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The history of Guatemala began with the arrival of human settlers in 1511. The Mayan civilization (2,000 BC – 250 AD) was among those that flourished in the region, with little contact with cultures outside Mesoamerica. Most of the great Classic-era (250–900 AD) Maya cities of the Petén Basin region, in the northern lowlands of Guatemala, had been abandoned by the year 1000 AD. The states in the Guatemalan central highlands flourished until the arrival in 1525 of Pedro de Alvarado, the Spanish Conquistador. Called "the invader" by the Mayan peoples, he began subjugating the Indian states with his forces. Guatemala was part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala, for nearly 300 years; this Captaincy, or ''Capitanía'', included the territories of Chiapas, Campeche, Tabasco in modern Mexico, and the modern countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The ''Capitania'' became independent in 1821, and became a part of the First Mexican Empire until 1823. From 1824 it was a part of the Federal Republic of Central America, until the Republic dissolved in 1841, when Guatemala became fully independent. In the late 19th century, Guatemala experienced a series of authoritarian governments and significant political instability. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Guatemala's potential for agricultural exploitation attracted several foreign companies to it, the most prominent being the United Fruit Company (UFC). These companies were supported by the countries authoritarian rulers and the United States government through their support for brutal labor regulations and massive concessions to wealthy landowners. In 1944, the policies of Jorge Ubico led to a popular uprising which began the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution. The presidencies of Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Árbenz saw sweeping social and economic reform, including a significant increase in literacy and a successful agrarian reform program. The progressive policies of Arévalo and Árbenz led to the United Fruit Company lobbying the United States government for their overthrow, and a US engineered coup in 1954 ended the revolution and installed a military regime in its place. This was soon followed by other military governments, and sparked of a civil war between the government and leftist guerrillas that lasted from 1960 to 1996. The war saw human rights violations, including a genocide of the indigenous Mayan population by the United States backed military. Following the end of the war in 1996, Guatemala re-established a representative democracy. It has since struggled to enforce the rule of law and suffers a high crime rate, as well as continued extrajudicial killings, often executed by security forces. ==Pre-Columbian era== The earliest human settlements in Guatemala date back to the Paleo-Indian period and were made up of hunters and gatherers.〔''Historia General de Guatemala,'' 1999.〕 Sites dating back to 6500 BC have been found in Quiché in the Highlands and Sipacate, Escuintla on the central Pacific coast. Though it is unclear when these groups of hunters and gatherers turned to agricultural cultivation, pollen samples from Petén and the Pacific coast indicate maize cultivation as early as 3500 BC. By 2500 BC, small settlements were developing in Guatemala’s Pacific lowlands in such places as Tilapa, La Blanca, Ocós, El Mesak, and Ujuxte, where the oldest pieces of ceramic pottery from Guatemala have been found.〔 Excavations in the Antigua Guatemala Urías and Rucal, have yielded stratified materials from the Early and Middle Preclassic periods (2000 BC to 400 BC). Paste analyses of these early pieces of pottery in the Antigua Valley indicate they were made of clays from different environmental zones, suggesting people from the Pacific coast expanded into the Antigua Valley.〔 Guatemala's Pre-Columbian era can be divided into the Preclassic period (from 2000 BC to 250 AD), the Classic period (250 to 900 AD) and the Postclassic period (900 to 1500 AD).〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Chronological Table of Mesoamerican Archaeology )〕 Until recently, the Preclassic was regarded as a formative period, consisting of small villages of farmers who lived in huts and few permanent buildings, but this notion has been challenged by recent discoveries of monumental architecture from that period, such as an altar in La Blanca, San Marcos, from 1000 BC; ceremonial sites at Miraflores and El Naranjo from 801 BC; the earliest monumental masks; and the Mirador Basin cities of Nakbé, Xulnal, El Tintal, Wakná and El Mirador. In Monte Alto near La Democracia, Escuintla, giant stone heads and potbellies (or ''barrigones'') have been found, dating back to around 1800 BC.〔"(Monte Alto )" Authentic Maya. (accessed February 2, 2010).〕 The stone heads have been ascribed to the Pre-Olmec Monte Alto Culture and some scholars suggest the Olmec Culture originated in the Monte Alto area.〔Malmström. ''The Origins of Civilization in Mesoamerica: A Geographic Perspective,'' Department of Geography, Dartmouth College.〕 It has also been argued the only connection between the statues and the later Olmec heads is their size.〔Coe, 1981.〕 The Monte Alto Culture may have been the first complex culture of Mesoamerica, and predecessor of all other cultures of the region. In Guatemala, some sites have unmistakable Olmec style, such as Chocolá in Suchitepéquez, La Corona in Peten, and Tak'alik A´baj, in Retalhuleu, the last of which is the only ancient city in the Americas with Olmec and Mayan features.〔Green, Dee F., and Gareth W. Lowe (Eds.) (1989) "Olmec Diffusion: A Sculptural View from Pacific Guatemala", In ''Regional Perspectives on the Olmec'' (Robert J. Sharer and David C. Grove, eds.): 227–246. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Eng.〕 El Mirador was by far the most populated city in pre-Columbian America. Both the El Tigre and Monos pyramids encompass a volume greater than 250,000 cubic meters.〔Trigger, Bruce G. and Washburn, Wilcomb E. and Adams, Richard E. W. ''The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas''. 2000, p. 212.〕 Richard Hansen, the director of the archaeological project of the Mirador Basin, believes the Maya at Mirador Basin developed the first politically organized state in America around 1500 BC, named the Kan Kingdom in ancient texts.〔Hansen, 2005.〕 There were 26 cities, all connected by ''sacbeob'' (highways), which were several kilometers long, up to 40 meters wide, and two to four meters above the ground, paved with stucco. These are clearly distinguishable from the air in the most extensive virgin tropical rain forest in Mesoamerica. Hansen believes the Olmec were not the mother culture in Mesoamerica.〔 Due to findings at Mirador Basin in Northern Petén, Hansen suggests the Olmec and Maya cultures developed separately, and merged in some places, such as Tak'alik Abaj in the Pacific lowlands. Northern Guatemala has particularly high densities of Late Pre-classic sites, including Naachtun, ''Xulnal'', El Mirador, Porvenir, Pacaya, La Muralla, Nakbé, El Tintal, ''Wakná'' (formerly ''Güiro''), Uaxactún, and Tikal. Of these, El Mirador, Tikal, Nakbé, Tintal, Xulnal and Wakná are the largest in the Maya world, Such size was manifested not only in the extent of the site, but also in the volume or monumentality, especially in the construction of immense platforms to support large temples. Many sites of this era display monumental masks for the first time (Uaxactún, El Mirador, Cival, Tikal and Nakbé). Hansen's dating has been called into question by many other Maya archaeologists, and developments leading to probably extra-regional power by the Late Preclassic of Kaminaljuyu, in the Southern Maya Area, suggest that Maya civilization developed in different ways in the Lowlands and the SMA to produce what we know as the Classic Maya. The Classic period of Mesoamerican civilization corresponds to the height of the Maya civilization, and is represented by countless sites throughout Guatemala. The largest concentration is found in Petén. This period is characterized by expanded city-building, the development of independent city-states, and contact with other Mesoamerican cultures. This lasted until around 900 AD, when the Classic Maya civilization collapsed. The Maya abandoned many of the cities of the central lowlands or died in a drought-induced famine.〔Dr. Richardson Gill, ''The Great Maya Droughts'' (2000), University of New Mexico Press.〕 Scientists debate the cause of the Classic Maya Collapse, but gaining currency is the Drought Theory discovered by physical scientists studying lakebeds, ancient pollen, and other tangible evidence.〔Dr. Richardson Gill, ''The Great Maya Droughts'' (2000), University of New Mexico Press〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Guatemala」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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