El Salvador Travel Guide

Following the deposition of Mexican leader Augustín Iturbide in 1822, which brought an end to the hopes of a Mexican Empire, the Salvadorean Manuel José Arce was elected first president of the Federal Republic of Central America in April 1825. Beset by the deep divisions between Conservatives and Liberals, Arce attempted to unite the rival groups by force. Though himself a Liberal, he allied with the Conservatives of Guatemala and almost immediately plunged the federation into civil war, the first of a series of many to plague the five states during the short-lived union (it dissolved in 1839) and on into full independence. Between 1825 and 1876 El Salvador was in an almost perpetual state of turmoil as rival Liberals and Conservatives battled for power, aided more often than not by similar groupings in the surrounding states. Not until the presidency of Rafael Zaldívar - in power between 1876 and 1885 - did the country achieve any measure of stability.