A Brief History of El Salvador

The region that is now El Salvador was formerly made up of 3 large indigenous states and a number of principalities. The Pipils, indigenous inhabitants who settled in central Mexico, are nomadic people that came from Nahua. The Lencas settled and governed the eastern region while the Mayan the Chortis inhabited the North zone of the Lempa Hi River.

In 1524, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado failed to seize region because of the Pipil warriors. But in 1525 he returned and successfully conquered the country and named it El Salvador meaning “The Savior”. In 1811, the desire for independence broke but was immediately crushed by the troops sent by the vice royalty of Guatemala. In 1821, El Salvador and other Central American regions announced sovereignty from Spain and were joined to Mexico the next year but El Salvador resisted the union. The country became an independent republic in 1838 after the Central American coalition broke up. The 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising, also known as the La Matanza (the massacre), is one unforgettable event in the nation’s history of military dictatorship. It is estimated that about 30,000 indigenous people and political rivalries were exiled, imprisoned and murdered during the said incident. In 1979, the reformist Revolutionary Government Junta took control and both the extreme left and extreme right disagreed with how things are going in the government resulting to further political violence that eventually became a civil war that lasted for 12 years. After the war, a Truth Commission under the UN sponsorship was established to guard further human rights violation especially by military officers. Also it helped in identifying flaws in the judiciary and proposing solutions. The recommendation to replace all magistrates on the Supreme Courts in 1994 is said to be the most remarkable advice both the Truth Commission and the Joint Group have made.