10 Question History Quiz: El Salvador | Latin America

Answer: Pedro de Alvarado

Under orders from Cortes, de Alvarado left Mexico with some 100 cavalry, 150 foot soldiers and several thousand indigenous allies. He crossed the Rio Paz in 1524. At first the native Pipil people fled before him: towns and villages were deserted, as de Alvarado's reputation for awful ruthlessness had travelled before him. The way to further conquest was open.

Answer: False

The Pipil soundly thrashed the Spaniards at the Battle of Acajutla. Alvarado was in despair and handed over leadership to his brother and ran off back to Mexico where he died some fifteen years later more than 40,000 pesos in debt.

Answer: Atonati

The Pipil archer named Atonati severely wounded de Alvarado in the first encounter between the Spanish and indigenous fighters. The wound left the Spanish Commander with one leg a good four inches shorter than the other.

Answer: 1540

Despite early successes the native people of El Salvador fell prey to internal dissent; a fact that the Spanish were quick exploit.
Instead of remaining united, small tribes confronted the Spanish and they were picked off one by one. By 1540 the Spanish held complete dominion over El Salvador and incorporated it into the Spanish Captaincy-General of Guatemala.

Answer: False

There are very few black people in El Salvador. No more than 10,000 were brought in as slaves during the colonial period. Apart from the long sea journey making such an import expensive, a planned slave rebellion in El Salvador in 1625 was only just averted and this made the authorities wary of importing any more slaves than was absolutely necessary for their purposes.

Answer: 1821

El Salvador signed, along with the other Central American nations, the Declaration of Independence on September 15, 1821. The ceremony took place in Guatemala City.

Answer: Mexican Empire

Mexico, as the largest of the Central American countries, took the lead after the declaration of independence from Spain and the smaller Central American nations aligned under her leadership in what was known as the Mexican Empire. This empire, however, was very short lived as the other countries of Central America very soon discovered that being bossed around by Mexico was every bit as bad as being ruled by Spain. Within months of its creation the Mexican empire collapsed completely.

Answer: Synthetic dyes

Idigo was the prime export of El Salvador when Europe introduced synthetic dyes 1878 and this process meant that the expensive indigo was no longer be needed in any large quantities by European importers. Had it not been for the advent of coffee plantations, which happened at around the same time, the effect on El Salvador's economy would have been ruinous.
Oddly enough, idigo is making a comeback; foreign demand is high and so efforts are being made in El Salvador to plant suitable land for this commodity.

Answer: The Soccer War

The war of 1969 is known as the Soccer War but that is something of a misnomer. The real cause behind this conflict arose from the fact that some 300,000 Salvadorans had settled in Honduras and many Hondurans resented losing their jobs to the hard working immigrants; also a long standing dispute over the border location was a long way from being settled.

The two countries had other quite major differences; such as how to apply the rules and regulations relating to the Central American Common Market.

The Salvadoran immigrants complained of bad treatment and harassment and in many cases were expelled from Honduras. Basically unrest was seething. The whole thing came to head during the World Cup play-offs between the two countries and war erupted in July 14, 1969.

The war lasted only four days. Militarily, El Salvador won but much damage was done to the economy of both countries. In total there were some 3,000 dead and twice as many wounded. The main highway from San Salvador to Santa Ana was used as an airstrip during this war and the marks of badly landed aircraft can still be seen.

Answer: False

The Salvadoran government spent more than one million dollars to ensure the pageant's success. However, a peaceful demonstration against the pageant by as many as 50,000 people ended in horror when police opened fire.