Prehistoric 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.
Pre-Columbian era 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. A notable archaeological site in western El Salvador is
Chalchuapa, which was first settled around 1200 BC, and became a major urban settlement on the periphery of the
Maya civilization during the Preclassic Period and was heavily involved in the trading of valuable items like ceramics, obsidian, cacao and hematite. The settlement was heavily damaged around 430 AD by a volcanic eruption, after which it never regained its former prominence. Another major Pre-Columbian settlement is
Cara Sucia in the far west of the country, which began as a small settlement around 800 BC at the beginning of the Middle Preclassic, during the
Late Classic (600–900 AD), Cara Sucia emerged as a major urban settlement, before being abruptly destroyed during the 10th century. in
Joya de Cerén The
Pipil people,
Nahua speaking groups migrated from
Anahuac beginning around 800 AD and occupied the central and western regions of El Salvador. The Nahua Pipil were the last indigenous people to arrive in El Salvador. They called their territory
Kuskatan, a
Nawat word meaning "The Place of Precious Jewels",
back-formed into
Classical Nahuatl Cōzcatlān, and as
Cuzcatlán. It was the largest domain in Salvadoran territory up until European contact. The term
Cuzcatleco is commonly used to identify someone of Salvadoran heritage, although the majority of the eastern population has an indigenous heritage of Lenca origin, as do their place names such as
Intipuca,
Chirilagua, and
Lolotique. Most of the archaeological sites in western El Salvador, such as
Lago de Guija and
Joya De Ceren indicate a pre-Columbian Mayan culture.
Cihuatan shows signs of material trade with northern Nahua culture, eastern Mayan and Lenca culture, and southern Nicaraguan and Costa Rican indigenous culture.
Tazumal's smaller B1-2 structure shows a
talud-
tablero style of architecture that is associated with Nahua culture and corresponds with their migration history from Anahuac. In eastern El Salvador, the Lenca site of
Quelepa is highlighted as a major pre-Columbian cultural centre and demonstrates links to the Mayan site of
Copan in western Honduras as well as the previously mentioned sites in Chalchuapa, and Cara Sucia in western El Salvador. An investigation of the site of La Laguna in
Usulutan has also produced Copador items that link it to the Lenca-Maya trade route.
European arrival (1522) By 1521, the indigenous population of the Mesoamerican area had been drastically reduced by the
smallpox epidemic that was spreading throughout the territory, although it had not yet reached pandemic levels in Cuzcatlán or the northern portion Managuara. The first known visit by Spaniards to what is now Salvadoran territory was made by the admiral
Andrés Niño, who led an expedition to Central America. He disembarked in the
Gulf of Fonseca on 31 May 1522, at
Meanguera island, naming it Petronila, and then traversed to
Jiquilisco Bay on the mouth of
Lempa River. The first indigenous people to have contact with the Spanish were the Lenca of eastern El Salvador.
Conquest of Cuzcatlán and Managuara In 1524, after participating in the
conquest of the Aztec Empire,
Pedro de Alvarado, his brother Gonzalo, and their men crossed the
Rio Paz southwards into Cuzcatlec territory. Upon their arrival, Spaniards were disappointed to discover that the Pipil had little gold compared to what they had found in Guatemala or Mexico. The small amount of gold that was available had to be panned so that it could be obtained. Eventually, the Spaniards recognized the richness of the land's volcanic soil. Following this discovery, the Spanish crown began granting land based on the terms of the encomienda system. Pedro Alvarado led the first incursion to extend their dominion to the domain of Cuzcatlan in June 1524. When he arrived at the borders of the kingdom, he saw that civilians had been evacuated. Cuzcatlec warriors moved to the coastal city of
Acajutla and waited for Alvarado and his forces. Alvarado approached, confident that the result would be similar to what occurred in Mexico and Guatemala. He thought he would easily deal with this new indigenous force since the Mexican allies on his side and the Pipil spoke a similar language. Alvarado described the Cuzcatlec soldiers as having shields decorated with colourful exotic feathers, a vest-like armour made of three inch cotton which arrows could not penetrate, and long spears. Both armies suffered many casualties, with a wounded Alvarado retreating and losing a lot of his men, especially among the Mexican Indian auxiliaries. Once his army had regrouped, Alvarado decided to head to the Cuzcatlan capital and again faced armed Cuzcatlec. Wounded, unable to fight and hiding in the cliffs, Alvarado sent his Spanish men on their horses to approach the Cuzcatlec to see if they would fear the horses, but they did not retreat, Alvarado recalls in his letters to
Hernán Cortés. The Cuzcatlec attacked again, and on this occasion stole Spanish weaponry. Alvarado retreated and sent Mexican messengers to demand that the Cuzcatlec warriors return the stolen weapons and surrender to their opponent's king. The Cuzcatlec responded with the famous response, "If you want your weapons, come get them". As days passed, Alvarado, fearing an ambush, sent more Mexican messengers to negotiate, but these messengers never came back and were presumably executed. , built between AD 250–1200, a Maya site in
Santa Ana Department The Spanish efforts were firmly resisted by Pipil and their Mayan-speaking neighbours. They defeated the Spaniards and what was left of their
Tlaxcalan allies, forcing them to withdraw to Guatemala. After being wounded, Alvarado abandoned the war and appointed his brother,
Gonzalo de Alvarado, to continue the task. Two subsequent expeditions (the first in 1525, followed by a smaller group in 1528) brought the Pipil under Spanish control, since the Pipil also were weakened by a regional epidemic of smallpox. In 1525, the conquest of Cuzcatlán was completed and the city of San Salvador was established. The Spanish faced much resistance from the Pipil and were not able to reach eastern El Salvador, the area of the Lencas. In 1526, the Spanish founded the garrison town of
San Miguel in northern Managuara—territory of the Lenca, headed by another explorer and conquistador,
Luis de Moscoso Alvarado, nephew of Pedro Alvarado. Oral history holds that a Maya-Lenca crown princess, Antu Silan Ulap I, organized resistance to the conquistadors. The commonwealth of the Lenca was alarmed by de Moscoso's invasion, and Antu Silan travelled from village to village, uniting all the Lenca towns in present-day El Salvador and Honduras against the Spaniards. Through surprise attacks and overwhelming numbers, they were able to drive the Spanish out of San Miguel and destroy the garrison. For ten years the Lencas prevented the Spanish from building a permanent settlement. Then the Spanish returned with more soldiers, including about 2,000 forced conscripts from indigenous communities in Guatemala. They pursued the Lenca leaders further up into the mountains of
Intibucá. Antu Silan Ulap eventually handed over control of the Lenca resistance to
Lempira (also called Empira). Lempira was noteworthy among indigenous leaders in that he mocked the Spanish by wearing their clothes after capturing them and using their weapons captured in battle. Lempira fought in command of thousands of Lenca forces for six more years in Managuara until he was killed in battle. The remaining Lenca forces retreated into the hills. The Spanish were then able to rebuild their garrison town of San Miguel in 1537.
Colonial period (1525–1821) , built between 1736 and 1743 . During the colonial period, San Salvador and San Miguel were part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala, also known as the Kingdom of Guatemala (), created in 1609 as an administrative division of
New Spain. The Salvadoran territory was administered by the mayor of Sonsonate, with San Salvador being established as an
intendencia in 1786. In 1811, a combination of internal and external factors motivated Central American elites to attempt to gain independence from the Spanish Crown. The most important internal factors were the desire of local elites to control the country's affairs free of involvement from Spanish authorities, and the long-standing Creole aspiration for independence. The main external factors motivating the independence movement were the success of the
French and
American revolutions in the 18th century, and the weakening of the Spanish Crown's military power as a result of the
Napoleonic Wars, with the resulting inability to control its colonies effectively. In November 1811, Salvadoran priest
José Matías Delgado rang the bells of Iglesia La Merced in San Salvador, calling for insurrection and launching the
1811 Independence Movement. This insurrection was suppressed, and many of its leaders were arrested and served sentences in jail. Another insurrection was launched in 1814, which was also suppressed.
Independence (1821) In 1821, in light of unrest in Guatemala, Spanish authorities capitulated and signed the
Act of Independence of Central America, which released all of the Captaincy General of Guatemala (comprising current territories of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica and the Mexican state of
Chiapas) from Spanish rule and declared its independence. In 1821, El Salvador joined Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua in a union named the
Federal Republic of Central America. signing the
Act of Independence of Central America, 15 September 1821 In early 1822, the authorities of the newly independent Central American provinces, meeting in Guatemala City,
voted to join the newly constituted
First Mexican Empire under
Agustín de Iturbide. El Salvador resisted, insisting on autonomy for the Central American countries. A Mexican military detachment marched to San Salvador and suppressed dissent, but with the fall of Iturbide on 19 March 1823, the army decamped back to Mexico. Shortly thereafter, the authorities of the provinces revoked the vote to join Mexico, deciding instead to form a
federal union of the five remaining provinces (Chiapas permanently joined Mexico at this juncture) known as the
Federal Republic of Central America. El Salvador declared its independence from the Federal Republic of Central America on 30 January 1841. El Salvador joined Honduras and Nicaragua in 1896 to form the
Greater Republic of Central America, which dissolved in 1898. After the mid-19th century, the economy was based on coffee growing. As the world market for indigo withered away, the economy prospered or suffered as the world coffee price fluctuated. The enormous profits that coffee yielded as a monoculture export served as an impetus for the concentration of land into the hands of an oligarchy of just a few families. Throughout the last half of the 19th century, a succession of presidents from the ranks of the Salvadoran oligarchy, nominally both conservative and liberal, generally agreed on the promotion of coffee as the predominant
cash crop, the development of infrastructure (railroads and port facilities) primarily in support of the coffee trade, the elimination of communal landholdings to facilitate further coffee production, the passage of anti-
vagrancy laws to ensure that displaced
campesinos and other rural residents provided sufficient labour for the coffee
fincas (plantations), and the suppression of rural discontent. In 1912, the national guard was created as a rural police force.
20th century In 1898, General
Tomás Regalado gained power by force, deposing General
Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez and ruling as president until 1903. Once in office he revived the practice of presidents designating their successors. After serving his term, he remained active in the Salvadoran Army and was killed on 11 July 1906, at El Jicaro, during a
war against Guatemala. Until 1913 El Salvador was politically stable, with undercurrents of popular discontent. When President
Manuel Enrique Araujo was killed in 1913, many hypotheses were advanced for the political motive of his murder. Manuel Enrique Araujo's administration was followed by the
Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty that lasted from 1913 to 1927.
Pío Romero Bosque, a former minister and a trusted collaborator of the dynasty, succeeded President
Alfonso Quiñónez Molina, and in 1930 announced free elections, in which
Arturo Araujo came to power on 1 March 1931, in what was considered the country's first freely contested election. His government lasted only nine months before it was overthrown by junior military officers, who accused his
Salvadoran Laborist Party of lacking political and governmental experience and of using its government offices inefficiently. Arturo Araujo faced general popular discontent, as the people had expected economic reforms and the redistribution of land. There were demonstrations in front of the National Palace from the first week of his administration. His vice president and minister of war was General
Maximiliano Hernández Martínez. , President of El Salvador (1931–1944)|248x248px In December 1931, a
coup d'état was organized by junior officers and led by Martínez. Only the First Regiment of Cavalry and the National Police defended the presidency (the National Police had been on its payroll), but later that night, after hours of fighting, the badly outnumbered defenders surrendered to rebel forces. The Directorate, composed of officers, hid behind a shadowy figure, a rich anti-communist banker called Rodolfo Duke, and later installed the vice-president Martínez as president. The revolt was probably caused by the army's discontent at not having been paid by President Araujo for some months. Araujo left the National Palace and unsuccessfully tried to organize forces to defeat the revolt. The U.S. Minister in El Salvador met with the Directorate and later recognized the government of Martínez, which agreed to hold presidential elections. He resigned six months prior to running for re-election, winning back the presidency as the only candidate on the ballot. He ruled from 1935 to 1939, then from 1939 to 1943. He began a fourth term in 1944 but resigned in May after a general strike. Martínez had said he was going to respect the constitution, which stipulated he could not be re-elected, but he refused to keep his promise.
La Matanza Beginning in January 1932, there was brutal suppression of a rural revolt known as
La Matanza. In the unstable political climate of the previous few years, social activist and revolutionary leader
Farabundo Martí helped found the Communist Party of Central America, and led a communist alternative to the Red Cross, called "
International Red Aid", serving as one of its representatives. Their goal was to help poor and underprivileged Salvadorans through the use of
Marxist–Leninist ideology. In December 1930, at the height of the country's economic and social depression, Martí was once again exiled because of his popularity among the nation's poor and rumours of his upcoming nomination for president the following year. Once Araujo was elected president in 1931, Martí returned to El Salvador and, along with Alfonso Luna and Mario Zapata, began the movement that was later truncated by the military. with his cabinet members 1940s. On 22 January 1932, thousands of poorly armed peasants in the western part of El Salvador revolted against the government and Martínez. The rebellion occurred amid widespread unrest over suppression of democratic political freedoms following the cancellation of the results of the 1932 legislative election. The rebels were led by
Feliciano Ama and
Farabundo Martí and were largely composed of Indigenous people and communists. The rebellion made gains initially, capturing several towns and cities across the western part of the country, killing an estimated 2,000 people. The government suppressed the rebellion brutally, killing between 10,000 and 40,000 people, mostly
Pipil peasants. Many of the rebellion's leaders, including Ama and Martí, were captured and executed. Historically, the high Salvadoran population density has contributed to tensions with neighbouring
Honduras, as land-poor Salvadorans emigrated to less densely populated Honduras and established themselves as squatters on unused or underused land. This phenomenon was a major cause of the
1969 Football War between the two countries. As many as 130,000 Salvadorans were forcibly expelled or fled from Honduras. The
Christian Democratic Party (PDC) and the
National Conciliation Party (PCN) were active in Salvadoran politics from 1960 until 2011, when they were disbanded by the Supreme Court because they had failed to win enough votes in the 2004 presidential election. Both parties have since reconstituted. They share common ideals, but one represents the middle class and the latter the interests of the Salvadoran military. PDC leader
José Napoleón Duarte was the mayor of San Salvador from 1964 to 1970, winning three elections during the regime of PCN president,
Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo, who allowed free elections for mayors and the National Assembly. Duarte later ran for president with a political grouping called the
National Opposition Union (UNO) but was defeated in the 1972 presidential elections. He lost to the ex-minister of interior, Colonel
Arturo Armando Molina, in an election that was widely viewed as fraudulent; Molina was declared the winner even though Duarte was said to have received a majority of the votes. Duarte, at some army officers' requests, supported a revolt to protest the election fraud, but was captured, tortured and later exiled. Duarte returned to the country in 1979 to enter politics after working on projects in Venezuela as an engineer.
Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992) Carlos Humberto Romero was the final president of the
country's military dictatorship which began in 1931. The U.S. had been Romero's biggest supporter, but by October 1979, the Carter administration decided that El Salvador needed regime change. On 15 October 1979, a
coup d'état brought the
Revolutionary Government Junta (JRG) to power. It nationalized many private companies and took over much privately owned land. The purpose of this new junta was to stop the revolutionary movement already underway in response to Duarte's stolen election. Nevertheless, the oligarchy opposed
agrarian reform, and a junta formed with young reformist elements from the army such as Colonels
Adolfo Arnoldo Majano and
Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez, as well as with progressives such as
Guillermo Ungo and Alvarez. spoke out against social injustice and violence amid the escalating conflict between the military government and left-wing insurgents that led to the Salvadoran Civil War. Pressure from the oligarchy soon dissolved the junta because of its inability to control the army in its repression of the people fighting for unionization rights, agrarian reform, better wages, accessible health care and freedom of expression. In the meantime, the guerrilla movement was spreading to all sectors of Salvadoran society. Middle and high school students were organized in MERS (Movimiento Estudiantil Revolucionario de Secundaria, Revolutionary Movement of Secondary Students); college students were involved with AGEUS (Asociacion de Estudiantes Universitarios Salvadorenos; Association of Salvadoran College Students); and workers were organized in BPR (Bloque Popular Revolucionario, Popular Revolutionary Block). In October 1980, several other major guerrilla groups of the Salvadoran left had formed the
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, or FMLN. By the end of the 1970s, government-contracted death squads were killing about 10 people each day. Meanwhile, the FMLN had 6,000 to 8,000 active guerrillas and hundreds of thousands of part-time militia, supporters, and sympathizers. The U.S. supported and financed the creation of a second junta to change the political environment and stop the spread of a leftist insurrection. Napoleón Duarte was recalled from his exile in Venezuela to head this new junta. However, a revolution was already underway and his new role as head of the junta was seen by the general population as opportunistic. He was unable to influence the outcome of the insurrection.
Óscar Romero, the
Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador, denounced injustices and massacres committed against civilians by government forces. He was considered "the voice of the voiceless", but he was assassinated by a
death squad while saying Mass on 24 March 1980. Some consider this to be the beginning of the full
Salvadoran Civil War, which lasted from 1980 to 1992. An unknown number of people "disappeared" during the conflict, and the UN reports that more than 75,000 were killed. The
Salvadoran Army's US-trained
Atlácatl Battalion was responsible for the
El Mozote massacre where more than 800 civilians were murdered, over half of them children, the
El Calabozo massacre, and the
murder of UCA scholars. On 16 January 1992, the government of El Salvador, represented by president
Alfredo Cristiani, and the FMLN, represented by the commanders of the five guerrilla groups –
Schafik Hándal,
Joaquín Villalobos,
Salvador Sánchez Cerén, Francisco Jovel and
Eduardo Sancho, all signed peace agreements brokered by the United Nations ending the 12-year civil war. This event, held at
Chapultepec Castle in Mexico, was attended by U.N. dignitaries and other representatives of the international community. After signing the armistice, the president stood and shook hands with the newly ex-guerrilla commanders, an action which was widely admired.
Post-war (1992–2019) The
Chapultepec Peace Accords mandated reductions in the size of the army, and the dissolution of the National Police, the Treasury Police, the National Guard and the Civilian Defence, a paramilitary group. A new Civil Police was to be organized. Judicial immunity for crimes committed by the armed forces ended; the government agreed to submit to the recommendations of a
Commission on the Truth for El Salvador (Comisión de la Verdad Para El Salvador), which would "investigate serious acts of violence occurring since 1980, and the nature and effects of the violence, and...recommend methods of promoting national reconciliation". In 1993 the Commission delivered its findings reporting human rights violations on both sides of the conflict. Five days later the Salvadoran legislature passed an amnesty law for all acts of violence during the period. From 1989 until 2004, Salvadorans favoured the
Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), voting in ARENA presidents in every election (
Alfredo Cristiani,
Armando Calderón Sol,
Francisco Flores Pérez,
Antonio Saca) until 2009. The unsuccessful attempts of the left-wing party to win presidential elections led to its selection of a journalist rather than a former guerrilla leader as a candidate. On 15 March 2009,
Mauricio Funes, a television figure, became the first president from the FMLN. He was inaugurated on 1 June 2009. One focus of the Funes government has been revealing the alleged corruption from the past government. ARENA formally expelled Saca from the party in December 2009. With 12 loyalists in the National Assembly, Saca established his own party, the
Grand Alliance for National Unity (GANA), and entered into a tactical legislative alliance with the FMLN. After three years in office, with Saca's GANA party providing the FMLN with a legislative majority, Funes had not taken action to either investigate or to bring corrupt former officials to justice. Economic reforms since the early 1990s brought major benefits in terms of improved social conditions, diversification of the export sector, and access to international financial markets at investment grade level. Crime remains a major problem for the investment climate. Early in the new millennium, El Salvador's government created the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales — the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) — in response to climate change concerns. In March 2014, former FMLN guerrilla leader Cerén narrowly won the
election. He was sworn in as president on 31 May 2014. He was the first former guerrilla to become the president of El Salvador. In October 2017, an El Salvador court ruled that former president Funes and one of his sons had illegally enriched themselves. Funes had sought asylum in Nicaragua in 2016. In September 2018, former president Saca was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to diverting more than US$300 million in state funds to his own businesses and third parties.
2019–present On 1 June 2019,
Nayib Bukele became the new president of El Salvador. Bukele was the winner of February
2019 presidential election. He represented GANA, as he was denied participating with the newly formed Nuevas Ideas party. ARENA and the FMLN, El Salvador's two main parties, had dominated politics in El Salvador over the past three decades. According to a report by the
International Crisis Group (ICG) 2020, the homicide rate in El Salvador had dropped by as much as 60% since Bukele became president in June 2019. Although the government officially denied any collusion with organised crime, press reports based on testimony from government members and security officials stated a "non-aggression deal" between parts of the government and the gangs existed. The party
Nuevas Ideas (NI, "New Ideas"), founded by Bukele, with its ally (GANA) won around 63% of the vote in the February 2021
legislative elections. His party and allies won 61 seats, well over the coveted supermajority of 56 seats in the 84-seat parliament, allowing for uncontested decisions at the legislative level. The supermajority permits President Bukele's party to appoint judiciary members and pass laws with little to no opposition, for instance, to remove presidential term limits. On 8 June 2021, at the initiative of President Bukele, pro-government deputies in the
Legislative Assembly passed
legislation to make
bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador. In September 2021, El Salvador's Supreme Court ruled to allow Bukele to run for a second term in 2024, despite the fact that the constitution prohibits the president to serve two consecutive terms in office. The decision was organized by judges appointed to the court by Bukele. On 25 February 2021, El Salvador became the first Central American country to be awarded certification for the elimination of
malaria by the
WHO. In January 2022, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged El Salvador to reverse its decision to make
cryptocurrency legal tender. Bitcoin had rapidly lost about half of its value, meaning economic difficulties and, as of May 2022, with government bonds trading at 40% of their original value, the prospect of a looming
sovereign default; however, as of April 2025, bitcoin's value has doubled since El Salvador first designated it as legal tender. Bukele announced back in January 2022 plans to build
Bitcoin City at the base of a volcano in El Salvador. In 2022, the Salvadoran government initiated a massive
fight against criminal gangs and gang-related violence. A state of emergency was declared on 27 March and was extended on 20 July. More than 53,000 suspected gang members were arrested, precipitating the highest reported
incarceration rate in the world. The crackdown has reportedly produced hundreds of deaths of detainees, with international human rights organizations such as
Amnesty International declaring it the worst abuse of human rights in the country since its civil war. On 30 November 2023, the Legislative Assembly granted Bukele and Vice President Felix Ulloa a leave of absence so that they could focus on their
2024 re-election campaign. Bukele was succeeded by
Claudia Rodríguez de Guevara as acting president, the first female president in Salvadoran history. In January 2024, it was announced that homicide rate dropped nearly 70% year over year, with 154 in 2023 compared to 495 homicides in 2022. On 4 February 2024, Bukele won re-election with 84% of the vote in the
presidential election. His party Nuevas Ideas won 58 of the parliament's 60 seats. On 1 June 2024, he was sworn in for his second five-year term. In February 2025, El Salvador’s Congress agreed to remove Bitcoin's legal tender status, following pressure from the
International Monetary Fund. In late-July 2025, the Legislative Assembly approved of changes to the
Constitution of El Salvador, which would remove presidential term-limits, and extend individual terms from 5 years to 6. The Legislative Assembly also moved the next presidential election from 2029 to
2027 (making it coterminous with
the legislative elections that year), after which the constitutional changes would take effect. ==Geography==