History

For centuries El Salvador  was inhabited by nations such as the Cuzcatlecs, Lenca and Maya. It was conquered by the Spanish Empire I the 1500s and so was ruled from Mexico City. I 1821 El Salvador won independence as part of the First Mexican Empire, which it later left to become part of the Federal Republic of Central America in 1823. This was ended in 1841 and it became its own sovereign nation, with a brief union with Honduras and Nicaragua under the Greater Republic of Central America, which lasted only three years.

The late 19^th to mid-20^th Centuries brought El Salvador much political and economic unrest as shown by a number of coups, revolts and autocratic rulers. This agitation ultimately exploded with the Salvadorian Civil War in 1979, fought between the militaristic government and a left-wing guerrilla force.  Ending in1992 with the Chapultepec Peace Accords, a multiparty constitutional republic was formed.

El Salvador’s economy has persistently been monopolized by agriculture and the production of cash crops such as indigo and coffee. In the early 20^th Century coffee made up 90% of El Salvador’s export revenue, but since it has attempted to diversify the economy and create trade and finance links for increasing manufacturing. As such, El Salvador adopted the US dollar as its currency in 2001, ending the use of the Colón since 1892.