El Salvador

El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a 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. El Salvador's population in 2024 was estimated to be 6 million.

Among the Mesoamerican nations that historically controlled the region are the Maya and then the Cuzcatlecs. Archaeological monuments also suggest an early Olmec presence around the first millennium BC. In the beginning of the 16th century, the Spanish Empire conquered the Central American territory, incorporating it into the Viceroyalty of New Spain ruled from Mexico City. However, the Viceroyalty of New Spain had little to no influence in the daily affairs of the isthmus, which was colonized in 1524. In 1609, the area was declared the Captaincy General of Guatemala by the Spanish, which included the territory that would become El Salvador until its independence from Spain in 1821. It was forcibly incorporated into the First Mexican Empire, then seceded, joining the Federal Republic of Central America in 1823. When the federation dissolved in 1841, El Salvador became a sovereign state. It then formed a short-lived union with Honduras and Nicaragua, called the Greater Republic of Central America, which lasted from 1896 to 1898.

From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, El Salvador endured chronic political and economic instability characterized by coups, revolts, and a succession of authoritarian rulers. Persistent socioeconomic inequality and civil unrest culminated in the Salvadoran Civil War from 1979 to 1992, fought between the military-led government and a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups. The conflict ended with the Chapultepec Peace Accords. This negotiated settlement established a multiparty constitutional republic, which remains in place to this day. During the civil war and afterwards, large numbers of Salvadorans emigrated to the United States. From 1980 to 2008, nearly one million Salvadorans emigrated to the United States, such that by 2008, they were the sixth largest immigrant group in the US.

The economy of El Salvador has historically been dominated by agriculture, beginning with the Spanish taking control of the indigenous cacao crop in the 16th century, with production centred in Izalco, along with balsam from the ranges of La Libertad and Ahuachapán. This was followed by a boom in use of the indigo plant in the 19th century, mainly for its use as a dye. Thereafter the focus shifted to coffee, which by the early 20th century accounted for 90% of export earnings. El Salvador has since reduced its dependence on coffee and embarked on diversifying its economy by opening up trade and financial links and expanding the manufacturing sector. The colón, the currency of El Salvador since 1892, was replaced by the United States dollar in 2001. As of 2019 economic improvements had led to El Salvador experiencing the lowest level of income inequality among nearby countries. Among 77 countries included in a 2021 study, El Salvador had one of the least complex economies for doing business.

After the Spanish conquest, the land was divided into the Province of San Salvador, the Spanish version of "Holy Saviour", a biblical title for Jesus. From 1579 it included the province of San Miguel (Saint Michael). San Salvador became, throughout the colonial era, an alcaldía mayor ('great mayor's office'), an intendancy, and finally a province with a provincial council, and the province of Izalco, which was later called the mayor's office of Sonsonate. In 1824, the two jurisdictions were united in the State of Salvador, a part of the Federal Republic of Central America.

After the dissolution of the Federal Republic of Central America, the country was referred to as the Republic of Salvador (República del Salvador). In 1915, the Legislative Assembly passed a law which stated that the country's name should be rendered as the definite form El Salvador ('The Saviour') — again a reference to Jesus — rather than Salvador. With another law passed in 1958, the legislature reaffirmed the country's name as El Salvador.

During the Pleistocene El Salvador was inhabited by now extinct megafauna species, including the elephant-sized giant ground sloth Eremotherium, the rhinoceros-like Mixotoxodon, the gomphothere (elephant-relative) Cuvieronius, the glyptodont Glyptotherium, the llama Hemiauchenia, and the horse Equus conversidens. El Salvador has likely been occupied by humans since the Paleoindian period, based on fluted stone points found in western El Salvador.

Archaeological knowledge of Pre-Columbian civilization in El Salvador is poor, due to its high population density limiting excavation, as well as volcanic eruptions blanketing potential archaeological sites. This lack of knowledge particularly affects the Preclassic Period and earlier.