The Beginning: Conquest
Beginning - The Year 1524
Pedro de Alvarado landed in the current region of El Salvador in the year 1524. Like most conquistadors of the time, he found immediate opposition from then native peoples of the region. The natives, known as the Pipil, have been compared to the Aztecs, as far as their technological advancement, although they were mostly agricultural people. This would make sense considering El Salvador's fertile and biodiverse lands. When faced against Alvarado and his european technology for the first time, the Pipil resisted, forcing the Spanish to retreat. It was not until the third attempt in 1540 that the Spanish force the Pipil into submission. This will be a pattern repeated throughout history and across the South American country for centuries. This initial conquest will lead to conflict between native/mestizo lower class and the european upper class that will create a strong racial divide and the violent state of many Latin American countries.
Alvarado, in search of gold and precious metals like most europeans colonizers, was disappointed with what little was available. In order to find profit from the newly name El Salvador or "the savior", the colonizers realized they had to exploit the land's abundant resources. In order to do so, Alavarado set an encomienda system into place, like many colonizers at the time. This system made the native peoples give tribute of either labor and/or gold in return for protection and Christian instruction by their encomendero. Ironically created to prevent native labor abuse by the Royal Crown, the system quickly turned into a type of enslavement by the europeans who had little to no law enforcement in the New World.
While specific instances of european violence against the native laborers of the El Salvador colony remain largely undocumented, it would be foolish to assume the treatment was unlike the deplorable treatment of any of the other native tribes in Spanish colonies across Latin America. Instances of violence were extreme; mutilation, sexual assault, emotional abuse, forced labor in dangerous conditions, and also mass killings from either disease, starvation, lack of resources or violence from the colonizers.
Understanding the history of conquest of El Salvador shows us that it's history completely revolves around violence and abuse towards an entire group of peoples. Tensions between the native people of El Salvador and the european only strengthened over time, and despite an eventual independence after more than three centuries of abuse, not much changed for the native peoples of El Salvador.
Next: Was It Really Independence?
Citations:
Haggerty, R. A. & Library Of Congress. Federal Research Division. (1990) El Salvador: a country study. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O. [Online Text] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/89048948/.
