American Conquest and Rule
The first Spanish attempt to control this area failed in 1524, when Pedro de Alvarado was forced to retreat by Pipil warriors. In 1525, he returned and succeeded in bringing the district under control of the Audiencia of Mexico. It was Alvarado who named the district for El Salvador ("The Savior") and was appointed its first governor, a position he held until his death in 1541. The area was under the authority of a short-lived Audiencia of Panama from 1538 to 1543, when most of Central America was placed under a new Audiencia of Guatemala.
In 1609 the territory of the Audiencia of Guatemala was created into a captaincy general to deal with threats to the area from foreign incursions into the Caribbean. In 1786, the Republic of El Salvador, which previously had been broken up into many corregimientos, was transformed into an intendancy, as part of the Bourbon Reforms. This change brought economic and political unity to the area, and aided in the development of a sense of Salvadoran nationalism over the next century.
Read more about this topic: History Of El Salvador
Famous quotes containing the words american, conquest and/or rule:
“An accurate charting of the American woman’s progress through history might look more like a corkscrew tilted slightly to one side, its loops inching closer to the line of freedom with the passage of time—but like a mathematical curve approaching infinity, never touching its goal. . . . Each time, the spiral turns her back just short of the finish line.”
—Susan Faludi (20th century)
“While I am in favor of the Government promptly enforcing the laws for the present, defending the forts and collecting the revenue, I am not in favor of a war policy with a view to the conquest of any of the slave States; except such as are needed to give us a good boundary. If Maryland attempts to go off, suppress her in order to save the Potomac and the District of Columbia. Cut a piece off of western Virginia and keep Missouri and all the Territories.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“School days, school days; dear old golden rule days.
Readin’ and ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic; taught to the tune of a hick’ry stick.”
—Will D. Cobb (1876–1930)