So.........coffee would be a potential interest.........but in a country the size of El Salvador.......which is the smallest country in Central America..............geographically speaking................they would not be all that big of an producer in gen .....................not like Brazil...........or Congo...........etc..........then what would the USA be so interested in?

Pre-Columbian[edit]

Main article: Cuzcatlan

Sophisticated civilization in El Salvador dates to its settlement by the Native American Lenca people; theirs was the first and the oldest indigenous civilization to settle in El Salvador. The Lenca were succeeded by the Olmecs, who eventually also disappeared, leaving posterity their monumental architecture in the form of pyramids still extant in western El Salvador. The Maya arrived and settled in place of the Olmecs, but their numbers were greatly diminished when the Ilopangosupervolcano eruption caused a massive Mayan exodus out of what is now El Salvador.^[17]

Centuries later they themselves were replaced by the Pipil people, Nahua speaking groups^[17] who migrated from Mexico in the centuries before the European conquest and occupied the central and western regions, the Pipil were the last indigenous people to arrive in El Salvador.^[18][18] They called their territoryKuskatan, a Pipil word^[19] meaning The Place of Precious Jewels, backformed into Classical Nahuatl Cōzcatlān, and hispanicized as Cuzcatlán.^[20][21] The people of El Salvador today are variably referred to as Salvadoran, while the term Cuzcatleco is commonly used to identify someone of Salvadoran heritage.

In pre-Columbian times, the country was also inhabited by various other Native American peoples, including the Lenca, a Chilanga Lencan-speaking group^[22] who settled in the eastern highlands.^[23] Cuzcatlan was the larger domain until the Spanish conquest. Since El Salvador resided on the eastern edge of the Maya Civilization, the origins of many of El Salvador's ruins are controversial. However, it is widely agreed that Mayas likely occupied the areas around Lago de Guija and Cihuatan. Other ruins such as Tazumal and Joya de Ceren and San Andres may have been created by the Pipil or the Maya or possibly both.^[24]

European contact (1522)[edit]

By 1521, the indigenous population of the Mesoamerican area had been drastically reduced by the smallpox epidemic that was spreading throughout the territory, although it had not yet reached pandemic levels in Cuzcatlán.^[25][26][27] The first known visit by Spaniards to what is now Salvadoran territory was made by the Spanish admiral, Andrés Niño, who led a Spanish expedition to Central America. He disembarked in theGulf of Fonseca on May 31, 1522, at Meanguera island, naming it Petronila,^[28] and then discovered Jiquilisco Bay on the mouth of Lempa River. The first indigenous people to have contact with the Spanish were the Lenca of eastern El Salvador.

Conquest of Cuzcatlán (1524-1525)[edit]

Spanish Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado.

In 1524, after participating in the conquest of Mexico, Spanish Conquistadors led by Pedro de Alvarado and his brother Gonzalo crossed the Rio Paz (Peace River) from the area comprising the present Republic of Guatemala into what is now the Republic of El Salvador. The Spaniards were disappointed to discover that the indigenous Pipil people had no gold or jewels like those they had found in Guatemala or Mexico, but recognized the richness of the land's volcanic soil.

Pedro de Alvarado led the first incursion by Spanish forces to extend their dominion to the nation of Cuzcatlan (El Salvador), in June 1524.^[29] When Pedro de Alvarado arrived at the borders of the Cuzcatlan kingdom he saw that civilians had been evacuated. Warriors of Cuzcatan moved to the coastal city of Acajutla and waited for Pedro de Alvarado and his forces. Pedro de Alvarado approached, confident that the result was going to be like in Mexico and Guatemala where the people saw them as gods, and thought he was going to easily defeat this new indigenous force because his Mexican allies and the Pipil of Cuzcatlan spoke a similar language.

The Indigenous peoples of El Salvador didn't see the Spanish as gods, but as foreign invaders. Once Pedro de Alvarado arrived, he saw that the Cuzcatan force outnumbered his Spanish soldiers and Mexican Indian allies. The Spanish decided to withdraw and the Cuzcatlec army attacked, running behind them with war chants and shooting bow arrows, with Pedro de Alvarado having no choice but to fight to survive.

Pedro de Alvarado described the Cuzcatlec soldiers in great detail, with shields made of colorful exotic feathers, a vest-like armor made of three inch cotton which arrows could not penetrate and large spears. Both armies suffered great casualties, with a wounded Pedro de Alvarado retreating, losing a lot of his men especially those of his close Mexican Indian auxiliaries. Once his army had regrouped, Pedro de Alvarado decided to head to the Cuzcatlan capital and again faced armed Cuzcatlan. Wounded, unable to fight and hiding in the cliffs, Pedro de Alvarado sent his Spanish men on their horses to approach the Cuzcatlec to see if they would fear the horses, but they did not retreat, as Pedro de Alvarado recalls in his letters to Hernan Cortez.