For the form they assumed British and American influences were responsible.
Adopting a kind of Masonic organization, the Conservatives and Centralists called themselves Escoceses (Scottish-Rite Men), whereas the Radicals and Federalists took the name of Yorkinos (York-Rite Men).
Whatever their respective slogans and professions of political faith, they were little more than personal followers of rival generals or politicians who yearned to occupy the presidential chair.
Upon the downfall of Iturbide, the malcontents in Central America bestirred themselves to throw off the Mexican yoke.

On July 1,1823, a Congress declared the region an independent republic under the name of the "United Provinces of Central America." In November of the next year, following the precedent established in Mexico, and obedient also to local demand, the new republic issued a constitution, in accordance with which the five little divisions of Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica were to become states of a federal union, each having the privilege of choosing its own local authorities.

Immediately Federalists and Centralists, Radicals and Conservatives, all wished, it would seem, to impose their particular viewpoint upon their fellows.
The situation was not unlike that in the Argentine Confederation.

The efforts of Guatemala--the province in which power had been concentrated under the colonial regime--to assert supremacy over its fellow states, and their refusal to respect either the federal bond or one another's rights made civil war inevitable.

The struggle which broke out among Guatemala, Salvador, and Honduras, lasted until 1829, when Francisco Morazan, at the head of the "Allied Army, Upholder of the Law," entered the capital of the republic and assumed dictatorial power.
Of all the Hispanic nations, however, Brazil was easily the most stable.
Here the leaders, while clinging to independence, strove to avoid dangerous innovations in government.