Before the conquest, El Salvador formed a part of the Mesoamerican cultural region. The central and western portions of the territory were inhabited by the Pipil, a Nahua people culturally related to the Aztecs See more

The conquistadors were all volunteers, the majority of whom did not receive a fixed salary but instead a portion of the spoils of victory, in the form of See more

Gil González Dávila and Andrés Niño first explored the coast of El Salvador in 1522 as they sailed northwest along the Pacific coast of Central America from Panama, and briefly landed in the Bay of Fonseca. El Salvador fell in a frontier region between rival conquests … See more

By 1539, the Spanish advances in El Salvador were sufficient that Cuzcatlan was considered fully pacified. In the immediate aftermath of the Spanish conquest, the conquistadors sought wealth through slaving and mining, but both of these industries soon … See more

Christopher Columbus discovered the New World for the Kingdom of Castile and Leon in 1492. Private adventurers thereafter entered into … See more

Diseases introduced to the Americas by the conquistadors had a great impact upon indigenous populations. As the Spanish were occupied with the conquest of Mexico, these diseases ran … See more

The territory now incorporated into El Salvador was not politically unified at the time of Spanish contact. As with neighbouring … See more