istoryworld
HISTORY OF GUATEMALA
HISTORY OF GUATEMALA
The greater Guatemala: to AD 1821
The long narrow strip of central America, known in its entirety to the Spanish as Guatemala, is among the earliest of colonial conquests on the mainland. Pedro de Alvarado, a leading member of Cortés' small party in the conquest of Mexico (1519-21), is sent south in 1523 to subdue the smaller area now known as Guatemala. In 1524 he pushes on into El Salvador. In the same year Spanish conquistadors enter Costa Rica and Nicaragua from the east, invading from Panama.
Honduras, the buffer region between east and west, is disputed between the rival groups of Spaniards. An advance guard from Panama gets there first. Cortés sends a force from Mexico, which eventually prevails.
Honduras, the buffer region between east and west, is disputed between the rival groups of Spaniards. An advance guard from Panama gets there first. Cortés sends a force from Mexico, which eventually prevails.
These rivalries persuade the Spanish crown to treat central America as a special case. In 1539 it is established as the captaincy general of Guatemala. This is part of the wider viceroyalty of New Spain (administered from Mexico City) but the captain general, operating from his own capital at Antigua, has considerable autonomy in local affairs.
The arrangement survives until the end of the colonial period (except that the capital moves to Guatemala City after Antigua is destroyed by an earthquake in 1773), and it is this larger region of Guatemala which declares independence on 15 September 1821 - just three weeks after neighbouring Mexico, under Agustín de Iturbide, has won freedom from Spain.
The arrangement survives until the end of the colonial period (except that the capital moves to Guatemala City after Antigua is destroyed by an earthquake in 1773), and it is this larger region of Guatemala which declares independence on 15 September 1821 - just three weeks after neighbouring Mexico, under Agustín de Iturbide, has won freedom from Spain.
Central American Federation: AD 1823-1838
Recognizing the forceful leadership of Iturbide, the colonists of Guatemala offer to merge their region in 1821 with Mexico - uniting as one nation the previous viceroyalty of New Spain. The link holds when Iturbide makes himself emperor, in 1822. But with his sudden fall and flight from Mexico, in 1823, Guatemala decides to assert its own independence.
The region from the southern border of Mexico to Panama now declares itself to be a new nation. It is to be known as the Central American Federation, with its capital in Guatemala City.
The region from the southern border of Mexico to Panama now declares itself to be a new nation. It is to be known as the Central American Federation, with its capital in Guatemala City.
The transition to statehood is far from smooth, for the other constituent provinces of the old captaincy general of Guatemala (El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica) have intentions which are often at odds with the central government in Guatemala City. And even when established, the new nation is soon in political chaos. There is almost permanent civil war between liberal and conservative factions.
The dominant figure is the Honduran general Francisco Morazán, who is president from 1830. He attempts to introduce liberal reforms, but by 1838 the federation is in such chaos that it has effectively ceased to exist. The five regions carry on as independent nations.
The dominant figure is the Honduran general Francisco Morazán, who is president from 1830. He attempts to introduce liberal reforms, but by 1838 the federation is in such chaos that it has effectively ceased to exist. The five regions carry on as independent nations.
A century of caudíllos: AD 1840-1944
The first century of Guatemala's independence provides a series of four prime examples of the Caudíllo as the classic Latin American dictator. The first is Rafael Carrera, an illiterate Mestizo who with the support of the Indians and the rural clergy topples in 1840 the liberal government of Francisco Morazán.
Profoundly conservative in his attitudes, Carrera restores the privileges of the colonial period. He favours the church and the landed classes, and brings the Jesuits back into the life of the nation. Declaring himself president for life in 1854, he dies in office in 1865.
Profoundly conservative in his attitudes, Carrera restores the privileges of the colonial period. He favours the church and the landed classes, and brings the Jesuits back into the life of the nation. Declaring himself president for life in 1854, he dies in office in 1865.
If Carrera has epitomized the conservative thread in Latin American tradition, the next Caudíllo in Guatemala is an equally characteristic liberal (see Liberal and conservative). Justo Rufino Barrios is one of a group of liberals who seize power in a revolution in 1871, and in 1873 he becomes president. The dramatic changes which he introduces over the next twelve years win him the title 'the Reformer'.
Barrios dismantles most of the antique structure which his predecessor has painstakingly reassembled. He expels the Jesuits again, closes monasteries, seizes church property, curtails the power of the aristocracy and sets up a system of secular education. His economic policies are equally liberal, opening up the country to foreign investment.
Barrios dismantles most of the antique structure which his predecessor has painstakingly reassembled. He expels the Jesuits again, closes monasteries, seizes church property, curtails the power of the aristocracy and sets up a system of secular education. His economic policies are equally liberal, opening up the country to foreign investment.
Like the previous liberal ruler of Guatamela, Francisco Morazán, Barrios is a keen enthusiast for the union of the central American republics. Failing to make any diplomatic headway, he tries to prevail by force. In 1885 he invades neighbouring El Salvador and is killed on the field of battle, at Chalchuapa.
The next two caudíllos in Guatemala's quartet are again technically liberals, but dictatorial rule characterizes their regimes rather more than any trace of idealism. Manuel Estrada Cabrera, president from 1898, keeps himself in office by a succession of rigged elections while building up a personal fortune at the nation's expense.
The next two caudíllos in Guatemala's quartet are again technically liberals, but dictatorial rule characterizes their regimes rather more than any trace of idealism. Manuel Estrada Cabrera, president from 1898, keeps himself in office by a succession of rigged elections while building up a personal fortune at the nation's expense.
The congress in Guatemala City finally gets rid of Estrada Cabrera in 1920 by declaring him insane (he dies four years later in gaol).
Last in this sequence is Jorge Ubico, a general who becomes president in 1931. He enjoys the nickname Tata (father), and is popular with the Indians whose lot he undoubtedly improves. But he runs a police state, in the manner being brutally perfected around the world by other more powerful dictators at this period. In his formal suspension of free speech and of a free press, in June 1944, he goes a step too far. He provokes a general strike which rapidly leads to his resignation and flight abroad.
Last in this sequence is Jorge Ubico, a general who becomes president in 1931. He enjoys the nickname Tata (father), and is popular with the Indians whose lot he undoubtedly improves. But he runs a police state, in the manner being brutally perfected around the world by other more powerful dictators at this period. In his formal suspension of free speech and of a free press, in June 1944, he goes a step too far. He provokes a general strike which rapidly leads to his resignation and flight abroad.
Democracy and the CIA: AD 1944-1954
The events of 1944 constitute Guatemala's most significant revolution. After the departure of Ubico, a left-wing uprising in October removes an interim government and brings in a revolutionary junta. The result is Guatemala's first democratic constitution and a presidential election which is won, with 85% of the vote, by a university lecturer, Juan José Arévalo.
Arévalo introduces much needed reforms in the fields of education, health and civil liberties. The next presidential election, in 1950, is preceded by a sinister event - the assassination of the leading right-wing candidate, Francisco Javier Arana. It leaves the field clear for his left-wing rival, Jacobo Arbenz.
Arévalo introduces much needed reforms in the fields of education, health and civil liberties. The next presidential election, in 1950, is preceded by a sinister event - the assassination of the leading right-wing candidate, Francisco Javier Arana. It leaves the field clear for his left-wing rival, Jacobo Arbenz.
Arbenz, who has been minister of war in Arévalo's government, takes office as president in 1951. He adds to Arévalo's policies strong measures of land reform, expropriating (for minimal compensation) any land left uncultivated and allocating it to peasants.
A great deal of this land belongs to the United fruit company, Guatemala's largest employer (and in the habit of acquiring more land than it needs just to hinder competition). This treatment of a major US company causes outrage in Washington and combines with growing unease in the Eisenhower administration at communists being allowed a share in Arbenz's administration. The result is a plot engineered by the CIA.
A great deal of this land belongs to the United fruit company, Guatemala's largest employer (and in the habit of acquiring more land than it needs just to hinder competition). This treatment of a major US company causes outrage in Washington and combines with growing unease in the Eisenhower administration at communists being allowed a share in Arbenz's administration. The result is a plot engineered by the CIA.
The CIA arranges for an army of Guatemalan exiles to be assembled and trained in Honduras (on United fruit company land) under Carlos Castillo Armas. With this force Armas invades from Honduras in June 1954. The military in Guatemala, disenchanted with Arbenz's radical policies, offer no resistance. Arbenz flees to Mexico. Armas emerges as the presidential choice of a new military junta.
Armas reverses nearly all the reforms introduced in the decade since 1944. He has less than three years in which to do so, because he is assassinated in 1957. Guatemala, after its first experiment with democracy, returns to violence and turmoil.
Armas reverses nearly all the reforms introduced in the decade since 1944. He has less than three years in which to do so, because he is assassinated in 1957. Guatemala, after its first experiment with democracy, returns to violence and turmoil.
Death squads and guerrillas: AD 1960-1996
Under a bewildering succession of rulers, most of them military, Guatemala is subject to the terrifying activities of mysterious death squads - apparently linked to the military and police, and with leftist opponents of the regime as their main victims. At the same time the mounting discontent of the Indian population, with the encouragement of Marxist revolutionaries, erupts in what becomes Latin America's longest guerrilla war.
The various guerrilla groups eventually combine as the URNG (Unidad Revolucionario Nacional Guatemalteco, Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity). Warfare between the guerrilla groups and the government, beginning in 1960, costs eventually some 150,000 lives.
The various guerrilla groups eventually combine as the URNG (Unidad Revolucionario Nacional Guatemalteco, Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity). Warfare between the guerrilla groups and the government, beginning in 1960, costs eventually some 150,000 lives.
In 1995 an agreement is finally reached, in which the government acknowledges the rights of the indigenous Indian population. With this much achieved the four main groups comprising the URNG sign a peace treaty, in December 1996, which provides for them to become a political party.
Meanwhile political life has returned to a semblance of normalcy with a new constitution in 1985 and the election in that year of the first civilian president for fifteen years (though this change does not subsequently prevent the military from intervening when it suits them). Early in 1996 the centrist Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen is elected president by a narrow margin over a right-wing candidate.
Meanwhile political life has returned to a semblance of normalcy with a new constitution in 1985 and the election in that year of the first civilian president for fifteen years (though this change does not subsequently prevent the military from intervening when it suits them). Early in 1996 the centrist Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen is elected president by a narrow margin over a right-wing candidate.