Latinx Immigrants by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783319957388
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

The Federation of Central America

The republic adopted the official name of the Federation of Central America. However, the isolation of each state and the disproportionate distribution of the population limited the implementation of a federal republic. The First Congress elected Manuel Jose Arce, a Salvadoran liberal, as the Federation of Central America’s first president who served during a tumultuous time of civil war and a declining economy. Conflicts between conservatives and liberals dissolved the Federation in March of 1839 in the midst of the civil war. Opportunism and arbitrariness at the hands of charismatic, authoritarian, and strong-minded individuals ruled the day and emerged as a pattern of leadership for the region focused on individual interests (Dominguez, 2008; Perez-Brignoli, 1989).

In the 1870s, with an improved economy largely based on the export of coffee, the liberals began a series of reforms and consolidated power among a few landholders and merchants. El Salvador’s government confiscated lands belonging to the church and ensured that the church lost its power. The government then privatized confiscated lands to become part of the exportation of coffee and engaged in the expulsion of indigenous people, who fled to urban centers. New laws (1877) ensured forced seasonal labor from November through April among the now landless indigenous groups, a practice that lasted until the 1930s (Flores, 2008; Perez-Brignoli, 1989).

The confiscation of lands coupled with legislation (1881 and 1882) that eliminated common lands and communities made El Salvador’s proletariat the fastest growing working class among the Central American states. At the same time, a reduced number of landholders owned most of the arable land and practiced despotic forms of management. Politically, El Salvador remained unstable and the government became the target of several coup d’etats (1890, 1895, and 1898; Flores, 2008; Perez-Brignoli, 1989). By the end of the 1800s, 14 families owned most of El Salvador’s farm land, and banking industry, and controlled trade (Cheney, 1990).

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