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| http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/1009/storymap.html |
Lienzo de Quauhquechollan a map of Guatemala dated from 1530 to 1540 which tells the story of the conquest of Guatemala by the Spaniards as seen by the Quauhquecholteca people, who allied themselves with the Spaniards for the opportunity to over power their enemies and gain more power and eventually conquer Guatemala [1].
After the Spanish conquistadors arrived to the New World, they began sending expeditions to Guatemala in 1519. Hernan Cortes who was the leader of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, permitted Captains Gonzalo Alvarado and brother Pedro Alvarado to start an expedition into Guatemala to conquer it. During the time that Guatemala was colonized it was an audiencia and a captaincy general of Spain ans was apart of New Spain which is now Mexico. On September 15, 1821 the captaincy general of Guatemala which also included Chiapas, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, claimed their independence from Spain which was then dissolved within 2 years. The provinces of Guatemala came together to form the United Provinces of Central America which was then dissolved in the civil war from 1838 to 1840. Rafael Carrera was essential in leading the revolt against the government and breaking apart the union. During this time the highlands had declared independence from Guatemala but was regained by Rafael Carrera who controlled Guatemalan politics until 1865. Carrera was supported by the conservatives, large land owners and the church. Guatemala's so called "Liberal Revolution" came in 1871 and was led by a Justo Rufino Barrios who wanted to modernize the country, improve trading, try new crops for the country and start manufacturing plants, during this time is when coffee became a big cash crop for Guatemala. Barrios wanted to unify central america once more, so he went to war but was unsuccessful eventually meeting his end to Salvadorean forces 1885.
Cycle of Dictatorship Rule
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| https://team8-3.pbworks.com/w/page/20049719/Guatemala |
from 1898 to 1920 Guatemala was under the rule of dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera whose presidency was influenced by the United Fruit Company. During the time that Cabrera was in power the United Fruit Company gained alot of influence in the country. On July 4 1944 the dictator at the time by the name of Jorge Ubico Castenada resigned from office due to large amount of protests from the public. General Juan Federico Ponce replaced Castenada but he too was ousted by a coup d'etat which was led Major Francisco Javier Arana and Captain Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. The country was then led by a military junta which consisted of Arana, Arbenz and Jorge Toriello Garrido. under the Junta Guatemala had its first free election which was won by Juam Jose Arevalo Bermejo who was a teacher and a writer who had been living in exile in Argentina. Bermejo had socialist ideas that were not appreciated by landowners and the upper class who claimed his ideas were communist. Arbenz was then ousted in a coup that was planned and executed by the CIA. After Arbenz implemented his land reform the CIA intervened fearing that his actions would Guatemela a communist stronghold. It has also been reported that the CIA intervened in order to protect the interests of the United Fruit Company which owned land in Guatemala. Continuing over the years the same pattern can be seen of dictators coming into power and then being ousted and then being replaced by another dictator. General Rios Montt was in power after 1982. He was responsible for the disappearance of many people. on January 12 2012 Efrain Rios Montt was in court for genocide charges, during his hearing the government presented a large amount of evidence for deaths rapes and the displacement of 30,000 Guatemalan citizens during the time he was in power from 1982 to 1983.[2]
Genocide in Guatemala
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| http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB297/ |
Starting in 1982 and ending around 1983 during the reign of Efrain Rios Montt there were more than 200,000 Mayan people that were murdered by the Guatemalan government. The killing was carried out by squads called the killing machines, people also dissppeared. The government had concerns that the indigenous Mayan people would start a revolt against the government and take over the country. Around 626 villages were attacked. A 1999 United Nations sponsorred report said: "The Army's perception of Mayan communities as natural allies of the
guerrillas contributed to increasing and aggravating the human rights
violations perpetrated against them, demonstrating an aggressive racist
component of extreme cruelty that led to extermination en masse of
defenseless Mayan communities, including children, women and the
elderly, through methods whose cruelty has outraged the moral conscience
of the civilized world." men , women and children were tortured and executed. Women and children were raped.
Trade Agreements
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| http://infosurhoy.com/cocoon/saii/xhtml/en_GB/features/saii/features/2009/09/28/feature-08 |
[1] http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/1009/storymap.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala#History
[3] http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107596.html?pageno=4
[4] https://team8-3.pbworks.com/w/page/20049719/Guatemala
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