El Salvador
From ArticleWorld
El Salvador is a republic that is properly known as “The Republic of El Salvador”. It is located in Central America and currently houses over 6.8 million people. Its bordering countries are: Honduras, Guatemala and the Pacific Ocean. The capital and the biggest city of the country is San Salvador. Spanish is the official language of the Republic of El Salvador.
History
El Salvador was founded in the sixteenth century. It lay on a territory that was dominated by the civilization of Cuscatlan ever since the year 1500 BC. The country’s evolution started with a Spanish attack on Cuscatlan in 1524, led by Pedro de Alvarado. The result was a bloody war that left the Spaniards defeated. Interest in the area did not diminish and the war continued with the result becoming inevitable. The locals were defeated and the city of San Salvador was established in 1546. For almost three hundred years the region was dominated by Spain and grew in strength under the ruling. The revolution became inevitable and November 5th, 1811 was the day known in history as “the start of El Salvador revolution”. After many fights the possibility of independence appeared so on September 15th, 1821, El Salvador proclaimed its independence from Spain.
Economy
El Salvador is currently one of the most powerful countries in Central America when talking about the economy. Several ups and downs have been experienced and the government made different changes to stabilize the economy with much success in the past. In 2001 a turning point was noticed. On the first of January that year a special monetary plan came into effect. It allowed the US dollar to be used as a currency in the country, together with the colon. Economy permitted the plan to be completed in 2004, when the colon was completely eliminated and the US dollar became the national currency. This led to discomfort for the population because of the fact that prices grew while the salaries remained the same. Specialists that analyzed the situation and are saying that no matter what the change was and what other move might have been done, the prices would still have grown because of the inflation that was visible at the time. Nowadays, based on this change in economy and other contract signings and entering in different economic organizations, El Salvador has reached single digits inflation and a constant growth in exports.