EL SALVADOR

² The United States dollar is the currency in use. Financial information can be expressed in US Dollars and in Salvadoran colón, but it is out of circulation. http://www.bcr.gob.sv/ingles/integracion/ley.html

El Salvador (República de El Salvador, Spanish pronunciation: [reˈpuβlika ðe (e)l salβaˈðoɾ]) is a country in Central America. The area was originally called by the Pipil "Cuzhcatl", in Spanish "Cuzcatlan", which in Nahuatl means "The Land Of Precious Things".

After the Spanish conquest, the land was baptized by Spanish
conquistadors as "Provincia De Nuestro Señor Jesucristo El Salvador Del
Mundo" ("Province of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Savior Of The World"),
now abbreviated as "República de El Salvador".

The country borders the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras.
With a population of approximately 5.8 million people, it is the most
densely populated nation in Central America and is undergoing rapid industrialization.

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[edit] History

Main article: History of El Salvador

In the early sixteenth century, the Spanish conquistadors
ventured into ports to extend their dominion to the area that would be
known as El Salvador. They were firmly resisted by the Pipil and their
remaining Mayan-speaking neighbors. Pedro de Alvarado, a lieutenant of Hernán Cortés, led the first effort by Spanish forces in June 1524.

The people defeated the Spaniards and forced them to withdraw to
Guatemala. Two subsequent expeditions took place—the first in 1525,
followed by a smaller group in 1528—to bring the Pipil under Spanish
rule.^{[citation needed]}

Towards the end of 1810, a combination of internal and external
factors allowed Central American élites to attempt to gain independence
from the Spanish crown. The internal factors were mainly the interest
the élites had in controlling the territories they owned without
involvement from Spanish authorities. The external factors were the
success of the French and American revolutions in the eighteenth
century and the weakening of the military power of the Spanish crown
because of its wars against Napoleonic France. The independence movement was consolidated on November 5, 1811, when the Salvadoran priest, Jose Matias Delgado,
sounded the bells of the Iglesia La Merced in San Salvador, making a
call for the insurrection. After many years of internal fights, the Acta de Independencia (Act of Independence) of Central America was signed in Guatemala on September 15, 1821.
When these provinces were joined with Mexico in early 1822, El Salvador
resisted, insisting on autonomy for the Central American countries.

In 1823, the United Provinces of Central America was formed by the five Central American states under General Manuel José Arce. When this federation was dissolved in 1838, El Salvador became an independent republic. El Salvador’s early history as an independent state was marked by frequent revolutions.

From 1872 to 1898, El Salvador was a prime mover in attempts to reestablish an isthmian federation. The governments of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua formed the Greater Republic of Central America via the Pact of Amapala in 1895. Although Guatemala and Costa Rica considered joining the Greater Republic (which was rechristened the United States of Central America
when its constitution went into effect in 1898), neither country
joined. This union, which had planned to establish its capital city at Amapala on the Golfo de Fonseca, did not survive a seizure of power in El Salvador in 1898.

The enormous profits that coffee yielded as a monoculture export served as an impetus for the process whereby land became concentrated in the hands of an oligarchy of few families. A succession of presidents from the ranks of the Salvadoran oligarchy, nominally both conservative and liberal, throughout the last half of the nineteenth century generally agreed on the promotion of coffee as the predominant cash crop, on the development of infrastructure (railroads and port facilities)
primarily in support of the coffee trade, on the elimination of
communal landholdings to facilitate further coffee production, on the
passage of anti-vagrancy laws to ensure that displaced campesinos and other rural residents provided sufficient labour for the coffee fincas (plantations), and on the suppression of rural discontent. In 1912, the national guard was created as a rural police force.

The coffee industry grew inexorably in El Salvador. As a result, the
élite provided the bulk of the government’s financial support through import duties on goods imported with the foreign currencies that coffee sales earned. This support, coupled with the humbler and more mundane mechanisms of corruption, ensured the coffee growers of overwhelming influence within the government.

El Salvador’s early history as an independent state was marked by
frequent revolutions; not until the period 1900-30 was relative
stability achieved. The economic élite, based on agriculture and some
mining, ruled the country in conjunction with the military.

The economy, based on coffee-growing after the mid-19th century, as
the world market for indigo withered away, prospered or suffered as the
world coffee price fluctuated. From 1931—the year of the coup in which
Gen.

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EL SALVADOR

El Salvador

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