Santa Catarina Pinula is a town, with a population of 70,982 (2018 census) and a municipality in the Guatemala Department of Guatemala .
116-499: Its name, according to Guatemalan colonial historian Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán in his book Recordación Florida comes from: The town was originally a native settlement called Pankaj, or Pinola, whose inhabitants presented a strong defense to the conquistadors from Pedro de Alvarado , until they had to finally surrender to the Spanish invaders at the fortified position of Jalpatagua , where they were withdrawn along with
232-453: A Maya city named Quezalli by his Nahuatl-speaking allies with a force of fifty Spaniards; his Mexican allies also referred to the city by the name Sacatepequez. De León renamed the city as San Pedro Sacatepéquez in honour of his friar, Pedro de Angulo. The Spanish founded a village nearby at Candacuchex in April that year, renaming it as San Marcos. On 14 April 1524, soon after the defeat of
348-702: A highly critical account of the Spanish conquest of the Americas and included accounts of some incidents in Guatemala. The Brevísima Relación de la Destrucción de las Indias ("Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies") was first published in 1552 in Seville . The Tlaxcalan allies of the Spanish who accompanied them in their invasion of Guatemala wrote their own accounts of the conquest; these included
464-527: A letter to the Spanish king protesting at their poor treatment once the campaign was over. Other accounts were in the form of questionnaires answered before colonial magistrates to protest and register a claim for recompense. Two pictorial accounts painted in the stylised indigenous pictographic tradition have survived; these are the Lienzo de Quauhquechollan , which was probably painted in Ciudad Vieja in
580-505: A makeshift roof; this site was chosen to build the first church in Guatemala, which was dedicated to Concepción La Conquistadora. Tzakahá was renamed as San Luis Salcajá. The first Easter mass held in Guatemala was celebrated in the new church, during which high-ranking natives were baptised. In March 1524 Pedro de Alvarado entered Qʼumarkaj at the invitation of the remaining lords of the Kʼicheʼ after their catastrophic defeat, fearing that he
696-586: A municipal capital (Santa Catarina Pinula), fifteen villages and seven settlements. Santa Catarina Pinula has a subtropical highland climate ( Köppen : Cwb ). Guatemalan Olympic swimmer Kevin Avila Soto was born here. Santa Catarina Pinula is completely surrounded by Guatemala Department municipalities: 14°34′N 90°30′W / 14.567°N 90.500°W / 14.567; -90.500 Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzm%C3%A1n Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán (1643–1700)
812-826: A portion of the spoils of victory, in the form of precious metals , land grants and provision of native labour. Many of the Spanish were already experienced soldiers who had previously campaigned in Europe. The initial incursion into Guatemala was led by Pedro de Alvarado , who earned the military title of Adelantado in 1527; he answered to the Spanish crown via Hernán Cortés in Mexico. Other early conquistadors included Pedro de Alvarado's brothers Gómez de Alvarado , Jorge de Alvarado and Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras ; and his cousins Gonzalo de Alvarado y Chávez , Hernando de Alvarado and Diego de Alvarado. Pedro de Portocarrero
928-517: A protracted conflict during the Spanish colonization of the Americas , Spanish colonisers gradually incorporated the territory that became the modern country of Guatemala into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain . Before the conquest, this territory contained a number of competing Mesoamerican kingdoms, the majority of which were Maya . Many conquistadors viewed the Maya as " infidels " who needed to be forcefully converted and pacified, disregarding
1044-423: A single empire, but by the time the Spanish arrived Maya civilization was thousands of years old and had already seen the rise and fall of great cities . On the eve of the conquest the highlands of Guatemala were dominated by several powerful Maya states. In the centuries preceding the arrival of the Spanish the Kʼicheʼ had carved out a small empire covering a large part of the western Guatemalan Highlands and
1160-673: A state of hostilities existed between the Mam and the Kʼicheʼ of Qʼumarkaj after the rebellion of the Kaqchikel against their former Kʼicheʼ allies prior to European contact, when the conquistadors arrived there was a shift in the political landscape. Pedro de Alvarado described how the Mam king Kaybʼil Bʼalam was received with great honour in Qʼumarkaj while he was there. The expedition against Zaculeu
1276-404: A way that increased the Spanish advantage. In Guatemala the Spanish routinely fielded indigenous allies; at first these were Nahuas brought from the recently conquered Mexico, later they also included Mayas . It is estimated that for every Spaniard on the field of battle, there were at least 10 native auxiliaries. Sometimes there were as many as 30 indigenous warriors for every Spaniard, and it
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#17327913312211392-582: Is estimated that 88% of them died during the first ten years of colonial rule owing to a combination of disease and war. The conquest of the highlands was made difficult by the many independent polities in the region, rather than one powerful enemy to be defeated as was the case in central Mexico. After the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish in 1521, the Kaqchikel Maya of Iximche sent envoys to Hernán Cortés to declare their allegiance to
1508-476: Is thought to have died in Sonsonate in 1700. The Recordación Florida , also called Historia de Guatemala ( History of Guatemala ), is Fuentes y Guzmán's only surviving work. It was the first Guatemalan history book written by a colonial Guatemalan author of Spanish descent. The first portion of the work, comprising the first sixteen books, was written by 1690. Fuentes y Guzmán sent it to Spain in apparently
1624-858: The Chinamita , the Kejache , the Icaiche, the Lakandon Chʼol , the Mopan , the Manche Chʼol and the Yalain . The Kejache occupied an area north of the lake on the route to Campeche , while the Mopan and the Chinamita had their polities in the southeastern Petén. The Manche territory was to the southwest of the Mopan. The Yalain had their territory immediately to the east of Lake Petén Itzá. Maya warfare
1740-551: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec . The newly conquered territory became New Spain , headed by a viceroy who answered to the king of Spain via the Council of the Indies . Hernán Cortés received reports of rich, populated lands to the south and dispatched Pedro de Alvarado to investigate the region. In the run-up to the announcement that an invasion force was to be sent to Guatemala, 10,000 Nahua warriors had already been assembled by
1856-493: The Kaqchikel capital of Iximche , and the city of Qʼumarkaj , capital of the Kʼicheʼ , may also have suffered from the same epidemic. It is likely that the same combination of smallpox and a pulmonary plague swept across the entire Guatemalan Highlands . Modern knowledge of the impact of these diseases on populations with no prior exposure suggests that 33–50% of the population of the highlands perished. Population levels in
1972-470: The Kaqchikels , souring the friendship between the two peoples. He demanded that their kings deliver 1000 gold leaves, each worth 15 pesos . A Kaqchikel priest foretold that the Kaqchikel gods would destroy the Spanish, causing the Kaqchikel people to abandon their city and flee to the forests and hills on 28 August 1524 ( 7 Ahmak in the Kaqchikel calendar). Ten days later the Spanish declared war on
2088-489: The Kʼicheʼ , the Spanish were invited into Iximche and were well received by the lords Belehe Qat and Cahi Imox. The Kaqchikel kings provided native soldiers to assist the conquistadors against continuing Kʼicheʼ resistance and to help with the defeat of the neighbouring Tzʼutuhil kingdom. The Spanish only stayed briefly in Iximche before continuing through Atitlán , Escuintla and Cuscatlán . The Spanish returned to
2204-472: The Petén Basin were first contacted by Hernán Cortés in 1525, but remained independent and hostile to the encroaching Spanish until 1697, when a concerted Spanish assault led by Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi finally defeated the last independent Maya kingdom. Spanish and native tactics and technology differed greatly. The Spanish viewed the taking of prisoners as a hindrance to outright victory, whereas
2320-620: The Pipil . All were Maya groups except for the Pipil, who were a Nahua group related to the Aztecs ; the Pipil had a number of small city-states along the Pacific coastal plain of southern Guatemala and El Salvador . The Pipil of Guatemala had their capital at Itzcuintepec. The Xinca were another non-Maya group occupying the southeastern Pacific coastal area. The Maya had never been unified as
2436-553: The Samalá River in western Guatemala. This region formed a part of the Kʼicheʼ kingdom , and a Kʼicheʼ army tried unsuccessfully to prevent the Spanish from crossing the river. Once across, the conquistadors ransacked nearby settlements in an effort to terrorise the Kʼicheʼ. On 8 February 1524 Alvarado's army fought a battle at Xetulul, called Zapotitlán by his Mexican allies (modern San Francisco Zapotitlán ). Although suffering many injuries inflicted by defending Kʼicheʼ archers,
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#17327913312212552-463: The Xinca of the southern coastal plain used poison on their arrows. In response to the use of Spanish cavalry, the highland Maya took to digging pits and lining them with wooden stakes. The sources describing the Spanish conquest of Guatemala include those written by the Spanish themselves, among them two of four letters written by conquistador Pedro de Alvarado to Hernán Cortés in 1524, describing
2668-669: The Zapotec and Mixtec provinces, with the addition of more Nahuas from the Aztec garrison in Soconusco . In the early 16th century the territory that now makes up Guatemala was divided into various competing polities, each locked in continual struggle with its neighbours. The most important were the Kʼicheʼ , the Kaqchikel , the Tzʼutujil , the Chajoma , the Mam , the Poqomam and
2784-663: The 1530s, and the Lienzo de Tlaxcala , painted in Tlaxcala. Accounts of the conquest as seen from the point of view of the defeated highland Maya kingdoms are included in a number of indigenous documents, including the Annals of the Kaqchikels , which includes the Xajil Chronicle describing the history of the Kaqchikel from their mythical creation down through the Spanish conquest and continuing to 1619. A letter from
2900-585: The Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc to accompany the Spanish expedition. Warriors were ordered to be gathered from each of the Mexica and Tlaxcaltec towns. The native warriors supplied their weapons, including swords, clubs and bows and arrows. Alvarado's army left Tenochtitlan at the beginning of the dry season, sometime between the second half of November and December 1523. As Alvarado left the Aztec capital, he led about 400 Spanish and approximately 200 Tlaxcalan and Cholulan warriors and 100 Mexica , meeting up with
3016-547: The Conquest of New Spain"); his account of the conquest of Guatemala generally agrees with that of the Alvarados. His account was finished around 1568, some 40 years after the campaigns it describes. Hernán Cortés described his expedition to Honduras in the fifth letter of his Cartas de Relación , in which he details his crossing of what is now Guatemala's Petén Department . Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas wrote
3132-652: The Cuchumatanes is estimated to have been 260,000 before European contact. By the time the Spanish physically arrived in the region this had collapsed to 150,000 because of the effects of the Old World diseases that had run ahead of them. After the western portion of the Cuchumatanes fell to the Spanish, the Ixil and Uspantek Maya were sufficiently isolated to evade immediate Spanish attention. The Uspantek and
3248-584: The Guatemalan Highlands did not recover to their pre-conquest levels until the middle of the 20th century. In 1666 pestilence or murine typhus swept through what is now the department of Huehuetenango . Smallpox was reported in San Pedro Saloma , in 1795. At the time of the fall of Nojpetén in 1697, there are estimated to have been 60,000 Mayas living around Lake Petén Itzá , including a large number of refugees from other areas. It
3364-470: The Ixil towns of Chajul and Nebaj . The Spanish army then marched east toward Uspantán itself; Arias then received notice that the acting governor of Guatemala, Francisco de Orduña , had deposed him as magistrate. Arias handed command over to the inexperienced Pedro de Olmos and returned to confront de Orduña. Although his officers advised against it, Olmos launched a disastrous full-scale frontal assault on
3480-517: The Ixil were allies and in 1529, four years after the conquest of Huehuetenango , Uspantek warriors were harassing Spanish forces and Uspantán was trying to foment rebellion among the Kʼicheʼ . Uspantek activity became sufficiently troublesome that the Spanish decided that military action was necessary. Gaspar Arias , magistrate of Guatemala, penetrated the eastern Cuchumatanes with 60 Spanish infantry and 300 allied indigenous warriors. By early September he had imposed temporary Spanish authority over
3596-557: The Kaqchikel capital on 23 July 1524 and on 27 July ( 1 Qʼat in the Kaqchikel calendar) Pedro de Alvarado declared Iximche as the first capital of Guatemala, Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala ("St. James of the Knights of Guatemala"). Iximche was called Guatemala by the Spanish, from the Nahuatl Quauhtemallan meaning "forested land". Since the Spanish conquistadors founded their first capital at Iximche, they took
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3712-410: The Kaqchikel recorded that they sent only 400. With the capitulation of the Kʼicheʼ kingdom, various non-Kʼicheʼ peoples under Kʼicheʼ dominion also submitted to the Spanish. This included the Mam inhabitants of the area now within the modern department of San (. Quetzaltenango and San Marcos were placed under the command of Juan de León y Cardona, who began the reduction of indigenous populations and
3828-529: The Kaqchikel. Two years later, on 9 February 1526, a group of sixteen Spanish deserters burnt the palace of the Ahpo Xahil , sacked the temples and kidnapped a priest, acts that the Kaqchikel blamed on Pedro de Alvarado. Conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo recounted how in 1526 he returned to Iximche and spent the night in the "old city of Guatemala" together with Luis Marín and other members of Hernán Cortés's expedition to Honduras . He reported that
3944-621: The Kaqchikels The Spanish founded a new town at nearby Tecpán Guatemala ; Tecpán is Nahuatl for "palace", thus the name of the new town translated as "the palace among the trees". The Spanish abandoned Tecpán in 1527, because of the continuous Kaqchikel attacks, and moved to the Almolonga Valley to the east, refounding their capital on the site of today's San Miguel Escobar district of Ciudad Vieja , near Antigua Guatemala . The Nahua and Oaxacan allies of
4060-471: The Kʼicheʼ and the Kaqchikel were not loyal, and were instead harassing Spain's allies in the region. Cortés decided to despatch Pedro de Alvarado with 180 cavalry, 300 infantry, crossbows, muskets, 4 cannons, large amounts of ammunition and gunpowder, and thousands of allied Mexican warriors from Tlaxcala , Cholula and other cities in central Mexico; they arrived in Soconusco in 1523. Pedro de Alvarado
4176-447: The Maya prioritised the capture of live prisoners and of booty. The indigenous peoples of Guatemala lacked key elements of Old World technology such as a functional wheel , horses, iron, steel, and gunpowder ; they were also extremely susceptible to Old World diseases, against which they had no resistance. The Maya preferred raiding and ambush to large-scale warfare , using spears, arrows and wooden swords with inset obsidian blades;
4292-520: The Mexican coast. By August 1521 the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had fallen to the Spanish and their allies . A single soldier arriving in Mexico in 1520 was carrying smallpox and thus initiated the devastating plagues that swept through the native populations of the Americas. Within three years of the fall of Tenochtitlan the Spanish had conquered a large part of Mexico, extending as far south as
4408-578: The Petapa natives. After the Spanish conquest, a town was founded in place of the old native settlement. It soon became one of the most notable settlements in the area, eventually serving as a curato headquarters for the Order of Preachers , which in turn was under the jurisdiction of the Amatitlán convent. In 1690, when Fuentes y Guzmán wrote Recordación Florida the town was prosperous and its agriculture
4524-541: The Spaniards' indigenous allies and managed to kill one of the Spanish soldiers. At this point Alvarado decided to have the captured Kʼicheʼ lords burnt to death, and then proceeded to burn the entire city. After the destruction of Qʼumarkaj and the execution of its rulers, Pedro de Alvarado sent messages to Iximche , capital of the Kaqchikel , proposing an alliance against the remaining Kʼicheʼ resistance. Alvarado wrote that they sent 4,000 warriors to assist him, although
4640-525: The Spanish Crown in the form of cacao, textiles, gold, silver and slaves. Within a few decades taxes were instead paid in beans, cotton and maize. Acasaguastlán was first given in encomienda to conquistador Diego Salvatierra in 1526. Chiquimula de la Sierra ("Chiquimula in the Highlands"), occupying the area of the modern department of Chiquimula to the east of the Poqomam and Chajoma ,
4756-473: The Spanish Crown to conquer the newly discovered lands in return for tax revenues and the power to rule. In the first decades after the discovery of the new lands, the Spanish colonised the Caribbean and established a centre of operations on the island of Cuba . They heard rumours of the rich empire of the Aztecs on the mainland to the west and, in 1519, Hernán Cortés set sail with eleven ships to explore
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4872-468: The Spanish and the indigenous conquistadors were treated in a similar manner to the conquered natives. The Spanish engaged in a strategy of concentrating native populations in newly founded colonial towns, or reducciones (also known as congregaciones ). Native resistance to the new nucleated settlements took the form of the flight of the indigenous inhabitants into inaccessible regions such as mountains and forests. Epidemics accidentally introduced by
4988-461: The Spanish and their allies stormed the town and set up camp in the marketplace. Alvarado then turned to head upriver into the Sierra Madre mountains towards the Kʼicheʼ heartlands, crossing the pass into the fertile valley of Quetzaltenango . On 12 February 1524 Alvarado's Mexican allies were ambushed in the pass and driven back by Kʼicheʼ warriors but the Spanish cavalry charge that followed
5104-422: The Spanish as soon as news of the battle reached them. The Spanish continued east towards Uspantán to find it defended by 10,000 warriors, including forces from Cotzal , Cunén , Sacapulas and Verapaz . The Spaniards were barely able to organise a defence before the defending army attacked. Although heavily outnumbered, the deployment of Spanish cavalry and the firearms of the Spanish infantry eventually decided
5220-540: The Spanish camp at Tecpán Guatemala in July 1525 and marched to the town of Totonicapán , which he used as a supply base. From Totonicapán the expedition headed north to Momostenango , although it was delayed by heavy rains. Momostenango quickly fell to the Spanish after a four-hour battle. The following day Gonzalo de Alvarado marched on Huehuetenango and was confronted by a Mam army of 5,000 warriors from nearby Malacatán (modern Malacatancito ). The Mam army advanced across
5336-468: The Spanish garrison at Qʼumarkaj . A year later Francisco de Castellanos set out from Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (by now relocated to Ciudad Vieja ) on another expedition against the Ixil and Uspantek, leading 8 corporals, 32 cavalry, 40 Spanish infantry and several hundred allied indigenous warriors. The expedition rested at Chichicastenango and recruited further forces before marching seven leagues northwards to Sacapulas and climbed
5452-424: The Spanish in 1526, fighting a battle at Ukubʼil, an unidentified site somewhere near the modern towns of San Juan Sacatepéquez and San Pedro Sacatepéquez . In the colonial period, most of the surviving Chajoma were forcibly settled in the towns of San Juan Sacatepéquez, San Pedro Sacatepéquez and San Martín Jilotepeque as a result of the Spanish policy of congregaciones ; the people were moved to whichever of
5568-430: The Spanish included smallpox , measles and influenza . These diseases, together with typhus and yellow fever , had a major impact on Maya populations. The Old World diseases brought with the Spanish and against which the indigenous New World peoples had no resistance were a deciding factor in the conquest; the diseases crippled armies and decimated populations before battles were even fought. Their introduction
5684-424: The Spanish settled in what is now central Ciudad Vieja, then known as Almolonga (not to be confused with Almolonga near Quetzaltenango ); Zapotec and Mixtec allies also settled San Gaspar Vivar about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) northeast of Almolonga, which they founded in 1530. The Kaqchikel kept up resistance against the Spanish for a number of years, but on 9 May 1530, exhausted by the warfare that had seen
5800-450: The Spanish use of crossbows , firearms (including muskets and cannon ), war dogs and war horses . Among Mesoamerican peoples the capture of prisoners was a priority, while to the Spanish such taking of prisoners was a hindrance to outright victory. The inhabitants of Guatemala, for all their sophistication, lacked key elements of Old World technology, such as the use of iron and steel and functional wheels. The use of steel swords
5916-479: The Spanish with spears, stakes and poisoned arrows. Maya warriors wore body armour in the form of quilted cotton that had been soaked in salt water to toughen it; the resulting armour compared favourably to the steel armour worn by the Spanish. The Maya had historically employed ambush and raiding as their preferred tactic, and its employment against the Spanish proved troublesome for the Europeans. In response to
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#17327913312216032-529: The achievements of their civilization . The first contact between the Maya and European explorers came in the early 16th century when a Spanish ship sailing from Panama to Santo Domingo was wrecked on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511. Several Spanish expeditions followed in 1517 and 1519, making landfall on various parts of the Yucatán coast. The Spanish conquest of the Maya
6148-582: The age of eighteen, Fuentes y Guzmán was given the position of Regidor Perpetuo de Guatemala (permanent councillor on the town council of Santiago). At various times he served as magistrate ( alcalde ) in Santiago, and was later the alcalde mayor of Totonicapán , and then of Sonsonate . He worked many years as the Cronista del Ayuntamiento (Chronicler of the Municipal Government). He
6264-495: The approach to Quetzaltenango. The letter was dated 11 April 1524 and was written during his stay at Qʼumarkaj. Almost a week later, on 18 February 1524, a Kʼicheʼ army confronted the Spanish army in the Quetzaltenango valley and were comprehensively defeated; many Kʼicheʼ nobles were among the dead. Such were the numbers of Kʼicheʼ dead that Olintepeque was given the name Xequiquel , roughly meaning "bathed in blood". In
6380-479: The centre of the city and sent out scouts to find the enemy. They managed to catch some locals and used them to send messages to the Tzʼutujil lords, ordering them to submit to the king of Spain. The Tzʼutujil leaders responded by surrendering to Pedro de Alvarado and swearing loyalty to Spain, at which point Alvarado considered them pacified and returned to Iximche. Three days after Pedro de Alvarado returned to Iximche,
6496-415: The city, and were hunted down by the victorious conquistadors and their allies. Those who managed to retreat down the neighbouring valley were ambushed by Spanish cavalry who had been posted to block the exit from the cave, the survivors were captured and brought back to the city. The siege had lasted more than a month and because of the defensive strength of the city, Alvarado ordered it to be burned and moved
6612-467: The city. As soon as the Spanish began their assault they were ambushed from the rear by more than 2,000 Uspantek warriors. The Spanish forces were routed with heavy losses; many of their indigenous allies were slain, and many more were captured alive by the Uspantek warriors only to be sacrificed on the altar of their deity Exbalamquen . The survivors who managed to evade capture fought their way back to
6728-415: The conquest, the inhabitants of the eastern part of the kingdom were relocated by the conquerors to San Pedro Sacatepéquez , including some of the inhabitants of the archaeological site now known as Mixco Viejo (Jilotepeque Viejo). The rest of the population of Mixco Viejo, together with the inhabitants of the western part of the kingdom, were moved to San Martín Jilotepeque . The Chajoma rebelled against
6844-410: The continuing conquest, including the later assault on the Poqomam capital. The Kaqchikel appear to have entered into an alliance with the Spanish to defeat their enemies, the Tzʼutujil , whose capital was Tecpan Atitlan. Pedro de Alvarado sent two Kaqchikel messengers to Tecpan Atitlan at the request of the Kaqchikel lords, both of whom were killed by the Tzʼutujil. When news of the killing of
6960-421: The corpses of the dead. After the fall of Zaculeu, a Spanish garrison was established at Huehuetenango under the command of Gonzalo de Solís ; Gonzalo de Alvarado returned to Tecpán Guatemala to report his victory to his brother. In 1525 Pedro de Alvarado sent a small company to conquer Mixco Viejo (Chinautla Viejo), the capital of the Poqomam . At the Spanish approach, the inhabitants remained enclosed in
7076-482: The day but was finally decided by the Spanish cavalry, forcing the Poqomam reinforcements to withdraw. The leaders of the reinforcements surrendered to the Spanish three days after their retreat and revealed that the city had a secret entrance in the form of a cave leading up from a nearby river, allowing the inhabitants to come and go. Armed with the knowledge gained from their prisoners, Alvarado sent 40 men to cover
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#17327913312217192-452: The deaths of their best warriors and the enforced abandonment of their crops, the two kings of the most important clans returned from the wilds. A day later they were joined by many nobles and their families and many more people; they then surrendered at the new Spanish capital at Ciudad Vieja. The former inhabitants of Iximche were dispersed; some were moved to Tecpán , the rest to Sololá and other towns around Lake Atitlán . Although
7308-399: The defeated Tzʼutujil Maya nobility of Santiago Atitlán to the Spanish king written in 1571 details the exploitation of the subjugated peoples. Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán was a colonial Guatemalan historian of Spanish descent who wrote La Recordación Florida , also called Historia de Guatemala ( History of Guatemala ). The book was written in 1690 and is regarded as one of
7424-557: The department of Zacapa. Chimalapa, Gualán and Usumatlán were all satellite settlements of Acasaguastlán. San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán and the surrounding area were reduced into colonial settlements by friars of the Dominican Order ; at the time of the conquest the area was inhabited by Poqomchiʼ Maya and by the Nahuatl-speaking Pipil . In the 1520s, immediately after conquest, the inhabitants paid taxes to
7540-447: The early 17th century, the grandson of the Kʼicheʼ king informed the alcalde mayor (the highest colonial official at the time) that the Kʼicheʼ army that had marched out of Qʼumarkaj to confront the invaders numbered 30,000 warriors, a claim that is considered credible by modern scholars. This battle exhausted the Kʼicheʼ militarily and they asked for peace and offered tribute, inviting Pedro de Alvarado into their capital Qʼumarkaj, which
7656-414: The elderly. Messengers from the community's leaders arrived from the hills and offered their unconditional surrender, which was accepted by Alvarado. The Spanish army rested for a few days, then continued onwards to Huehuetenango only to find it deserted. Kaybʼil Bʼalam had received news of the Spanish advance and had withdrawn to his fortress at Zaculeu. Alvarado sent a message to Zaculeu proposing terms for
7772-424: The exit from the cave and launched another assault along the ravine from the west, in single file owing to its narrowness, with crossbowmen alternating with soldiers bearing muskets, each with a companion sheltering him from arrows and stones with a shield. This tactic allowed the Spanish to break through the pass and storm the entrance of the city. The Poqomam warriors fell back in disorder in a chaotic retreat through
7888-484: The fierce battles upon the initial approach to Quetzaltenango. The death of Tecun Uman is said to have taken place in the battle of El Pinar, and local tradition has his death taking place on the Llanos de Urbina (Plains of Urbina), upon the approach to Quetzaltenango near the modern village of Cantel . Pedro de Alvarado, in his third letter to Hernán Cortés , describes the death of one of the four lords of Qʼumarkaj upon
8004-406: The fortified city. The Spanish attempted an approach from the west through a narrow pass but were forced back with heavy losses. Alvarado himself launched the second assault with 200 Tlaxcalan allies but was also beaten back. The Poqomam then received reinforcements, possibly from Chinautla , and the two armies clashed on open ground outside of the city. The battle was chaotic and lasted for most of
8120-516: The foundation of Spanish towns. The towns of San Marcos and San Pedro Sacatepéquez were founded soon after the conquest of western Guatemala. In 1533 Pedro de Alvarado ordered de León y Cardona to explore and conquer the area around the Tacaná , Tajumulco , Lacandón and San Antonio volcanoes; in colonial times this area was referred to as the Province of Tecusitlán and Lacandón. De León marched to
8236-515: The gathered reinforcements on the way. When the army left the Basin of Mexico , it may have included as many as 20,000 native warriors from various kingdoms, although the exact numbers are disputed. By the time the army crossed the Isthmus of Tehuantepec , the massed native warriors included 800 from Tlaxcala , 400 from Huejotzingo , 1,600 from Tepeaca plus many more from other former Aztec territories. Further Mesoamerican warriors were recruited from
8352-488: The highlands. ... we waited until they came close enough to shoot their arrows, and then we smashed into them; as they had never seen horses, they grew very fearful, and we made a good advance ... and many of them died. Pedro de Alvarado describing the approach to Quetzaltenango in his 3rd letter to Hernán Cortés Pedro de Alvarado and his army advanced along the Pacific coast unopposed until they reached
8468-638: The history of Guatemala until the 17th century. The incomplete first part of the Recordación Florida was published in Madrid in 1882-1883. The complete text was stored in the archive of the Municipality of Guatemala, and was published in Guatemala in 1932-1933. Large portions of the work were reproduced in the writing of diocesan priest Domingo de Juarros , published in the early 19th century. Spanish conquest of Guatemala In
8584-441: The houses of the city were still in excellent condition; his account was the last description of the city while it was still inhabitable. The Kaqchikel began to fight the Spanish. They opened shafts and pits for the horses and put sharp stakes in them to kill them ... Many Spanish and their horses died in the horse traps. Many Kʼicheʼ and Tzʼutujil also died; in this way the Kaqchikel destroyed all these peoples. Annals of
8700-464: The influence of these Mexican allies, who translated for the Spanish. The Kaqchikel Maya initially allied themselves with the Spanish, but soon rebelled against excessive demands for tribute and did not finally surrender until 1530. In the meantime the other major highland Maya kingdoms had each been defeated in turn by the Spanish and allied warriors from Mexico and already subjugated Maya kingdoms in Guatemala. The Itza Maya and other lowland groups in
8816-475: The inhabitants could break the bridges. The rest of Alvarado's army soon reinforced his party and they successfully stormed the island. The surviving Tzʼutujil fled into the lake and swam to safety on another island. The Spanish could not pursue the survivors further because 300 canoes sent by the Kaqchikels had not yet arrived. This battle took place on 18 April. The following day the Spanish entered Tecpan Atitlan but found it deserted. Pedro de Alvarado camped in
8932-466: The inhabitants to the new colonial village of Mixco . There are no direct sources describing the conquest of the Chajoma by the Spanish but it appears to have been a drawn-out campaign rather than a rapid victory. The only description of the conquest of the Chajoma is a secondary account appearing in the work of Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzmán in the 17th century, long after the event. After
9048-479: The initial campaign to subjugate the Guatemalan Highlands . These letters were despatched to Tenochtitlan , addressed to Cortés but with a royal audience in mind; two of these letters are now lost. Gonzalo de Alvarado y Chávez was Pedro de Alvarado's cousin; he accompanied him on his first campaign in Guatemala and in 1525 he became the chief constable of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala ,
9164-401: The lack of resistance, Alvarado rode ahead with 30 cavalry along the lakeshore. Opposite a populated island the Spanish at last encountered hostile Tzʼutujil warriors and charged among them, scattering and pursuing them to a narrow causeway across which the surviving Tzʼutujil fled. The causeway was too narrow for the horses, therefore the conquistadors dismounted and crossed to the island before
9280-617: The lords of the Tzʼutujil arrived there to pledge their loyalty and offer tribute to the conquistadors. A short time afterwards a number of lords arrived from the Pacific lowlands to swear allegiance to the king of Spain, although Alvarado did not name them in his letters; they confirmed Kaqchikel reports that further out on the Pacific plain was the kingdom called Izcuintepeque in Nahuatl , or Panatacat in Kaqchikel , whose inhabitants were warlike and hostile towards their neighbours. Pedro de Alvarado rapidly began to demand gold in tribute from
9396-479: The main Mam population was situated in Xinabahul (also spelled Chinabjul ), now the city of Huehuetenango , but Zaculeu's fortifications led to its use as a refuge during the conquest. The refuge was attacked by Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras , brother of conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, in 1525, with 40 Spanish cavalry and 80 Spanish infantry, and some 2,000 Mexican and Kʼicheʼ allies. Gonzalo de Alvarado left
9512-408: The messengers reached the Spanish at Iximche , the conquistadors marched against the Tzʼutujil with their Kaqchikel allies. Pedro de Alvarado left Iximche just 5 days after he had arrived there, with 60 cavalry, 150 Spanish infantry and an unspecified number of Kaqchikel warriors. The Spanish and their allies arrived at the lakeshore after a day's hard march, without encountering any opposition. Seeing
9628-510: The most important works of Guatemalan history, and is the first such book to have been written by a criollo author. Field investigation has tended to support the estimates of indigenous population and army sizes given by Fuentes y Guzmán. Christopher Columbus discovered the New World for the Kingdom of Castile and León in 1492. Private adventurers thereafter entered into contracts with
9744-450: The name of the city used by their Nahuatl-speaking Mexican allies and applied it to the new Spanish city and, by extension, to the kingdom . From this comes the modern name of the country. When Pedro de Alvarado moved his army to Iximche, he left the defeated Kʼicheʼ kingdom under the command of Juan de León y Cardona. Although de León y Cardona was given command of the western reaches of the new colony, he continued to take an active role in
9860-405: The neighbouring Pacific coastal plain. However, in the late 15th century the Kaqchikel rebelled against their former Kʼicheʼ allies and founded a new kingdom to the southeast with Iximche as its capital. In the decades before the Spanish invasion the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of the Kʼicheʼ. Other highland groups included the Tzʼutujil around Lake Atitlán , the Mam in
9976-458: The new ruler of Mexico, and the Kʼicheʼ Maya of Qʼumarkaj may also have sent a delegation. In 1522 Cortés sent Mexican allies to scout the Soconusco region of lowland Chiapas , where they met new delegations from Iximche and Qʼumarkaj at Tuxpán ; both of the powerful highland Maya kingdoms declared their loyalty to the king of Spain . But Cortés' allies in Soconusco soon informed him that
10092-513: The newly founded Spanish capital. Gonzalo wrote an account that mostly supports that of Pedro de Alvarado. Pedro de Alvarado's brother Jorge wrote another account to the king of Spain that explained it was his own campaign of 1527–1529 that established the Spanish colony. Bernal Díaz del Castillo wrote a lengthy account of the conquest of Mexico and neighbouring regions, the Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España ("True History of
10208-462: The night of 1 October 2015 and following several days of heavy rains, a hill collapsed causing a mudslide that destroyed El Cambray II settlement, leaving behind hundreds of missing people, according to the first official reports. Besides, there were nine confirmed deaths, 34 injured and up to 65 displaced on more than 100 destroyed homes. After the landslide, the area was in Code Red. The region has
10324-410: The peaceful surrender of the Mam king, who chose not to answer. Zaculeu was defended by Kaybʼil Bʼalam commanding some 6,000 warriors gathered from Huehuetenango , Zaculeu , Cuilco and Ixtahuacán . The fortress was surrounded on three sides by deep ravines and defended by a formidable system of walls and ditches. Gonzalo de Alvarado, although outnumbered two to one, decided to launch an assault on
10440-410: The plain in battle formation and was met by a Spanish cavalry charge that threw them into disarray, with the infantry mopping up those Mam that survived the cavalry. Gonzalo de Alvarado slew the Mam leader Canil Acab with his lance, at which point the Mam army's resistance was broken, and the surviving warriors fled to the hills. Alvarado entered Malacatán unopposed to find it occupied only by the sick and
10556-445: The rebellion was quickly put down in April 1530. However, the region was not considered fully conquered until a campaign by Jorge de Bocanegra in 1531–1532 that also took in parts of Jalapa . The afflictions of Old World diseases, war and overwork in the mines and encomiendas took a heavy toll on the inhabitants of eastern Guatemala, to the extent that indigenous population levels never recovered to their pre-conquest levels. In
10672-402: The steep southern slopes of the Cuchumatanes . On the upper slopes they clashed with a force of 4,000-5,000 Ixil warriors from Nebaj and nearby settlements. A lengthy battle followed during which the Spanish cavalry managed to outflank the Ixil army and forced them to retreat to their mountaintop fortress at Nebaj. The Spanish force besieged the city, and their indigenous allies managed to scale
10788-565: The ten years after the fall of Zaculeu various Spanish expeditions crossed into the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes and engaged in the gradual and complex conquest of the Chuj and Qʼanjobʼal . The Spanish were attracted to the region in the hope of extracting gold, silver and other riches from the mountains but their remoteness, the difficult terrain and relatively low population made their conquest and exploitation extremely difficult. The population of
10904-573: The three towns was closest to their pre-conquest land holdings. Some Iximche Kaqchikels seem also to have been relocated to the same towns. After their relocation some of the Chajoma drifted back to their pre-conquest centres, creating informal settlements and provoking hostilities with the Poqomam of Mixco and Chinautla along the former border between the pre-Columbian kingdoms. Some of these settlements eventually received official recognition, such as San Raimundo near Sacul . The Spanish colonial corregimiento of San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán
11020-471: The use of cavalry, the highland Maya took to digging pits on the roads, lining them with fire-hardened stakes and camouflaging them with grass and weeds, a tactic that according to the Kaqchikel killed many horses. We came here to serve God and the King, and also to get rich. Bernal Díaz del Castillo The conquistadors were all volunteers, the majority of whom did not receive a fixed salary but instead
11136-431: The vain hope of being named as Chronicler of the Kingdom of Guatemala . He continued writing the work, with the addition of a seventeenth book to the first part, and a second part comprising 14 more books. The Recordación Florida regarded as one of the most important works of Guatemalan history. In the book, he describes the customs and rites of indigenous people, the Spanish conquest of Guatemala , and notable facts in
11252-407: The walls, penetrate the stronghold and set it on fire. Many defending Ixil warriors withdrew to fight the fire, which allowed the Spanish to storm the entrance and break the defences. The victorious Spanish rounded up the surviving defenders and the next day Castellanos ordered them all to be branded as slaves as punishment for their resistance. The inhabitants of Chajul immediately capitulated to
11368-427: The walls. As Alvarado dug in and laid siege to the fortress, an army of approximately 8,000 Mam warriors descended on Zaculeu from the Cuchumatanes mountains to the north, drawn from those towns allied with the city. Alvarado left Antonio de Salazar to supervise the siege and marched north to confront the Mam army. The Mam army was disorganised, and although it was a match for the Spanish and allied foot soldiers, it
11484-463: The weaker northern entrance. Mam warriors initially held the northern approaches against the Spanish infantry but fell back before repeated cavalry charges. The Mam defence was reinforced by an estimated 2,000 warriors from within Zaculeu but was unable to push the Spanish back. Kaybʼil Bʼalam, seeing that outright victory on an open battlefield was impossible, withdrew his army back within the safety of
11600-849: The western highlands and the Poqomam in the eastern highlands. The kingdom of the Itza was the most powerful polity in the Petén lowlands of northern Guatemala, centred on their capital Nojpetén , on an island in Lake Petén Itzá . The second polity in importance was that of their hostile neighbours, the Kowoj . The Kowoj were located to the east of the Itza, around the eastern lakes: Lake Salpetén, Lake Macanché, Lake Yaxhá and Lake Sacnab. Other groups are less well known and their precise territorial extent and political makeup remains obscure; among them were
11716-561: Was a Guatemalan criollo historian and poet. His only surviving work is the Recordación Florida . Fuentes y Guzmán was born to a wealthy family in Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala (modern Antigua Guatemala ) in 1643. He was the great-great-grandson of the conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo , historian of the Indies. Fuentes y Guzmán was a nobleman and a member of the ruling criollo caste . In 1661, at
11832-447: Was a nobleman who joined the initial invasion. Bernal Díaz del Castillo was a petty nobleman who accompanied Hernán Cortés when he crossed the northern lowlands, and Pedro de Alvarado on his invasion of the highlands. In addition to Spaniards, the invasion force probably included dozens of armed African slaves and freedmen . Spanish weaponry and tactics differed greatly from that of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala. This included
11948-491: Was a prolonged affair; the Maya kingdoms resisted integration into the Spanish Empire with such tenacity that their defeat took almost two centuries. Pedro de Alvarado arrived in Guatemala from the newly conquered Mexico in early 1524, commanding a mixed force of Spanish conquistadors and native allies, mostly from Tlaxcala and Cholula . Geographic features across Guatemala now bear Nahuatl placenames owing to
12064-404: Was a shock for the Kʼicheʼ, who had never before seen horses. The cavalry scattered the Kʼicheʼ and the army crossed to the city of Xelaju (modern Quetzaltenango) only to find it deserted. Although the common view is that the Kʼicheʼ prince Tecun Uman died in the later battle near Olintepeque , the Spanish accounts are clear that at least one and possibly two of the lords of Qʼumarkaj died in
12180-400: Was apparently initiated after Kʼicheʼ bitterness at their failure to contain the Spanish at Qʼumarkaj, with the plan to trap the conquistadors in the city having been suggested to them by the Mam king, Kaybʼil Bʼalam; the resulting execution of the Kʼicheʼ kings was viewed as unjust. The Kʼicheʼ suggestion of marching on the Mam was quickly taken up by the Spanish. At the time of the conquest,
12296-432: Was booming, but it was not as well to do if its silver mines had been exploited. Fuentes y Guzmán told the story that, when the church was being built, the workers found a thick silver lining, but they rushed to hide it from the Spaniards, so the latter could not use it. In 1754, due to a Royal Decree, all the doctrines and curatos still belonging to regular orders were transferred to the secular clergy authorities. On
12412-467: Was catastrophic in the Americas; it is estimated that 90% of the indigenous population had been eliminated by disease within the first century of European contact. In 1519 and 1520, before the arrival of the Spanish in the region, a number of epidemics swept through southern Guatemala. At the same time as the Spanish were occupied with the overthrow of the Aztec Empire , a devastating plague struck
12528-564: Was entering a trap. He encamped on the plain outside the city rather than accepting lodgings inside. Fearing the great number of Kʼicheʼ warriors gathered outside the city and that his cavalry would not be able to manoeuvre in the narrow streets of Qʼumarkaj, he invited the leading lords of the city, Oxib-Keh (the ajpop , or king) and Beleheb-Tzy (the ajpop kʼamha , or king elect) to visit him in his camp. As soon as they did so, he seized them and kept them as prisoners in his camp. The Kʼicheʼ warriors, seeing their lords taken prisoner, attacked
12644-642: Was established in 1551 with its seat in the town of that name, now in the eastern portion of the modern department of El Progreso . Acasaguastlán was one of few pre-conquest centres of population in the middle Motagua River drainage, due to the arid climate. It covered a broad area that included Cubulco , Rabinal , and Salamá (all in Baja Verapaz ), San Agustín de la Real Corona (modern San Agustín Acasaguastlán ) and La Magdalena in El Progreso, and Chimalapa , Gualán , Usumatlán and Zacapa , all in
12760-539: Was infamous for the massacre of Aztec nobles in Tenochtitlan and, according to Bartolomé de las Casas , he committed further atrocities in the conquest of the Maya kingdoms in Guatemala. Some groups remained loyal to the Spanish once they had submitted to the conquest, such as the Tzʼutujil and the Kʼicheʼ of Quetzaltenango , and provided them with warriors to assist further conquest. Other groups soon rebelled however, and by 1526 numerous rebellions had engulfed
12876-495: Was inhabited by Chʼortiʼ Maya at the time of the conquest. The first Spanish reconnaissance of this region took place in 1524 by an expedition that included Hernando de Chávez , Juan Durán, Bartolomé Becerra and Cristóbal Salvatierra , amongst others. In 1526 three Spanish captains, Juan Pérez Dardón , Sancho de Barahona and Bartolomé Becerra , invaded Chiquimula on the orders of Pedro de Alvarado . The indigenous population soon rebelled against excessive Spanish demands, but
12992-469: Was known as Tecpan Utatlan to the Nahuatl-speaking allies of the Spanish. Alvarado was deeply suspicious of the Kʼicheʼ intentions but accepted the offer and marched to Qʼumarkaj with his army. The day after the battle of Olintepeque, the Spanish army arrived at Tzakahá , which submitted peacefully. There the Spanish chaplains Juan Godínez and Juan Díaz conducted a Roman Catholic mass under
13108-481: Was not so much aimed at destruction of the enemy as the seizure of captives and plunder. The Spanish described the weapons of war of the Petén Maya as bows and arrows, fire-sharpened poles, flint-headed spears and two-handed swords crafted from strong wood with the blade fashioned from inset obsidian , similar to the Aztec macuahuitl . Pedro de Alvarado described how the Xinca of the Pacific coast attacked
13224-468: Was perhaps the greatest technological advantage held by the Spanish, although the deployment of cavalry helped them to rout indigenous armies on occasion. The Spanish were sufficiently impressed by the quilted cotton armour of their Maya enemies that they adopted it in preference to their own steel armour. The conquistadors applied a more effective military organisation and strategic awareness than their opponents, allowing them to deploy troops and supplies in
13340-466: Was the participation of these Mesoamerican allies that was particularly decisive. In at least one case, encomienda rights were granted to one of the Tlaxcalan leaders who came as allies, and land grants and exemption from being given in encomienda were given to the Mexican allies as rewards for their participation in the conquest. In practice, such privileges were easily removed or sidestepped by
13456-409: Was vulnerable to the repeated charges of the experienced Spanish cavalry. The relief army was broken and annihilated, allowing Alvarado to return to reinforce the siege. After several months the Mam were reduced to starvation. Kaybʼil Bʼalam finally surrendered the city to the Spanish in the middle of October 1525. When the Spanish entered the city they found 1,800 dead Indians, and the survivors eating
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