Editing El Salvador (section)

====Conquest of Cuzcatlán and Managuara====
{{main|Spanish conquest of El Salvador}}
[[File:Pedro de Alvarado (Tomás Povedano).jpg|thumb|upright|Spanish Conquistador [[Pedro de Alvarado]].]]

In 1524, after participating in the [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire|conquest of the Aztec Empire]], [[Pedro de Alvarado]], his brother Gonzalo, and their men crossed the [[Paz River|Rio Paz]] southwards into Cuzcatlec territory.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Pipils of El Salvador |url=https://www.teachingcentralamerica.org/pipils-el-salvador |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=Teaching Central America |language=en-US}}</ref> Upon their arrival, Spaniards were disappointed to discover that the Pipil had little gold compared to what they had found in Guatemala or Mexico. The small amount of gold that was available had to be panned so that it could be obtained. Eventually, the Spaniards recognized the richness of the land's volcanic soil. Following this discovery, the Spanish crown began granting land based on the terms of the encomienda system.<ref>{{citation |url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/frd/frdcstdy/el/elsalvadorcountr00hagg/elsalvadorcountr00hagg.pdf |title=El Salvador: A Country Study |series=Area handbook |editor-last=Haggerty |editor-first=Richard A. |publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress |date=1990 |pages=4–5}}</ref>

Pedro Alvarado led the first incursion to extend their dominion to the domain of Cuzcatlan in June 1524.<ref name="NicholsPool2012">{{cite book
|first1=Deborah L.
|last1=Nichols
|first2=Christopher A.
|last2=Pool
|title=The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D4zSRvPvuiMC&pg=PA94
|date=18 October 2012
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|isbn=978-0-19-539093-3
|page=94
|access-date=6 November 2015
|archive-date=10 January 2024
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110143751/https://books.google.com/books?id=D4zSRvPvuiMC&pg=PA94#v=onepage&q&f=false
|url-status=live
}}</ref> When he arrived at the borders of the kingdom, he saw that civilians had been evacuated. Cuzcatlec warriors moved to the coastal city of [[Acajutla]] and waited for Alvarado and his forces. Alvarado approached, confident that the result would be similar to what occurred in Mexico and Guatemala. He thought he would easily deal with this new indigenous force since the Mexican allies on his side and the Pipil spoke a similar language.<ref name="Pan AmericanUnion1934">{{cite book|author=Lily de Jongh Osborne|title=Index to the Bulletin of the Pan American Union|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7aobAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA182|series=1-12|volume=LXVII|year=1934|publisher=Pan American Union|page=182|chapter=El Salvador|access-date=4 January 2020|archive-date=10 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110143803/https://books.google.com/books?id=7aobAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA182#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

Alvarado described the Cuzcatlec soldiers as having shields decorated with colourful exotic feathers, a vest-like armour made of three inch cotton which arrows could not penetrate, and long spears.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2023-12-28 |title=JUNE 8, 1524 |url=https://indigenousamericacalendar.org/2023/12/27/june-8-1524/ |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=Indigenous America Calendar |language=en}}</ref> Both armies suffered many casualties, with a wounded Alvarado retreating and losing a lot of his men, especially among the Mexican Indian auxiliaries. Once his army had regrouped, Alvarado decided to head to the Cuzcatlan capital and again faced armed Cuzcatlec. Wounded, unable to fight and hiding in the cliffs, Alvarado sent his Spanish men on their horses to approach the Cuzcatlec to see if they would fear the horses, but they did not retreat, Alvarado recalls in his letters to [[Hernán Cortés]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fundar.org.sv/referencias/buscacuscatlan.pdf|title=En la Búsqueda de Cuscatlan|last=Amaroli|first=Paul|date=1986|website=FUNDAR|access-date=4 April 2020|archive-date=31 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731030112/http://www.fundar.org.sv/referencias/buscacuscatlan.pdf}}</ref>

The Cuzcatlec attacked again, and on this occasion stole Spanish weaponry. Alvarado retreated and sent Mexican messengers to demand that the Cuzcatlec warriors return the stolen weapons and surrender to their opponent's king. The Cuzcatlec responded with the famous response, "If you want your weapons, come get them". As days passed, Alvarado, fearing an ambush, sent more Mexican messengers to negotiate, but these messengers never came back and were presumably executed.

[[File:Tazumal 10.jpg|thumb|[[Tazumal]] (built between AD 250–1200), Maya site in [[Santa Ana Department]].]]

The Spanish efforts were firmly resisted by Pipil and their Mayan-speaking neighbours. They defeated the Spaniards and what was left of their [[Tlaxcala]]n allies, forcing them to withdraw to Guatemala. After being wounded, Alvarado abandoned the war and appointed his brother, [[Gonzalo de Alvarado]], to continue the task. Two subsequent expeditions (the first in 1525, followed by a smaller group in 1528) brought the Pipil under Spanish control, since the Pipil also were weakened by a regional epidemic of smallpox. In 1525, the conquest of Cuzcatlán was completed and the city of San Salvador was established. The Spanish faced much resistance from the Pipil and were not able to reach eastern El Salvador, the area of the Lencas.

In 1526 the Spanish founded the garrison town of [[San Miguel, El Salvador|San Miguel]] in northern Managuara—territory of the Lenca, headed by another explorer and conquistador, [[Luis de Moscoso Alvarado]], nephew of Pedro Alvarado. Oral history holds that a Maya-Lenca crown princess, Antu Silan Ulap I, organized resistance to the conquistadors.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2014/02/19/Indigenous%20peoples_1.pdf |title=World Directory of Minorities |author=Minority Rights Group International |access-date=3 June 2016 |archive-date=21 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021203914/https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/eoir/legacy/2014/02/19/Indigenous%20peoples_1.pdf }}</ref> The commonwealth of the Lenca was alarmed by de Moscoso's invasion, and Antu Silan travelled from village to village, uniting all the Lenca towns in present-day El Salvador and Honduras against the Spaniards. Through surprise attacks and overwhelming numbers, they were able to drive the Spanish out of San Miguel and destroy the garrison.

For ten years the Lencas prevented the Spanish from building a permanent settlement. Then the Spanish returned with more soldiers, including about 2,000 forced conscripts from indigenous communities in Guatemala. They pursued the Lenca leaders further up into the mountains of [[Intibucá Department|Intibucá]].

Antu Silan Ulap eventually handed over control of the Lenca resistance to [[Lempira (Lenca ruler)|Lempira]] (also called Empira).<ref>{{Cite web |title=World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - El Salvador : Lencas |url=https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/mrgi/2017/en/119087 |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=Refworld |language=en}}</ref> Lempira was noteworthy among indigenous leaders in that he mocked the Spanish by wearing their clothes after capturing them and using their weapons captured in battle. Lempira fought in command of thousands of Lenca forces for six more years in Managuara until he was killed in battle. The remaining Lenca forces retreated into the hills. The Spanish were then able to rebuild their garrison town of San Miguel in 1537.