El Salvador, Republic of
State | Active
1841 CE to 2057 CE
El Salvado , officially the Republic of El Salvador (Spanish: República de El Salvador, literally "Republic of The Savior"), is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America.
It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean.
El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador.
As of 2016, the country has a population of approximately 6.34 million.
El Salvador was for centuries inhabited by several Mesoamerican nations, especially the Cuzcatlecs, as well as the Lenca and Maya.
In the early sixteenth century, the Spanish Empire had conquered the territory, incorporating it into the Viceroyalty of New Spain ruled from Mexico City.
However the Viceroyalty of Mexico had little or no influence in the daily affairs of the Central American isthmus, which would be colonized in 1524.
In 1609 the area became the Captaincy General of Guatemala, from which El Salvador was part of until its independence from Spain, which took place in 1821, as part of the First Mexican Empire, then further secedes, as part of the Federal Republic of Central America, in 1823.
When the Republic dissolves in 1841, El Salvador becomes a sovereign nation, then forms a short-lived union with Honduras and Nicaragua called the Greater Republic of Central America, which lasts from 1895 to 1898.
From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, El Salvador endures chronic political and economic instability characterized by coups, revolts, and a succession of authoritarian rulers.
Persistent socioeconomic inequality and civil unrest culminates in the devastating Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992), which is fought between the military-led government and a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups.
The conflict ends with the Chapultepec Peace Accords.
This negotiated settlement establishes a multiparty constitutional republic, which remains in place to this day.
El Salvador's economy has historically been dominated by agriculture, beginning with the indigo plant (añil in Spanish), the most important crop during the colonial period, and followed thereafter by coffee, which by the early twentieth century accounts for ninety percent of export earnings.
El Salvador has since reduced its dependence on coffee and embarked on diversifying the economy by opening up trade and financial links and expanding the manufacturing sector.[
The colón, the official currency of El Salvador since 1892, is replaced by the U.S. dollar in 2001.
As of 2010, El Salvador ranks twelfth among Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index and fourth in Central America (behind Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize) due in part to ongoing rapid industrialization.
However, the country continues to struggle with high rates of poverty, inequality, and crime.
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El Salvador is a stronghold of liberal sentiment.
Most Salvadorans, therefore, support the rule of Morazán, who serves as president of the federation from 1829 to 1840 when he is not leading forces in the field against the conservative followers of Rafael Carrera of Guatemala.
In the waning days of liberal rule, San Salvador serves as Morazán's last bastion.
Unable to stem the tide of conservative backlash, the liberal forces fall to those of Carrera in March 1840.
Morazán dies before a firing squad in September 1842.
El Salvador does so in January 1841.
Although their destinies will remain intertwined and they will intervene in each other's affairs routinely in the years to come, the countries of Central America will from this time function as fragmented and competitive mini-states readily exploitable by foreign powers.
The first decades of Honduran independence will be neither peaceful nor prosperous.
The country's political turmoil will attract the ambitions of individuals and nations within and outside of Central America.
Even geography contributes to its misfortunes.
Alone among the Central American republics, Honduras has a border with the three potential rivals for regional hegemony—Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
This situation is exacerbated by the political division throughout the isthmus between liberals and conservatives.
Any liberal or conservative regime sees a government of the opposite ideology on its borders as a potential threat.
In addition, exiled opposition figures tend to gather in states whose governments share their political affiliation and to use these states as launching pads for efforts to topple their own governments.
For the remainder of the century, Honduras's neighbors will constantly interfere in its internal politics.
Ferrera's two-year term (1841-42) is followed by a five-year period in which he alternately names himself president or allows the congress to name an interim president while he maintains control of the country by holding the post at this time known as minister of war.
Ferrera's last notable act had been the unsuccessful attempt to depose the liberal Morazán as president of El Salvador.
In 1847 Ferrera allows fellow-conservative Juan Lindo Zelaya to assume the presidency
Under Lindo's presidency, a new constitution is adopted in 1848, and some effort is made to promote education, but any effort to make substantial improvements in the country's situation will be doomed by continuing turmoil.
After Rafael Carrera returns from exile in 1849, the president of El Salvador, Doroteo Vasconcelos, grants asylum to the Guatemalan liberals, who have harassed the Guatemalan government in several different ways.
José Francisco Barrundia has established a liberal newspaper for that specific purpose.
Vasconcelos supports a rebel faction named "La Montaña" in eastern Guatemala, providing and distributing money and weapons.
By late 1850, Vasconcelos is getting impatient at the slow progress of the war with Guatemala and decides to plan an open attack.
Under this circumstance, the Salvadorean head of state starts a campaign against the conservative Guatemalan regime, inviting Honduras and Nicaragua to participate in the alliance; only the Honduran government led by Juan Lindo accepts.
In 1851 Guatemala defeated an Allied army from Honduras and El Salvador at the Battle of La Arada.
Conservative politicians throughout Central America become increasingly anxious as Walker's power and the size of his army grows.
Encouraged by Britain, the conservative governments of the other four Central American republics agree to send troops to Nicaragua.
In March 1856, Costa Rica declares war on the North American filibuster, but an epidemic of cholera decimates the Costa Rican forces and forces their withdrawal.
Encouraged by this victory, Walker begins plans to have himself elected president and to encourage colonization of Nicaragua by North Americans.
This scheme is too much even for his puppet president Rivas, who breaks with Walker and his followers and sends messages to Guatemala and El Salvador requesting their help in expelling the filibusters.
Walker's forced exile is short-lived, however; he makes four more attempts to return to Central America (in 1857, 1858, 1859, and 1860).
In 1860 Walker is captured by a British warship as he tries to enter Honduras.
The British Navy turns him over to local authorities, and he is executed by a Honduran firing squad.
Walker's activities provide Nicaraguans with a long-lasting suspicion of United States activities and designs upon their nation.
The final battle of what Nicaraguans call the "National War" (1856-57) takes place in the spring of 1857 in the town of Rivas, near the Costa Rican border.
Walker beats off the attacks of the Central Americans, but the strength and morale of his forces are declining, and it will be only a matter of time until he will be overwhelmed.
At this point, Commander Charles H. Davis of the United States Navy, whose ship had been sent to Nicaragua's Pacific coast to protect United States economic interests, arranges a truce.
On May 1, 1857, Walker and his remaining followers, escorted by a force of United States marines, evacuates Rivas, marches down to the coast, and take the ships back to the United States.
The struggle to expel Walker and his army from Nicaragua proves to be long and costly.
In the process, the colonial city of Granada is burned, and thousands of Central Americans lose their lives.
The combined opposition of Vanderbilt, the British Navy, and the forces of all of Central America, however, eventually defeated the filibusters.
A key factor in Walker's defeat is the Costa Rican seizure of the transit route; the seizure permits Walker's opponents to take control of the steamers on Lago de Nicaragua and thereby cut off much of Walker's access to additional recruits and finances.
Vanderbilt plays a major role in this effort and also supplies funds that enable the Costa Ricans to offer free return passage to the United States to any of the filibusters who will abandon the cause. Many take advantage of this opportunity, and Walker's forces begin to dwindle.