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  • Quick, you have two seconds to name these two countries

  • You're wrong!

  • Unless you got it right

  • Then good job!

  • They are of course Honduras and El Salvador

  • One thing these two countries have in common is being fanatic about Football

  • Or if you're a freedom-loving patriot , Soccer

  • But do they love it so much, they would go to war over it?

  • You bet they would

  • And that is NO BUENO

  • If you look at these two countries you might notice one major difference, and that is that this one is a lot bigger than this one

  • However, this one had a larger population than this one, made up mostly of farmers

  • And there wasn't enough land for them to live and work on, so they started moving from El Salvador to Honduras in search of land

  • And by the 1960s a huge number of illegal immigrants had crossed over the border from El Salvador

  • Meanwhile in Honduras, it's 1963 and this guy has just staged a military coup to prevent the rise of Communism

  • And is now the military leader of the country

  • He immediately began harassing the peasants' unions and other left-wing groups

  • But he's a little insecure about the legitimacy of his leadership, so he holds an election and wins

  • But then the opposing party says, "Hey man, that election was clearly corrupt and fraudulent

  • And also you've been bribed by the rich American banana companies who are taking all of our bananas tax-free

  • And now our economy is in ruins"

  • And everyone started to get mad at him

  • Now if you ever find yourself the barely

  • legitimate military leader of a corrupt Central American country and you start getting into hot water

  • Here's a bit of advice that has been tried and tested throughout the centuries

  • Blame something else

  • So he blamed the Salvadoran immigrants for stealing all the land and all the jobs and ruining Honduras

  • The immigrants found themselves under attack by the hostile locals

  • Egged on by the rich American banana companies who wanted all the bananas to themselves

  • The Honduran government began evicting Salvadoran immigrants

  • Who had been living on the land for generations

  • And started sending them back to El Salvador

  • The Salvadoran elite were furious and protested, citing moral reasons

  • But in reality, they were just getting a little too crowded

  • So tensions were about as high as they could be, but then

  • FOOOOTBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL

  • It's the 1970 World Cup qualifiers and both countries finished top of their qualifying tables

  • So it's now time for them to play against each other in a series of matches

  • The first match took place in Honduras

  • The night before the game, Hondurans gathered outside the Salvadoran team's hotel making noise and taunting them

  • The next day, Honduras defeated the exhausted Salvadorans with a late 90th minute goal

  • After the match, a young Salvadoran fan, unable to bear her country's defeat, shot herself

  • Disturbingly, the Salvadoran government glorified the incident and made her into a national hero

  • And at the next game, fans brought pictures of her to the stadium

  • Emotions were running high as the next match took place in El Salvador and this time the tables were turned

  • The Hondurans had to endure a sleepless night in their hotel

  • And the next day, before the match started, instead of the Honduran flag, the Salvadorans raised a dirty rag

  • So great job at reducing tensions

  • El Salvador won decisively over the exhausted Hondurans

  • While spectators battled in the stands, team Honduras fled home in a bulletproof bus with rocks being thrown at them

  • And the Honduran coach reportedly told his players that they were lucky they lost

  • In response to the defeat

  • Hondurans began terrorising the Salvadoran settlers even more

  • In some cases reportedly throwing them off their land and burning down their homes

  • And the immigrants began fleeing back to El Salvador

  • The final game in Mexico would decide who went to the World Cup

  • It was close

  • But El Salvador came out victorious, knocking Honduras out of the tournament

  • The atmosphere was riotous, literally

  • And back in Honduras attacks on the Salvadoran immigrants further increased

  • This was too much for El Salvador to bear, with its people under attack

  • And an unmanageable refugee crisis on its hands

  • El Salvador severed all diplomatic ties with Honduras and declared WAR

  • The Football War is also known as the 100 Hours War because that's how long it lasted

  • Making it one of the shortest wars in history

  • El Salvador started by carrying out air raids in strat egic locations within Honduras

  • Including Toncontin International Airport

  • Which prevented the Honduran Air Force from getting into the sky

  • Then, with their superior army, they began an invasion along two major roads complete with light tanks and infantry

  • Their advance was rapid and they were quickly approaching the Honduran capital

  • Then the Organization of American States met in a bit of a panic

  • And unanimously agreed that war between El Salvador and Honduras

  • Was a bad thing and probably shouldn't continue

  • So they went to El Salvador and said, "can you please stop invading?"

  • And El Salvador declared, "NOT UNTIL THEY STOP BEING JERKS!!!!"

  • And so the war went on

  • The Honduran Air Force finally got into the sky

  • And with aid from neighboring Nicaragua

  • They successfully carried out air raids in Salvadoran air bases and oil facilities

  • Crippling the Salvadoran supply line and stopping their advance dead

  • Caught in a bit of a stalemate, the situation was no longer advantageous to El Salvador

  • So when the Organization of American States once again asked them to stop and agreed to ensure the safety of the Salvadoran immigrants

  • El Salvador relented and a ceasefire was organized on the 18th of July

  • Then the OAS said, "can you now please withdraw your troops from Honduras?"

  • "No"

  • - "Please" - "No"

  • - "Please" - "No"

  • - "Please" - "No"

  • "Do it or we'll sanction you"

  • "You know what?"

  • "Just for you"

  • "I'll do it"

  • So El Salvador pulled its troops out of Honduras on the 2nd of August and with casualties in the thousands,

  • The war was over

  • The economies of both nations were damaged by the war

  • And El Salvador didn't have the capability to take care of all the returning immigrants

  • A crisis that eventually helped cause a civil war

  • The war left behind land and border disputes

  • Some of which are still a cause of tension to this day

  • El Salvador went on to play in the World Cup, but lost every match they played

  • And didn't make it past the group stage

  • So in the end nobody achieved anything and there were no winners

  • Except for this guy

Quick, you have two seconds to name these two countries

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