Editing El Salvador (section)

=== 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]].
[[File:Vergara detalle firmaacta1821.JPG|thumb|left|[[José Matías Delgado]] 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, [[Central America under Mexican rule|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 [[Federation|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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Marure|first1=Alejandro|date=1895|title=Efemérides de los Hechos Notables Acaecidos en la República de Centro-América Desde el Año de 1821 Hasta el de 1842|trans-title=Ephemeris of the Notable Events that Occurred in the Republic of Central America from the Year 1821 to that of 1842|url=https://archive.org/details/efemeridesdeloshe00alejguat/page/n11/mode/2up|language=es|location=Central America|publisher=Tipografía Nacional|page=127|oclc=02933391|access-date=26 April 2024}}</ref> El Salvador joined Honduras and Nicaragua in 1896 to form the [[Greater Republic of Central America]], which dissolved in 1898.

[[File:Woman and girl in el salvador making bread.png|thumb|Woman and girl in El Salvador making bread, 1910]]
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.<ref>{{cite book |first=Thomas P. |last=Anderson |title=Politics in Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uar_iWVhSaIC |access-date=29 July 2012 |year=1988 |via=Google Books |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-275-92883-4 |archive-date=10 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110143657/https://books.google.com/books?id=uar_iWVhSaIC |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 ''[[Peasant|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.