ABSTRACT
The history of El Salvador can be understood in terms of an interlocking and interacting series of phenomena that took shape during three hundred years of Spanish colonial rule and continued after independence. First sighted by the Spanish in 1522, the land called Cuzcatlan repelled the first wave of would-be settlers two years later. In Cuzcatlan, however, people were enslaved as a result of war or civil wrong, and slavery was not hereditary. The year 1929 brought the onset of the Great Depression—and a resulting plunge in coffee prices. The depression exacerbated social tensions, and the increasing militancy of the labor union movement, in the form of demonstrations and strikes, inflamed the situation. These events, however, occurred during the first presidential administration in El Salvador's history committed to allowing all political organizations to participate in the political life of the country. In this atmosphere, the Communist Party of El Salvador (PCS), the country's first revolutionary organization, was founded.
