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==Rise of the oligarchy== In the early 19th century, El Salvador's economy depended on the production of a single export crop, [[indigo dye|indigo]]. This led wealthy landowners to be attracted to certain lands while leaving other lands, especially those around former volcanic eruptions, to the poor and indigenous communities for [[Subsistence agriculture|subsistence farming]]. In the late 19th century, natural indigo was replaced by [[Indigo dye#Synthetic development|synthetic chemical dyes]]. The landed elite replaced this crop with a newly demanded product, [[coffee]].<ref name=Paige1993>Paige, JM. "Coffee and Power in El Salvador." ''Latin American Research Review'', v. 28 issue 3, 1993, p. 7.</ref> The lands that had been left by the wealthy landowners to the poor and indigenous communities were suddenly quite valuable. The elite-controlled [[Legislative Assembly of El Salvador|legislature]] and [[President of El Salvador|president]] passed vagrancy laws that removed people from their land and the great majority of Salvadorans became landless, as their former lands were absorbed into the new coffee plantations (''fincas'').<ref name=Paige1993/> Historian Héctor Lindo-Fuentes asserts that "the parallel process of state-building and expansion of the coffee industry resulted in the formation of an oligarchy that was to rule El Salvador during the twentieth century."<ref>Lindo-Fuentes, Hector (1990). [http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft3199n7r3/ Weak Foundations: The Economy of El Salvador in the Nineteenth Century 1821–1898]. Berkeley: University of California Press.</ref> [[File:1911, Don Rafael Guirola Duke, Presidente Dr. Manuel Enrique Araujo , Dr.Teodosio Carranza, Dr. David Rosales Dr. Manuel Castro Ramirez y Don Mauricio Duke.jpg|thumb|left|Don Rafael Guirola Duke, President Dr. Manuel Enrique Araujo, Dr. Teodosio Carranza, Dr. David Rosales Dr. Manuel Castro Ramírez and Don Mauricio Duke (Circa 1911)]] The coffee industry gave birth to [[Fourteen Families|an oligarchy]] in the late 19th century, which has controlled most of the land and wealth of El Salvador since that time. The [[Fourteen Families]] ("las catorce familias")—with names including de Sola, Llach, Hill, Meza-Ayau, Duenas, Dalton, Regalado, Quiñonez, Flores, and Salaverria—is a reference to this oligarchy.<ref name=Hoeffel1981>{{Cite news|last=Hoeffel|first=Paul Heath|title=The Eclipse of the Oligarchs|date=6 September 1981|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/06/magazine/the-eclipse-of-the-oligarchs.html|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref> For much of this time, this oligarchy acted in a manner similar to the [[overlord]]s of the [[Feudalism|feudal system]] that existed in Europe during the [[Middle Ages]]. Although the constitution was amended repeatedly in favor of the oligarchs (in 1855, 1864, 1871, 1872, 1880, 1883, and 1886), several elements remained constant throughout.<ref name=Haggarty1988>{{Cite web|title=El Salvador|url=https://countrystudies.us/el-salvador/|access-date=2023-03-14|website=countrystudies.us}}</ref> The wealthy landowners were granted super-majority power in the national legislature and economy. For example, the 1824 constitution provided for a unicameral legislature of 70 deputies, in which 42 seats were set aside for the landowners. The president was selected from the landed elite. Each of El Salvador's 14 regional departments had a governor appointed by the president. The frequent changes in the constitution were mainly due to the attempts of various presidents to hold onto power. For example, President Gerardo Barrios created a new constitution to extend his term limit.<ref name=Haggarty1988/> From 1931 until the early 1980s, El Salvador was governed by various dictatorships, but these governments were subservient to the oligarchy, with some officials deriving “modest wealth from bureaucratic corruption”.<ref name=Hoeffel1981/> At that time, the oligarchy consisted of some 20 families which controlled more than 70 percent of El Salvador's coffee production and exports, sugar mills, banks, television and newspapers.<ref name=Hoeffel1981/> Since the end of that war in 1992, the oligarchic families of El Salvador have shifted their focus from agricultural exports to [[Financial capital|capital investment]]. Today, the majority of El Salvador's capital is distributed among eight powerful [[Conglomerate (company)|business conglomerates]]. These companies (Grupo Cuscatlán, Banagrícola, [[Banco Davivienda El Salvador]], Banco de Comercio, Grupo Agrisal, [[Grupo Poma]], Grupo de Sola, and Grupo Hill) dominate the economy of El Salvador and they are largely owned by the descendants of the original 14 families of the coffee oligarchy.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}
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