Guatemala

Guatemala, the name of a Central American state and its chief town. 1. The Republic of Guatemala has Yucatan on the north, Mexico on the north-west, and Honduras and San Salvador on the south and south-east. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific, but has little coast on the opposite side, the state of Belize occupying half of the sea-line between Yucatan and Honduras. A large part of the country is yet unexplored, but the estimated area is 46,000 square miles, and the estimated population nearly one and a half millions.

Guatemala was conquered in 1524 by a lieutenant of Cortez's, and remained under Spanish rule till the revolution in 1821. The present republic was founded in 1839 by Rafael Carrera, an Indian, who exercised dictatorial power till his death in 1865. From 1871 to 1885 General Barrios ruled, but after a period of firm government, during which Church property was applied to State uses and monastic orders suppressed, he fell in a war with San Salvador. In March, 1892. another General Barrios became President. Guatemala is extremely mountainous, and contains several active volcanoes of which Fuego, more than 12,000 feet high, is the chief. Earthquakes are frequent and severe. There are many rivers and lakes, but in some parts water is often scarce. The climate is healthy, except on the Pacific coast, where yellow fever not unfrequently prevails. The soil is very productive, maize, beans, sugar, cocoa, tobacco, indiarubber, sarsaparilla, and coffee being raised from it, as well as several fruits and vegetables, and some wheat and rice. There are several hundred species of gorgeously-plumaged birds, and tropical insects from the most beautiful butterfly to the noxious scorpion and tarantula abound. Iguanas and turtles are also found in large quantities. The mineral resources of the country, as yet but partially developed, include gold and silver, iron, lead, quicksilver, zinc, and many other metals. The chief article of export is coffee, next in importance to which come hides, indigo, and sugar. Weaving and the making of pottery and saddles are the chief industries; but a fourth of the annual revenue is said to be obtained from the government monopoly of aguardiente, a spirituous liquor. Great Britain supplies nearly a third of the imports. In 1879 primary education was made compulsory and gratuitous, eind there are some good schools in the capital, Belen, Quetzalternango, and other towns.

Guatemala is governed by a President, elected for six years by plebiscite, with'a council of fifteen, six of which are his own nominees. The Assembly is elected by universal suffrage. The Public Debt is large, but" the security is good. The chief towns of Guatemala besides the capital are Quetzaltenango, Chimaltenango, and the part of San Jose.

2. Guatemala La Nueva, the capital, is called "the new" to distinguish it from two other towns of the same name. It is situated on the S.W. of the Republic nearly 5,000 feet above the level of the sea, from which it is distant some 70 miles. It is well built and provided with all modern improvements, and contains numerous educational institutions supported by the state, as well as a cathedral, several hospitals, and two large markets. There is also a bull-ring and a subsidised theatre. Guatemala is agreat centre for foreign trade. The inhabitants of Guatemala, most of whom are still nearly pure Indians, descendants of the five civilised peoples (Quiches, Cachiquels, Zutugils, Mams or Pokomans, and Pipiles) who at the time of the conquest occupied this region together with the present Mexican states of Chiapas and Soconusco, and the greater part of Central America as far as Chiriqui Bay. The Pipiles were comparatively recent intruders from the Mexican plateau, and many of them even still speak the Aztec language; but all the rest, as well as the less cultured Chols and Lacandones of the department of Vera Paz on the Mexican frontier, are members of the widespread Maya-Quiche family, whose domain included the whole of Yucatan and parts of Mexico as far north as the states of Vera Cruz and Tamaulipas. [Mayas, Quiches.] In Guatemala the Indians, although three or four times more numerous than the Creoles and half-castes, are still regarded as an inferior race scarcely entitled to the rights of citizenship. Very few are owners of the land they cultivate, and the great majority are held in a state of servitude almost worse than slavery to the planters and the money-lenders whose advances they are unable to redeem. Crossings between the whites, negroes, and aborigines have produced a great variety of types, showing every shade of transition from the European to the Indian and African. These halfbreeds are all of Spanish speech, and are politically the dominant element. (Squier, The States- of Central America; Adolf Bastian, Bie Culturldnder des alien America.)