ABSTRACT
Central America's smallest country, El Salvador (The Saviour), has Central America's greatest population density with some 6 million people in 1993 living in an area of just 21,400 square kilometres (8,300 square miles). Inhabited in its pre-Hispanic days by both the Mayas and the Pipils, a branch of the Aztec civilization, El Salvador won its independence from Spain in 1821. In 1823 it joined the Central American Confederation, a union that also included Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica. Three years after the confederation dissolved, El Salvador formally declared its independence.
