The very first humans to inhabit the area now known as Guatemala were nomadic hunters. By around 1500 BC these nomads had settled into agricultural communities, farming maize, beans, squash and chillies - the staples of today's Central American diet - making pottery and building villages of thatched-roofed houses on the Pacific coast. These early famers are regarded as the first of the
Maya
, and it's thought that most people spoke a proto-Maya language. In the period after 1500 BC, known as the
Preclassic
, the population began to increase steadily throughout the Maya region (encompassing today's Guatemala and Belize, Mexico's Chiapas, Tabasco and Yucatán peninsula, and western El Salvador and Honduras).
There is little evidence that the early Maya were anything but subsistence farmers until more advanced cultures, the Mexican
Olmec
and
Izapa
, began to filter down the Pacific coast. These Mexican peoples were hugely influential on the Maya region, introducing the Long Count calendar, an early writing system and a polytheistic religion. Evidence of their sculptural skills can be seen at the Pacific coast sites around Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa and Abaj Takalik, and at the great urban centre of
Kaminaljuyú
, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, where there are substantial Preclassic temple mounds and granite stelae with calendric glyphs.
By the
Middle Preclassic
(1000-300 BC) a unified style of pottery and artefacts - including red and orange jars, dishes and stone
metates
(for grinding corn) - were to be found throughout the Guatemalan Maya lands. It is thought that increased harvests enabled more ambitious constructions to be undertaken, while initial astronomical studies were made. By about 400 BC the settlement of
Nakbé
in Petén had evolved into the most advanced centre in the northern lowlands, with a city boasting over eighty structures, including pyramids and the earliest recorded stelae in the region.
Real advances in architecture came in the
Late Preclassic
(300 BC-300 AD), when large pyramids and temple platforms were built at numerous sites throughout Guatemala in an explosion of Maya culture. The principal centres at this time were the cities of Kaminaljuyú, which dominated the central highlands, and the great early settlements in Petén: El Mirador, Nakbé, Uaxactún and Tikal. Traditionally, the early Maya were imagined as peaceful peasant farmers and traders, led by astronomer-priests, but in fact these new cities were bloodthirsty, warring rivals fighting for hegemony.
Of all the sites dating from this era, it is the colossal triadic structures of
El Mirador
that are the most astounding. Though almost entirely Late Preclassic, the temples are the highest ever built in the Maya world, rising over seventy metres above the forest and connected by a complex system of raised causeways to distant settlements. The scale of El Mirador - covering around sixteen square kilometres - was immense, and the city undoubtedly supported tens of thousands of inhabitants, including engineers, architects, farmers, labourers, and priests. This first great Maya city traded with centres as far away as the Golfo de Mexico, the Pacific and Caribbean coasts and the Guatemalan highlands.
The Classic Maya
The development that separates the Late Preclassic from the early
Classic period
(300-900 AD) is the introduction of the Long Count calendar in the Petén lowlands and the development of a recognizable form of writing, which included phonetic...
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The Maya in decline
The glory days were not to last very long, and by 750 AD political and social changes began to be felt: alliances and trade links broke down, warring increased and stelae were carved less frequently. Cities gradually became depopulated and new...
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Pre-conquest: the highland tribes
Towards the end of the thirteenth century the central Guatemalan highlands were invaded by a group of
Toltec-Maya
, who had controlled the Yucatán until this time. Their numbers were probably small but their impact was profound, and following...
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The Spanish Conquest
While the tribes of highland Guatemala were warring amongst themselves to the north, in what is now Mexico, the Spanish conquistadors had captured the Aztec capital at Tenochtitlán. Even amidst the horrors of the Conquest there was one man whose evil...
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Colonial rule
The early years of colonial rule were marked by a turmoil of uprisings, political wrangling and natural disaster. In 1541, following a massive earthquake, a great wall of mud and water swept down the side of Agua volcano, burying the capital. The...
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Independence
The racist nature of colonial rule had created deep dissatisfaction amongst many groups in Central America. A fundamental issue was Spain's determination to keep wealth and power in the hands of those born in the motherland, a policy that left growing...
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Coffee and bananas
A major turning point in Guatemalan politics came in 1871, when Rufino Barrios arrived from Mexico with an army of just 45 men and started a
liberal revolution
.
Rufino Barrios
was a charismatic leader with tyrannical...
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Ten years of "spiritual socialism"
The overthrow of Jorge Ubico released a wave of opposition that had been bottled up throughout his rule. Students, professionals and young military officers demanded democracy and freedom. The transformation of Guatemalan politics was so extreme a...
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Military rule and guerrilla war
Following the overthrow of Arbenz, it was
the army
that rose to fill the power vacuum, with US support; they were to dominate politics for the next thirty years, sending the country into a spiral of violence and economic decline.
...
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Civilian rule
The elections were won by
Vinicio Cerezo
, a Christian Democrat who was not associated with the traditional ruling elite. In the run-up to the election he offered a programme of reform that he claimed would rid the country of repression.
...
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Arzú and the peace accords
The
1996 presidential elections
demonstrated the country's increasing lack of faith in the electoral process, which had failed to bring any real change since the return to civilian rule in 1986. Some 63 percent of registered voters stayed at...
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President Portillo
Former lawyer and professor
Alfonso Portillo
won Guatemala's 1999 presidential elections with a mandate to implement the peace accords and tackle the impunity of both the military and criminal gangs. In the grossest of ironies, Portillo sought...
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