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History In the early fifteenth century, the Spanish conquistadores ventured into Central America from the Caribbean Islands, then known as the Spanish colony of New Spain. Spanish efforts to extend their dominion to the area that would be known as El Salvador were firmly resisted by the Pipil and their remaining Mayan-speaking neighbors. Pedro de Alvarado, a lieutenant of Hernan Cortes, led the first effort by Spanish forces in June 1524. The indigenous people defeated the Spaniards and forced them to withdraw to Guatemala. Two subsequent expeditions were required --the first in 1525, followed by a smaller group in 1528-- to bring the Pipil under Spanish control. Towards the end of 1810, a combination of external and internal factors allowed Central American elites to attempt to gain independence from the Spanish crown. The internal factors were mainly the interest the elites had in controlling the territories they owned without involvement from Spanish authorities. The external factors were the success of the French and American revolutions in the eighteenth century and the weakening of the military power of the Spanish crown because of its wars against Napoleonic France. The independence movement was consolidated on November 5, 1811, when the Salvadorian priest, Jose Matias Delgado, sounded the bells of the Iglesia La Merced in San Salvador, making a call for the insurrection. After many years of internal fights, the Acta de Independencia (Act of Independence) of Central America was signed in Guatemala on September 15, 1821. September 16, 1821, Mexico gained independence as the First Mexican Empire under the rule of Emperor Agustin de Iturbide, El Salvador and the other Central American provinces declared their independence from Spain and became part of the Mexican Empire. In 1823, the United Provinces of Central America was formed by the five Central American states under General Manuel Jose Arce. When this federation was dissolved in 1838, El Salvador became an independent republic. El Salvador's early history as an independent state was marked by frequent revolutions. From 1872 to 1898, El Salvador was a prime mover in attempts to reestablish an isthmian federation. The governments of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua formed the Greater Republic of Central America via the Pact of Amapala in 1895. Although Guatemala and Costa Rica considered joining the Greater Republic (which was rechristened the United States of Central America when its constitution went into effect in 1898), neither country joined. This union, which had planned to establish its capital city at Amapala on the Golfo de Fonseca, did not survive a seizure of power in El Salvador in 1898. The enormous profits that coffee yielded as a mono culture export served as an impetus for the process whereby land became concentrated in the hands of an oligarchy of few families. A succession of presidents from the ranks of the Salvadorian oligarchy, nominally both conservative and liberal, throughout the last half of the nineteenth century generally agreed on the promotion of coffee as the predominant cash crop, on the development of infrastructure (railroads and port facilities) primarily in support of the coffee trade, on the elimination of communal landholdings to facilitate further coffee production, on the passage of anti-vagrancy laws to ensure that displaced campesinos and other rural residents provided sufficient labour for the coffee fincas (plantations), and on the suppression of rural discontent. In 1912, the national guard was created as a rural police force. The coffee industry grew inexorably in El Salvador. As a result the elite provided the bulk of the government's financial support through import duties on goods imported with the foreign currencies that coffee sales earned. This support, coupled with the humbler and more mundane mechanisms of corruption, ensured the coffee growers of overwhelming influence within the government. El Salvador's early history as an independent state--as with others in Central America--was marked by frequent revolutions; not until the period 1900-30 was relative stability achieved. The economic elite, based on agriculture and some mining, ruled the country in conjunction with the military. Go G economy, based on coffee-growing after the mid-19th century, as the world market for indigo withered away, prospered or suffered as the world coffee price fluctuated. From 1931--the year of the coup in which Gen. Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez came to power until he was deposed in 1944 there was brutal suppression of rural resistance. The most notable event was the 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising, commonly referred to as La Matanza (the massacre), headed by Farabundo Marti and the retaliation led by Martinez's government, in which approximately 30,000 indigenous people and political opponents were murdered, imprisoned or exiled. Until 1980, all but one Salvadoran temporary president was an army officer. Periodic presidential elections were seldom free or fair and an oligarchy in alliance with military forces ruled the nation. As in many Latin American countries, this inequality led to peasant op.. to the oligarchy. The result was the Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992), largely a peasant revolution. The military government, dominated by the Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) party and backed by the United States, was responsible for more than 75,000 civilian deaths. Atrocities by revolutionary guerrillas, who received some Soviet aid, were not uncommon, but these casualties numbered far less than the thousands killed by the military. Government atrocities, such as the El Mozote massacre, and the murder of Catholic missionaries and other religious aid workers, such as Jean Donovan, by death squads linked to the government caused international outrage. In in 1984 international observers saw centrist Napoleon Duarte elected president in popular elections which were violently boycotted by members of the op... Despite the peace-making efforts of the democratic government, the peasant revolution continued until the peace accords were signed in January 1992. The different factions of the guerrillas formed the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional party (FMLN) in order to seek office through democratic elections. Since then, the FMLN has gradually gained representation, particularly in the Legislative Assembly and local governments. Meanwhile, the conservative Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) party has won every presidential election and remained the most favored political force.