El Salvador Essays (1473 words) - El Salvador, Republics

El Salvador Kelly Pire 2/15/01 World Geography report El Salvador Here are historical facts on El Salvador. The history of El Salvador revolves around land. It is the smallest country in Central America. Agriculture defined the economic life of the country well before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s. The unequal distribution of land in El Salvador can be traced directly to the Spanish colonial system, under which land title was invested in the crown. The individuals that got to control areas of land acted, as slaves over the lands. Although the Indian population gradually was diminished through disease and abuse, it eventually went into a growing mestizo (mixed Caucasian and Indian) population, its position was at the base of society was assumed by the rural lower class. Until the mid-twentieth century, the patterns of landownership and income distribution ran unequally throughout the population. As elsewhere in Latin America, those with more got more, those with less got less. Under the model of monoculture export that came to prevail in El Salvador, the concentration of land into large units, or haciendas, made for greater overall efficiency of production. The other side of the economic coin, however, was engraved with images of worsening poverty, illiteracy, and disease as the single-minded pursuit of wealth by a little percent of the population denied the vast majority of Salvadorans access to more than a subsistence level of income. Here are today's facts on El Salvador. El Salvador is located in Middle America, it borders the North Pacific Ocean, and its between Guatemala and Honduras. Its geographic coordinates are 13 50 N, 88 55 W, it is referenced to be in Central America and the Caribbean. The total area of El Salvador is 21,040 square kilometer, but 320 square kilometers is water. That total area is a little smaller than Massachusetts. El Salvador has a total coastline of 307 kilometers. Since it is in the Caribbean it experiences a tropical climate. Its terrain is mostly mountains, and a central plateau. Its lowest elevation is sea level and the highest point is Cerro El Pital at 2,730 meters. El Salvador has a few natural resources, hydropower, geothermal power, and petroleum. It land use goes for only 8% crops, 5% forest, 29% pastures and 27% of the land is arable. There is 1,200 square kilometers of irrigated land. El Salvador is known as the land of Volcanoes; there are many earthquakes and volcanic a ctivity. Many problems exist in El Salvador like; deforestation, soil erosion, water pollution, contaminations of soils from toxic wastes, and damage from Hurricane Mitch. There are many different peoples in El Salvador. It has a total population of 5,839,079. In the age group of 0-14 only 38% are males, 15-64 years old 58% are males and 65 years and older only 5% are males. The birth rate exceeds the death rate by 20%, but there are 28.38/1000 deaths in babies. The life expectancy is 67 years old for a male, and 74 years old for a female. There are about 3 kids per family. There are 3 major ethnic groups, mestizo 94%, Amerindian 5%, and whites, which makes up 1% of the population. 75% of the population is of the Roman Catholic religion. The people speak either Spanish, of Nahua. Most of the people over 15 can read and write. 72% of the population is literate. The population of El Salvador increased from 1.9 million inhabitants in 1950 to 4.1 million in 1975 and 4.7 million in 1984. It was projected to increase to 8.8 million by the year 2000. In other words, the populations would have doubled in each quarter century since 1950. Birth rates show that total fertility rates ranged from 6.1 to 6.3 in the mid-1970's down from 6.7 in 1961. Analysts projected that this rate would drop to 4.4 in 1995-2000. The decrease in the level of fertility since 1961 was seen in the 20-39 year old age group. The Republic of El Salvador is a republic country. Its capital is San Salvador. There are 14 administrative divisions in El Salvador. It is Ahuachapan, Cabanas, Chalatenango, Cuscatlan, La Libertad, La Paz, La Union, Morazzan, San Miguel, San Salvador, Santa Ana , San Vicente, Sonsonate,