History of El Salvador d'El Salvador

It all began in 10,000 BC, when nomads from the Wurn glaciation descended on the land. In their continual search for game and in their gathering activities, these nomads must have realized the quality of this land. Lush vegetation, a pleasant climate, abundant water, and therefore a vast number of animals to hunt. These small groups of men, made up of several families, banded together to help each other through their hectic lives. The first inhabitants left traces that can be found all over the country, such as primitive arrowheads and the remains of campfires. These vestiges are to be found in particular in the natural caves that abound in this rugged geography. Man has painted in caves; magnificent examples are the tricolour paintings found in the Morazán department, particularly in the Espiritu Santo cave in Corinto.

Until very recently, Olmec civilization was almost exclusively associated with Mexico, for it was in Mexico that the Olmecs reached their greatest splendor, occupying a large part of the Gulf coast. Curiously, in this small country, many vestiges of this Mesoamerican mother culture have been found. Remarkably, some of the Olmec remains in El Salvador are extremely primitive, suggesting that it may well have been on this soil that the region's first culture was born. Among the most remarkable examples are the "Gordinflones de Apaneca", three enormous stone sculptures found in the Santa Leticia finca, where traces of a primitive pyramid have also been discovered, suggesting that the site was a place of worship in the early pre-Classical period. Another important vestige is the "Victory Stone", on display in the ruins of Tazumal de Chalchuapa. This stone depicts a warrior scene in bas-relief. In addition, in the coastal zone of western El Salvador, there are numerous clay figurines that are typically Olmecoid in their primitive phase.

The area around Chalchuapa is also home to what is considered to date the finest piece of Olmec art ever discovered, dating not from the primitive phase of this civilization, but from its phase of maximum splendor. It is a green stone warrior, less than half a metre high, which probably arrived in El Salvador as part of the intense commercial traffic that characterized the country at the time, and is now part of a very important private collection in the United States. The question is whether the Olmecs were originally from El Salvador and, if so, why they subsequently migrated to Mexico. Perhaps these ancient inhabitants migrated because of intense volcanic activity?

The Mayan influence is felt in El Salvador, as in Guatemala, Honduras and eastern Mexico, from around 1200 BC. The name of El Salvador in the Nahuatl language is Cuzcatlan or Cuscatlán, meaning "Land of Treasures". Until the great eruption of the Ilopango volcano, the Mayas occupied the center and west of the country, while the Lencas settled in the east. Joya de Cerén, in the Occidente region, declared a cultural heritage site by UNESCO in 1993, is one of a kind and has been dubbed the "Pompeii of America". Here you can discover how people lived before the volcano erupted, trapping a village in time without its inhabitants, who were able to flee.

The Pipils migrated from Mexico and settled in what is now El Salvador. The word Pipil is of Nahuatl origin and comes from Pipiltzin, meaning lord, noble or prince, and also derived from Pipiltoton, meaning boy, little man. This name was given to the tribes inhabiting El Salvador by the Tlaxcaltecs who had allied themselves with Pedro de Alvarado during the conquest of the region. Indeed, when they heard the Pipil language spoken, they had the impression of hearing a mispronounced Nahuatl, as if it were a child's accent.

Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggests that populations in Durango, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí migrated to Veracruz between 500 and 600 AD.

Around 800 A.D., certain populations migrated to Soconusco in southern Mexico, giving rise to the Pipils, while the remaining populations gave rise to the Nonoalcas, two groups influenced by the Toltecs.

The Lencas are a Mesoamerican ethnic group with their own language. They have occupied parts of El Salvador and Honduras since pre-Columbian times. The archaeological site of Quelepa, in El Salvador, was inhabited and ruled by the Lencas during the Preclassic and Postclassic periods. Wars were frequent between the various seigneuries, but also with other populations such as the Pipils. The aim of war was to extend territory or capture slaves. At certain times of the year, the Lenca lordships organized truces.

According to research carried out to date, Cihuatán was founded around 900 A.D., in the years following the Mayan collapse, a still enigmatic phenomenon that is one of the most debated topics in Mesoamerican archaeology, and which involved the abandonment of most of the region's settlements between 800 and 900 A.D. Cihuatán and its satellite centers emerge in the panorama of this general disaster.

Cihuatán's culture reflects close links with central Mexico. There are currently three theories about the inhabitants of Cihuatán. The first is that they are the ancestors of the historic Pipils who occupied the area at the time of the Spanish conquest. Another theory is that the city was founded by another Mexican group, and that its destruction was due to another wave of immigrants (ancestors of the Pipils?). The third proposal is that the Pipils were a local ethnic group whose way of life underwent major changes around the beginning of the ^9th century A.D. as a result of "Mexican" influence.

The town of Cihuatán was destroyed by fire and general conflagration. Arrowheads and spearheads were discovered in the rubble. Radiocarbon dating suggests that this occurred around 1100 AD. Did war destroy Cihuatán? At the time of the conquest, Cihuatán had been abandoned for four centuries.

When the Spanish arrived, the indigenous population (Lencas, Pipils and Poqomanes) numbered around 300,000 souls.

The Spaniards arrived in El Salvador in 1525, led by Pedro de Alvarado, who confronted the Pipils at Acajutla and Tacuaxcalco. The same year, they founded San Salvador near present-day Suchitoto. In 1540, after incessant native rebellions, the city was moved to its present site. As in other New World countries, colonization, the infectious diseases carried by the Spaniards and the harsh treatment to which the natives were subjected led to an irremediable decline in the indigenous population.

El Salvador became part of the kingdom (or general captaincy) of Guatemala, the most powerful in Central America, itself subject to the viceroyalty of New Spain, now Mexico. The territory was divided into five alcaldías mayores (main municipalities): San Salvador, San Miguel, San Vicente, Santa Ana and Sonsonate.

As the Salvadoran territory lacked significant mineral wealth, agriculture was the mainstay of economic activity. Between 1550 and 1600, the two main activities were cocoa cultivation, mainly in the Izalco region, and balsam resin extraction in the coastal region.

During the colonial period, there was a process of miscegenation between natives, blacks and Spaniards.

There were several pirate raids: the first was by Francis Drake, first in early April 1579 in the Gulf of Fonseca, then in 1586 in the port of Acajutla; the second was by the Englishman Thomas Cavendish, who dropped anchor in the Gulf of Fonseca in July 1587. Finally, the third incursion was led by Edward Davis, Thomas Eatan and William Dampier, into the Gulf of Fonseca in July 1684, which led to the depopulation of the gulf.

From the 18th century onwards, cocoa cultivation declined and was replaced by that of jiquilite, the plant used to produce indigo dye (blue color), used to dye textiles. In fact, indigo became the Guatemalan kingdom's main export. This new wealth led to the emergence of a wealthy class of Creoles (descendants of Spaniards born in the Americas) who, gradually, listening to news from Europe, revolutions and Napoleon's invasion of Spain, decided to take their destiny into their own hands. What's more, incessant warfare in Europe led to a considerable drop in transatlantic trade, starting in 1793: indigo exports no longer flourished. In 1811, the Creoles, led by Father José Matías Delgado, revolted against the authorities and won a few concessions, although the rebellion was put down in bloodshed by the royal armed forces.

With no further revolts to lead, El Salvador gained its independence on September 15, 1821, like the other Central American countries. On that day, representatives of the Central American provinces, including Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, signed an act by which the captaincy of Guatemala declared its independence and opted to join the nascent Mexican Empire. However, the Salvadoran Creoles had no desire to be subjugated by the new authorities, Iturbide's Mexico or neighboring Guatemala. A civil war (the first) ensued. The Salvadoran army, led by Manuel José de Arce, defeated the Guatemalans, but a Guatemalan-Mexican offensive in 1823 took the territory... for just a few weeks, as Iturbide's government was overthrown in Mexico, bringing his short-lived empire to an end.

After the fall of Iturbe and his empire on January¹, 1823, Central America declared its independence from Mexico, forming a Federation of United Provinces. The following year, the nascent country became the Federal Republic of Central America, grouping together five countries and recognizing a significant degree of national sovereignty. This was not enough to appease the rivalries of the powerful, who clashed between liberals (limiting the role of the Church, capitalism) and conservatives (traditional political structure, reign of the latifundists and the Church). This rivalry would influence the destiny of Central America throughout the ^19th century.

Arce, a liberal, became Central America's first president in 1825, after a highly contested election. He had to contend with conservatives and the Guatemalan Church, whose role in local politics remained paramount. Another civil war (the second) followed, between 1827 and 1829. The liberals won and Francisco Morazán, from Honduras, became the new president of the Federation, whose capital was moved to Sonsonate in 1834, then to San Salvador in 1835. However, the Liberals' policy of territorial colonization did not go down well with the indigenous people, who were unjustly dispossessed of their lands. In 1833, the Pipils revolted; they were defeated by Morazán, but then a peasant insurrection broke out in Guatemala, led by Rafael Carrera. Carrera defeated Morazán in Guatemala City in March 1840, bringing an end to the Federation, which had been moribund since 1838. Logically, in the face of this instability, the Central American provinces began to declare their independence. El Salvador declared independence on February 2, 1841. A few days later, it published its first constitution as a sovereign and independent state.

The first decades of El Salvador's independence were characterized by great instability due to the rivalry between liberals, who sought trade liberalization, secularism and Central American union, and conservatives, who sought to maintain a large number of colonial institutions.

El Salvador was theoretically independent, but Carrera governed it from Guatemala until 1856, when the country finally declared itself a sovereign republic. In 1856 and 1857, the Salvadoran army joined those of Honduras and Nicaragua to oust the ill-timed William Walker, temporarily cementing the frayed ties between the Central American republics. William Walker, American adventurer and buccaneer, attempted to conquer several Central American countries, from Mexican Baja California to Nicaragua. He was even president of the latter from 1856 to 1857. The commander-in-chief who defeated Walker, Gerardo Barrios, became president of El Salvador in 1858 and initiated far-reaching economic reforms, encouraging coffee production for the first time. El Salvador became the world's largest exporter of bálsamo (balsam or balsamic tree, used for chemical and medicinal products). The Church had to submit to the State. But the conservative Carrera (still in power in Guatemala) did not appreciate this and launched an offensive against Barrios, defeating him in 1863, before installing Francisco Dueñas as President of El Salvador.

The elections that followed, however, favored the Liberals, who governed the country from 1871 to 1944. Salvadoran society was then in the throes of change. Coffee cultivation became predominant, replacing that of indigo (which had been in freefall since the invention of chemical processes in the 1850s) and once again provoking an irrevocable divide between the powerful rich and the overwhelming majority of poor peasants. In this Republic of Coffee, liberal governments passed laws enabling certain oligarchies to seize vast tracts of land in the face of the coffee boom.

El Salvador became truly independent of Guatemalan control in 1885. Thanks to coffee revenues and the construction of roads, ports and all kinds of infrastructure, the country underwent such change that, at the beginning of the ^20th century, El Salvador was considered the most advanced country in the region. However, this image masks far more dramatic realities. The expansion of land used for coffee cultivation came at the cost of dispossessing small farmers and indigenous peoples. Food is no longer produced in sufficient quantities and the price of basic necessities is rising; at the same time, population growth is taking on unprecedented proportions. The coffee elite, known as the "Fourteen Families", ruled the country until the First World War. In 1930, Alberto Masferrer founded the Workers' Party (PT) and called for the ruling elite to be brought to its senses. Agustín Farabundo Martí, for his part, engaged in a much more radical struggle, founding Communist Party cells. The depression that followed the 1929 stock market crash led PT candidate Arturo Araujo to the presidency in 1930. However, the government was not supported by the economic potentates, and the army settled the issue by overthrowing Araujo on December 2, 1931.

Martí immediately launched a rural "guerrilla war", with his troops wielding... machetes. The new president Hernández Martínez sent in the army to put an end once again to this insolent insubordination: between 10,000 and 30,000 Salvadorans were executed! The indigenous culture, still alive, was practically annihilated in 1932; the survivors were forced to adopt the customs of the mestizos. This dark episode is known as La Matanza (the massacre). The terrified elite withdrew further into itself, and the country plunged into a semi-dictatorship in which the army played the major political roles. All dissent was suppressed.

In 1944, a student and labor movement overthrew Martínez, but the army continued to hold the reins of power; trade unions were nevertheless able to form. At the end of the Second World War, the Salvadoran economy finally began to diversify. A middle class developed, but the underprivileged classes were increasingly left behind. Agricultural products were mainly destined for export, and local subsistence microcultures were insufficient to feed a growing population.

José Castellanos, military officer and diplomat, is an emblematic figure in Salvadoran history. During the Second World War, when he was Salvadoran Consul General in Geneva, it is estimated that between 35 and 50,000 lives were saved thanks to him, by clandestinely issuing Salvadoran nationality certificates to Jews from all over Europe.

In 1938, he was assigned to the Salvadorian consulate in Hamburg. Faced with the desperate situation of Jews in Germany in the late 1930s, he asked his superiors for authorization to issue visas enabling Jews to leave Germany. He received written orders not to issue such visas. On January 2, 1939, he sent a letter to El Salvador's Minister of Foreign Affairs, describing the plight of the Jews and trying to persuade him to change his policy, but to no avail. In 1941, Castellanos became Salvadoran consul in Geneva. During this period, Castellanos decided to deviate from his instructions. His consulate provided citizenship certificates to thousands of Jews in occupied Europe, to protect them from deportation. This rescue operation was carried out jointly by Castellanos and George Mandel, a Hungarian Jewish businessman. In May 1944, the government of El Salvador changed, and the new president aligned himself with other Western countries inclined to save Jews. Castellanos received the support of his country for his rescue work. The Salvadoran diplomat's feat remained unknown for many years, until a suitcase containing over 1,000 certificates of Salvadoran nationality was discovered in Geneva in 2005. On May 3, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized José Arturo Castellanos as Righteous Among the Nations.

In 1961, the country joined the Central American Common Market (CACM), encouraging the export of national products. Foreign investment boosted traditional structures. By this time, the Liberal Party, which had more or less run politics since the 1860s, was fading into oblivion. The Democratic Unifying Revolution Party (PRUD) was in power until 1961, when it was replaced by a party with very similar ideas, the National Coalition Party (PCN). Led by General Julio Rivera, this party governed the country until 1979.

In 1964, José Napoleón Duarte of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) was elected mayor of San Salvador. This man gradually established himself as a key figure in Salvadoran political life.

In 1969, the famous "soccer war" broke out with Honduras; the conflict had in fact been sparked off by the preliminary qualifying matches for the World Cup, but sport was merely a pretext for settling the dispute concerning some 300,000 Salvadorans living illegally on Honduran territory and fleeing a country that did not recognize them. When Honduras passed an agrarian law driving most Salvadorans from their homeland and forcing them back into the fold, diplomatic relations were severed. On July 14, Salvadoran troops invaded the neighboring country, penetrating at least 120 kilometers into Catrachan territory. Honduras retaliates by bombing El Salvador's ports and fuel depots. The Organization of American States (OAS) quickly negotiated a ceasefire, and Salvadoran troops withdrew on August 3. A peace treaty was not signed until 1980, but only the 1992 decision of the International Court of Justice, delimiting the borders of the two countries once and for all, put an end to the rancour and disputes... for the most part, at least, since the real settlement did not come until 1999. The return of these Salvadoran peasants to a country in the throes of a social and humanitarian crisis was another blow to the economy. The government is increasingly criticized.

In the 1972 elections, Duarte, whose popularity was growing by the day, appeared to win, but Colonel Arturo Molina (the government candidate) was declared the winner! Duarte was arrested and exiled. For the next seven years, military repression became a daily feature of El Salvador. Paramilitary groups (formed into squads, like the dreaded Orden) murdered numerous activists, priests and opponents. At the same time, guerrilla groups formed to fight against oppression.

Repression and social inequality led to the outbreak of a bloody civil war, in which a coalition of left-wing revolutionaries took up arms against a plutocratic government. The victorious Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua in 1979 inspired revolutionary groups in El Salvador. The military sensed this coming and overthrew the government in October of the same year. More conciliatory than in many Latin American countries, they accepted left-wing supporters to take part in a collective junta. Orden was disbanded, but other squadrons were formed, continuing their policy of extermination and torture. As a result, most of the civilian members of the junta resigned in outrage. In January 1980, the PDC agreed to collaborate with the military to form a new junta, headed by Duarte, who had just returned from exile. Duarte did his best to plug the gaps in the Salvadoran economy. But the military, behind the scenes, did not play ball. In 1980, the Archbishop of San Salvador, Óscar Arnulfo Romero, was assassinated in the middle of a religious service, along with several members of the PDC and three Catholic nuns (after being raped). Later, five members of the Salvadoran National Guard were convicted of the massacre. Farabundo Martí's guerrillas declared war on the government. Kidnappings, sabotage and assassinations became the order of the day in El Salvador. Little by little, the guerrillas came to control certain regions of the country and demanded ransoms for the release of the latifundists. The paramilitaries retaliated. The civilian population was the first to suffer. A new political party was born: Arena, organized by Roberto d'Aubuisson who, incidentally, was accused of taking part in the assassination of Archbishop Romero. The 1982 elections (in which the left-wing parties refused to participate) were won by d'Aubuisson's party, who became the head of the Salvadoran Constitutional Convention, which promulgated a new Constitution in 1983: the government was finally returned to civilians. Duarte was elected president in 1984, but was unable to put an end to the civil war. In 1987, however, he signed the Arias Plan, finally initiating a peace process in El Salvador. In 1988, in a completely disfigured country, Arena won the presidential elections. The Chapultepec Accords were signed in 1992 between the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the government, under the aegis of the United Nations. The National Guard was abolished, while guerrilla groups were disbanded.

The toll of the conflict was chilling: at least 75,000 dead and thousands more wounded, displaced, with no past and no future. Abominable massacres of civilians, such as that of the village of El Mozote, in the north-east of the country, in 1981. Hundreds of thousands more fled to the United States. A United Nations "Truth Commission" investigated the massacres and issued its report on March 15, 1993, recommending that the perpetrators be tried and punished. However, the Legislative Assembly decided to grant amnesty to all war criminals, including military officers accused of murdering six Jesuit priests at the University of Central America in 1989. However, cuts were made in the administration and the army, and a new Supreme Court was created in 1994.

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was the Catholic archbishop of San Salvador. He was assassinated on March 24, 1980, for having defended human rights, particularly those of the peasants and poor of his diocese and country. Considered the unofficial patron saint of the Americas and of San Salvador, he was beatified in 2015 by Pope Francis.

His public life began in 1966 with his appointment as secretary of the Episcopal Conference of El Salvador. He became Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977. Considered a conservative, his appointment was initially welcomed by the Salvadoran oligarchy. The more progressive clergy feared his opposition to commitments to the poorest. But on March 12, 1977, the murder of a friend and priest from his diocese, Rutilio Grande, along with two fellow travelers, by a death squad (supported by the government in power) changed everything in his view of politics and the Church. From then on, he called for an inquiry (which never took place) and refused to take part in any official act. From then on, he was no longer afraid to openly denounce poverty, social injustice, assassinations and acts of torture. When, in 1979, a government junta took power, Óscar Romero denounced the military aid given to the new regime by the United States. Mgr Romero's actions gained in notoriety. On a visit to Europe, he met Pope John Paul II and informed him of the situation in his country, where the government regularly used torture and assassination. His denunciation of the crimes, kidnappings and assassinations carried out daily by the Salvadoran army and death squads made him look like a dangerous agitator in the eyes of the powers that be. On March 23, 1980, he delivered a sermon in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in San Salvador, which was to be his death warrant. Bishop Romero appealed directly to the soldiers to stop their repression of the army's abuses. The next day, while celebrating mass in the chapel of the Divine Providence hospital, the archbishop was shot in the chest. His funeral was attended by 350,000 people in San Salvador, including 300 priests and 31 bishops from all over the world. As the mass began, a bomb exploded and gunshots caused panic in the crowd. The funeral mass could not be completed, and Archbishop Romero's body was hastily buried in a tomb in the right transept of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Romero's assassin was never officially found.

Óscar Romero's political and spiritual legacy is the subject of divergent analyses. Sometimes considered an agitator, sometimes a martyr, the question of his memory often creates polemics between left-wing and right-wing parties, the former seeing him as a martyr and a hero of the nation, the latter as an agitator and a conspirator. Nevertheless, on March 24, 2010, the thirtieth anniversary of Óscar Romero's death, former president Mauricio Funes made an official apology on behalf of the state for the murder. Described by the Vatican as a "prophet of hope", Popes Benedict XVI and then Francis encouraged the beatification process for Óscar Romero, which finally took place in 2015. Pope John Paul II, who had met him a few years before his assassination, awarded him the title of "Servant of God".

In the March 1994 elections, the FMLN (officially recognized in December 1992) and other left-wing parties formed a coalition. However, Arena's candidate, Calderón Sol, enjoyed a certain popularity due to the peace agreements defined by his predecessor and a certain economic improvement. Sol won the election with no less than 68% of the vote. Official figures were good for El Salvador in the 1990s, but the reality on the ground belied them. Malnutrition was spreading. The economic problems that have plagued the country since independence persisted.

The neo-liberal policies in force in the country are changing the economic landscape: "dollarization" since January¹, 2001, ever-increasing foreign investment, neo-liberal policies at every turn. Then, in January and February 2001, a terrible earthquake shook the coast of El Salvador, killing nearly a thousand people.

Emphasis was also placed on security, a recurring problem in this country subject to gang violence . The Mano dura ("firm hand") law was introduced to combat crime. According to official reports, crime fell sharply in 2003... although petty crime remains rife. The following year, the Super mano dura law was passed, implemented and achieved the same results. In 2004, Arena candidate Antonio Saca won an easy victory over FMLN candidate Schafik Handal. Saca is a wealthy businessman who is determined to continue the ultra-liberal economic policies of his predecessor: he is looking to the United States as an ally.

On March 15, 2009, FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes was elected President of El Salvador with 51% of the vote, ending Arena's twenty-year hegemony. After visiting the tomb of Archbishop Óscar Romero, assassinated in 1980, he took office in June 2009. Funes was accompanied by Salvador Sánchez Cerén, vice-president and last guerrilla leader of the FMLN. In his inaugural speech, he announced the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba, broken off in 1959. Funes is his party's first presidential candidate not to have taken part in the civil war. Thanks to an alliance with the Gana party, the FMLN managed to secure a slim majority in Parliament. However, this high degree of polarization and narrow majority has led to huge disputes during voting. A large number of loans for sectors such as health and education are on forced hold in the face of Arena's blockade, whose votes are essential for their ratification. On June¹, 2014, former Vice-President Salvador Sánchez Cerén took office as President of the Republic, the first former guerrilla activist to become President of El Salvador, two decades after the end of the civil war. Right from the start of his term, he had to deal with health problems: dengue fever and chikungunya, in particular, appeared in the Ayutuxtepeque region. Drinking water is one of the main concerns of the new government, which will invest 400 million dollars over five years to provide access to drinking water for the population.

The election of Nayib Bukele to the presidency of El Salvador was a historic turning point for the country, as he broke with the two-party system that had existed since the end of the civil war in 1992.

Bukele, a young businessman and former mayor of the capital San Salvador, has become the symbol of political renewal, promising a radical turnaround in the running of the country to a population weary of the poverty and violence that has earned it one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Since taking office, Bukele has been severely criticized for some of his decisions, particularly by international organizations and human rights groups. His public confrontations with the National Assembly and the Supreme Court, and his drastic measures in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, have led some to accuse him of authoritarianism and of wanting to accumulate all powers to the point of endangering the young and fragile democracy.

Despite the criticism, Bukele enjoys the overwhelming support of the Salvadoran population, according to opinion polls. His tough fight against the gangs enjoys great popularity. He had all the Supreme Court judges replaced by judges sympathetic to his cause. The Supreme Court authorizes him to run for a second term in 2024, which the country's constitution does not allow and prohibits, on the sole condition that he steps down as president before the end of his first term, which he does on November 30, 2023.

Nayib Bukele won the 2024 presidential elections in the first round with over 84% of the vote.