several indigenous peoples related by culture to the Mesoamerican civilizations of the [[Aztecs|Aztec]] and [[Maya peoples|Maya]], and by language to the [[Mesoamerican language area]].<ref name=LOC1>{{cite news|title=Nicaragua: Precolonial Period|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0013)|work=Library of Congress Country Studies|access-date=29 June 2007|archive-date=22 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922145600/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0013)|url-status=live}}, interpretation of statement: "the native peoples were linguistically and culturally similar to the Aztec and the Maya"</ref> The Chorotegas were [[Mangue language]] ethnic groups who had arrived in Nicaragua from what is now the Mexican state of [[Chiapas]] sometime around 800 CE.<ref name="Choque" /><ref name="Newson" />{{rp|26–33}} The [[Nicarao people]] were a branch of [[Nahuas]] who spoke the [[Nawat language|Nawat]] dialect and also came from Chiapas, around 1200 CE.<ref name="Campbell1985">{{cite book|last=Campbell|first=Lyle|title=The Pipil Language of El Salvador|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5bmUh7jproC&pg=PA10|date=1 January 1985|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-088199-8|pages=10–12}}</ref> Prior to that, the Nicaraos had been associated with the [[Toltec]] civilization.<ref name="Newson" />{{rp|26–33}}<ref name="Campbell1985" /><ref>{{cite journal|last=Fowler|first=WR Jr.|year=1985|title=Ethnohistoric Sources on the Pipil Nicarao: A Critical Analysis|journal=Ethnohistory|volume=32|issue=1|pages=37–62|place=Columbus, Ohio|oclc=62217753|doi=10.2307/482092|jstor=482092 | issn = 0014-1801}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Brinton|first1=Daniel G.|title=Were the Toltecs an Historic Nationality?|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|date=1887|volume=24|issue=126|pages=229–230|jstor=983071}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=von Humboldt, Alexander|author2=Poynter, J. Ryan |author3=Altamirano Rayo, Giorleny D |author4=Kraft, Tobias |title=Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: A Critical Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G7Pt35axXEkC&pg=PA92|date=25 January 2013|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-86509-6|page=92}}</ref> Both Chorotegas and Nicaraos originated in Mexico's [[Cholula (Mesoamerican site)|Cholula]] valley,<ref name="Campbell1985" /> and migrated south.<ref name="Newson" />{{rp|26–33}} A third group, the [[Subtiaba language|Subtiaba]]s, were an [[Oto-Manguean languages|Oto-Manguean]] people who migrated from the Mexican state of [[Guerrero]] around 1200 CE.<ref name="Campbell1997">{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Lyle |title=American Indian languages : the historical linguistics of Native America |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-509427-1}}</ref>{{rp|159}} Additionally, there were trade-related colonies in Nicaragua set up by the Aztecs starting in the 14th century.<ref name="Newson" />{{rp|26–33}}