El Salvador

Situated on the Pacific coast of Central America, El Salvador has Guatemala to the west and Honduras to the north and east. It is the smallest of the Central American countries, with an area equal to that of Massachusetts, and it is the only one without an Atlantic coastline. Most of the country is on a fertile volcanic plateau about 2,000 ft (607 m) high

El Salvador's population numbers about 7.2 million. Almost 90% is of mixed Indian and Spanish extraction. About 1% is indigenous; very few Indians have retained their customs and traditions. The country's people are largely Roman Catholic and Protestant. Spanish is the language spoken by virtually all inhabitants. The capital city of San Salvador has about 1.6 million people; an estimated 37.3% of El Salvador's population lives in rural areas.

The Pipil Indians, descendants of the Aztecs, likely migrated to the region in the 11th century. In 1525, Pedro de Alvarado, a lieutenant of Cortés's, conquered El Salvador.

In 1969, El Salvador invaded Honduras after Honduran landowners deported several thousand Salvadorans. The four-day war became known as the “football war” because it broke out during a soccer game between the two countries.

El Salvador's population numbers about 7.2 million. Almost 90% is of mixed Indian and Spanish extraction. About 1% is indigenous; very few Indians have retained their customs and traditions. The country's people are largely Roman Catholic and Protestant. Spanish is the language spoken by virtually all inhabitants. The capital city of San Salvador has about 1.6 million people; an estimated 37.3% of El Salvador's population lives in rural areas.

Full name: Republic of El Salvador
Population: 6.2 million (UN, 2009)
Capital: San Salvador
Area: 21,041 sq km (8,124 sq miles)
Major language: Spanish
Major religion: Christianity

Algeria

Nearly four times the size of Texas, Algeria is bordered on the west by Morocco and Western Sahara and on the east by Tunisia and Libya. The Mediterranean Sea is to the north, and to the south are Mauritania, Mali, and Niger. The Saharan region, which is 85% of the country, is almost completely uninhabited. The highest point is Mount Tahat in the Sahara, which rises 9,850 ft (3,000 m).

Excavations in Algeria have indicated that Homo erectus resided there between 500,000 and 700,000 years ago. Phoenician traders settled on the Mediterranean coast in the 1st millennium B.C. As ancient Numidia, Algeria became a Roman colony, part of what was called Mauretania Caesariensis, at the close of the Punic Wars (145 B.C. ). Conquered by the Vandals about A.D. 440, it fell from a high state of civilization to virtual barbarism, from which it partly recovered after an invasion by Arabs about 650. Christian during its Roman period, the indigenous Berbers were then converted to Islam. Falling under the control of the Ottoman Empire by 1536, Algiers served for three centuries as the headquarters of the Barbary pirates. Ostensibly to rid the region of the pirates, the French occupied Algeria in 1830 and made it a part of France in 1848.

Algerian independence movements led to the uprisings of 1954–1955, which developed into full-scale war. In 1962, French president Charles de Gaulle began the peace negotiations, and on July 5, 1962, Algeria was proclaimed independent. In Oct. 1963, Ahmed Ben Bella was elected president, and the country became Socialist. He began to nationalize foreign holdings and aroused opposition. He was overthrown in a military coup on June 19, 1965, by Col. Houari Boumédienne, who suspended the constitution and sought to restore economic stability. After his death, Boumédienne was succeeded by Col. Chadli Bendjedid in 1978. Berbers rioted in 1980 when Arabic was made the country's only official language. Algeria entered a major recession after world oil prices plummeted in the 1980s.

Area: 2,381,740 sq km
Population: 32 million
Capital City: Algiers
People: Arab-Berber (99%), European less than 1%
Languages: Arabic (official), French, Amazigh (national but not official language)
Religion(s): Sunni Muslim (99%), Christian and Jewish (1%)
Currency: 1 Algerian dinar (DA) = 100 centimes

Angola

Angola was a Portuguese colony for 500 years. But until the 1920s, there was little investment and the Portuguese presence was confined to the coastal towns. There a creole or mestico class evolved. The interior was exploited as a source of slaves. Even after the abolition of slavery, it was a source of contract labour. Angolans began to agitate for independence in the mid-1950s. Three nationalist groups were formed: the MPLA in 1956, the FNLA in 1958 and UNITA in 1966. In 1961, the armed struggle was launched. But the principle of independence was not conceded until 1974, much later than most African countries. Portugal hastily arranged a conference with the 3 movements, all of which had gained Organisation of African Unity (OAU) recognition, to work out the transitional arrangements to independence. The agreement was set out in the Alvor Accord of January 1975. It provided for a transitional government to prepare a constitution and for elections to be held before independence day, set for 11 November 1975. But the agreement broke down and the movements fought each other for control of the capital. The Portuguese settlers left en masse. Elections were never held.

Angola, more than three times the size of California, extends for more than 1,000 mi (1,609 km) along the South Atlantic in southwest Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo are to the north and east, Zambia is to the east, and Namibia is to the south. A plateau averaging 6,000 ft (1,829 m) above sea level rises abruptly from the coastal lowlands. Nearly all the land is desert or savanna, with hardwood forests in the northeast.

The original inhabitants of Angola are thought to have been Khoisan speakers. After 1000, large numbers of Bantu speakers migrated to the region and became the dominant group. Angola derives its name from the Bantu kingdom of Ndongo, whose name for its king is ngola.

Explored by the Portuguese navigator Diego Cão in 1482, Angola became a link in trade with India and Southeast Asia. Later it was a major source of slaves for Portugal's New World colony of Brazil. Development of the interior began after the Berlin Conference in 1885 fixed the colony's borders, and British and Portuguese investment fostered mining, railways, and agriculture.

Area: Total area 1,246,700 sq km
Population: 17.5 million (UN, 2008)
Capital City: Luanda
People: The main groups are Ovimbundu, Mbundu, Bakongo, Lunda-Tchokwe and Ngangela. There is also a small mestico community.
Languages: Portuguese (official) and local African languages.
Religion(s): Christianity, (of which largest Roman Catholic), indigenous African, and a tiny Moslem community.
Currency: 1 Kwanza (Kz) = 100 Lwei