El Salvador Flag

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Brief History. The indigenous people of El Salvador resisted the coming of the Spanish in 1524, but it took another three hundred years for them to finally throw off the yoke of Spain, becoming first a jurisdiction of Mexico, and then a member of the United Provinces of Central America. in 1840, after a bloody civil war, El Salvador achieved independence as a republic. Coffee was the mainstay of the country's economy from about 1860 and the country structured its laws such that a coffee oligarchy was created. A 12-year civil war, which cost about 75,000 lives, was brought to a close in 1992 when the government and leftist rebels signed a treaty that provided for military and political reforms.