Spanish conquest of Guatemala

[2] 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 (Hispaniola) was wrecked on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511.

[4] 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.

[34] 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 the neighbouring Pacific coastal plain.

[42] 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,[43] similar to the Aztec macuahuitl.

[nb 2] The conquistadors were all volunteers, the majority of whom did not receive a fixed salary but instead a portion of the spoils of victory, in the form of precious metals, land grants and provision of native labour.

[51] 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.

[74] 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;[75] both of the powerful highland Maya kingdoms declared their loyalty to the king of Spain.

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;[76] they arrived in Soconusco in 1523.

[88] This battle exhausted the Kʼicheʼ militarily and they asked for peace and offered tribute, inviting Pedro de Alvarado into their capital Qʼumarkaj, which was known as Tecpan Utatlan to the Nahuatl-speaking allies of the Spanish.

[112] 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.

[114][nb 5] 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.

[117] 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.

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.

[134] Armed with the knowledge gained from their prisoners, Alvarado sent 40 men to cover 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.

[154] In 1684, a council led by Enrique Enríquez de Guzmán, the governor of Guatemala, decided on the reduction of San Mateo Ixtatán and nearby Santa Eulalia, both within the colonial administrative district of the Corregimiento of Huehuetenango.

[157] To prevent news of the Spanish advance reaching the inhabitants of the Lacandon area, the governor ordered the capture of three of San Mateo's community leaders, named as Cristóbal Domingo, Alonso Delgado and Gaspar Jorge, and had them sent under guard to be imprisoned in Huehuetenango.

[101] On 8 May 1524, soon after his arrival in Iximche and immediately following his subsequent conquest of the Tzʼutujil around Lake Atitlán, Pedro de Alvarado continued southwards to the Pacific coastal plain with an army numbering approximately 6,000,[nb 8] where he defeated the Pipil of Panacal or Panacaltepeque (called Panatacat in the Annals of the Kaqchikels) near Izcuintepeque on 9 May.

However, Pedro de Alvarado pressed ahead and when the Spanish entered the town the defenders were completely unprepared, with the Pipil warriors indoors sheltering from the torrential rain.

[174] Jorge de Alvarado led the first attempt with thirty to forty cavalry and although they routed the enemy they were unable to retrieve any of the lost baggage, much of which had been destroyed by the Xinca for use as trophies.

Pedro de Portocarrero led the second attempt with a large infantry detachment but was unable to engage with the enemy due to the difficult Kʼicheʼ kingdom of Qʼumarkaj terrain, so returned to Nancintla.

[182] Cortés accepted an invitation from Aj Kan Ekʼ, the king of the Itza, to visit Nojpetén (also known as Tayasal), and crossed to the Maya city with 20 Spanish soldiers while the rest of his army continued around the lake to meet him on the south shore.

When he came to a river swollen with the constant torrential rains that had been falling during the expedition, Cortés turned upstream to the Gracias a Dios rapids, which took two days to cross and cost him more horses.

This strategy resulted in the gradual depopulation of the forest, simultaneously converting it into a wilderness refuge for those fleeing Spanish domination, both for individual refugees and for entire communities, especially those congregaciones that were remote from centres of colonial authority.

[197] Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas arrived in the colony of Guatemala in 1537 and immediately campaigned to replace violent military conquest with peaceful missionary work.

[191] Because it had not been possible to conquer the land by military means, the governor of Guatemala, Alonso de Maldonado, agreed to sign a contract promising he would not establish any new encomiendas in the area should Las Casas' strategy succeed.

one could make a whole book ... out of the atrocities, barbarities, murders, clearances, ravages and other foul injustices perpetrated ... by those that went to Guatemala In this way they congregated a group of Christian Indians in the location of what is now the town of Rabinal.

[191] In 1543 the new colonial reducción of Santo Domingo de Cobán was founded at Chi Monʼa to house the relocated Qʼeqchiʼ from Chichen, Xucaneb and Al Run Tax Aj.

Santo Tomás Apóstol was founded nearby the same year at Chi Nim Xol, it was used in 1560 as a reducción to resettle Chʼol communities from Topiltepeque and Lacandon in the Usumacinta Valley.

[224] Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi arrived on the western shore of Lake Petén Itzá with his soldiers on 26 February 1697 and, once there, built a galeota, a large and heavily armed oar-powered attack boat.

With Nojpetén safely in the hands of the Spanish, Ursúa returned to Campeche; he left a small garrison on the island, isolated amongst the hostile Itza and Kowoj who still dominated the mainland.

Painting with three prominent indigenous warriors in single file facing left, wearing cloaks and grasping staves, followed by a dog. Below them and to the right is the smaller image of a mounted Spaniard with a raised lance. To the left and indigenous porter carries a pack fixed by a strap across his forehead, and sports a staff in one hand. All are apparently moving towards a doorway at top left.
A page from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala , showing a Spanish conquistador accompanied by Tlaxcalan allies and a native porter
Spanish expansion routes in the Caribbean during the early 16th century
Guatemala is situated between the Pacific Ocean to the south and the Caribbean Sea to the northeast. The broad band of the Sierra Madre mountains sweeps down from Mexico in the west, across southern and central Guatemala and into El Salvador and Honduras to the east. The north is dominated by a broad lowland plain that extends eastwards into Belize and north into Mexico. A narrower plain separates the Sierra Madre from the Pacific Ocean to the south.
Relief map of Guatemala showing the three broad geographical areas: the southern Pacific lowlands, the highlands and the northern Petén lowlands
Pedro de Alvarado entered Guatemala from the west along the southern Pacific plain in 1524, before swinging northwards and fighting a number of battles to enter the highlands. He then executed a broad loop around the north side of the highland Lake Atitlán, fighting further battles along the way, before descending southwards once more into the Pacific lowlands. Two more battles were fought as his forces headed east into what is now El Salvador. In 1525 Hernán Cortés entered northern Guatemala from the north, crossed to Lake Petén Itzá and continued roughly southeast to Lake Izabal before turning east to the Gulf of Honduras.
Map of the principal entry routes and battle sites of the conquest of Guatemala
Representation of a battle between a native and a conquistador.
The highlands of Guatemala are bordered by the Pacific plain to the south, with the coast running to the southwest. The Kaqchikel kingdom was centred on Iximche, located roughly halfway between Lake Atitlán to the west and modern Guatemala City to the east. The Tzʼutujil kingdom was based around the south shore of the lake, extending into the Pacific lowlands. The Pipil were situated further east along the Pacific plain and the Pocomam occupied the highlands to the east of modern Guatemala City. The Kʼicheʼ kingdom extended to the north and west of the lake with principal settlements at Xelaju, Totonicapan, Qʼumarkaj, Pismachiʼ and Jakawitz. The Mam kingdom covered the western highlands bordering modern Mexico.
Map of the Guatemalan Highlands on the eve of the Spanish conquest
Grass- and scrub-covered ruins set against a backdrop of low pine forest. A crumbling squat square tower stands behind to the right, all that remains of the Temple of Tohil, with the remains of the walls of the ballcourt to the left in the foreground.
Qʼumarkaj was the capital of the Kʼicheʼ kingdom until it was burnt by the invading Spanish.
View across hills to a broad lake bathed in a light mist. The mountainous lake shore curves from the left foreground backwards and to the right, with several volcanoes rising from the far shore, framed by a clear blue sky above.
The Tzʼutujil kingdom had its capital on the shore of Lake Atitlán.
A cluster of squat white step pyramids, the tallest of them topped by a shrine with three doorways. In the background is a low mountain ridge.
Zaculeu fell to Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras after a siege of several months.
View over a heavily forested mountain slope towards rugged peaks beyond, separated from them by a mass of low cloud.
The difficult terrain and remoteness of the Cuchumatanes made their conquest difficult.
A series of semi-collapsed dry-stone terraces, overgrown with short grass. On top of the uppermost of five terraces stand the crumbling, overgrown remains of two large buildings flanking the ruins of a smaller structure. A tree grows from the right hand side of the smaller central building, and another stands in at extreme right, on the upper terrace and in front of the building also standing on it. The foreground is a flat plaza area, with the collapsed flank of a grass-covered pyramid at bottom right. The sky is overcast with low rainclouds.
The ruins of Ystapalapán
Page from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala depicting the conquest of Izcuintepeque
The Pacific slope of Jutiapa was the scene of a number of battles with the Xinca.
Painting of Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés , conqueror of the Aztecs, travelled across Petén in the early 16th century.
Painting of Bartolomé de las Casas
Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas promoted the peaceful conversion of the native peoples.
The Castillo de San Felipe was a Spanish fort that guarded the entrance to Lake Izabal.
Northern Guatemala is a flat lowland plain dropping off from the Cuchumatanes mountain range sweeping across in an arc to the south. To the east of the mountains is the large lowland Lake Izabal, with an outlet into the Amatique Bay to the east, which itself opens onto the Gulf of Honduras. Immediately north of the mountains is the Lacandon forest, with Petén to the northeast. Ystapalapán was a settlement in the western Cuchumatanes, in the territory of the Chuj. Cobán was in Qʼeqchiʼ territory, in the foothills halfway between Ystapalapán in the west and Lake Izabal in the east. Xocolo was at the northeastern extreme of Lake Izabal, where it flows out towards the sea. Nito, also known as Amatique, was on the coast where the river flowing out of the lake opened into the Amatique Bay. The area south of the lake was Toquegua territory. The Manche occupied the lands to the northwest of the lake, with the Acala to their west between the Manche and the Chuj. The Lacandon were northwest of the Acala, straddling the border with Mexico. Lake Petén Itzá was in the centre of Petén, to the north. It was the location of Nojpetén, with the Itza lands stretching southwards from the lake. To the east of the Itza and northeast of the Manche were the Mopan, on the border with Belize. North of the Mopan were the Yalain, east of Lake Petén Itzá. The Kowoj were to the northeast of the lake and the Kejache to the northwest. The "Tierra de Guerra" ("Land of War") covers a broad northern swathe of the mountains and the southern portion of the lowlands.
Map of the northern Guatemalan lowlands at the time of Spanish contact