The origins of the conflict were principally demographic. El Salvador and Honduras are amongst the world's poorest countries, although somewhat more affluent than Honduras, with an average per capita income of $270 per year, in 1969, against $231 for Honduras, El Salvador was and remains the most densely populated country on the American mainland. It then had a population of just under 3,400,000, giving it a population density comparable to that of the Netherlands. By contrast, that of Honduras, which then had just under 2,600,000 inhabitants, was comparable to that of Afghanistan.

Land ownership in both countries was also very unevenly distributed, 60% of the available agricultural land of E1 Salvador being owned by less than 5% of the population and largely demoted to the cultivation of profitable non-food crops. While the distribution of land ownership was almost as unequal in Honduras, large numbers of illegal Salvadorean immigrants had penetrated into the larger but less populous neighbouring country where they settled as squatters. This influx of unwelcome visitors from a relatively wealthy neighbour exacerbated the competition for the possession of land not already owned by the local oligarchy and caused increasing bitterness. By the late 1960's Salvadcrean immigrants in Honduras numbered approximately 300,000, equivalent to 11.5% of the total population of the reluctant host country.

The Honduran military government of General Cswaldo Lopez Arellano, which was then running into increasing economic difficulties, seized upon the immigrants as a convenient focus of public resentment and outrages against the Salvadorean minority began to occur with increasing frequency.

In these inauspicious circumstances, Honduras and El Salvador were drawn to play against each other in the preliminary quaalifying rounds for the 1970 World Cup. On June 8th. 1969, the Salvadorean soccer team lost to Honduras, in a match played at Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, the Salvadorean team and their supporters being physically abused. A week later, the Honduran team, in turn lost to the Salvadoreans, playing on their home ground, with similar results. Riots, directed against the Salvadorean minority in Honduras immediately erupted, numbers of Salvadoreans being killed or injured and others fleeing to their homeland with blood-curdling stories of real and imagined atrocities.

On June 25th, both governments invoked the Organization of American States to investigate the alleged mistreatment of their respective nationals. Two days later, the victory of the Salvadorean soccer team, in the deciding match, played on the neutral ground of Mexico City, coincided with the severance of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The Salvadorean Government immediately declared a state of emergency and commenced the first stage of the mobilization of its military reserves on July 2nd.

El Salvador-Honduras Football War of 1969

Introduction
Part One: Background
Part Two: The Opposing Forces
Part Three: The Air War
Part Four: El Salvador Invades Honduras
Part Five: The Cost