History of Guatemala

The history of Guatemala begins with the arrival of human settlers ca. 12,000–18,000 BC. Civilization developed and flourished during the Pre–Columbian era with little contact among the cultures external to Mesoamerica. The Guatemalan region of Mesoamerica was dominated by the Maya civilization (2,000 BC – AD 250), before the Spanish arrived in the 16th century; although most of the great, Classic-era (AD 250–900) Maya cities of the Petén Basin region, in the northern lowlands of Guatemala, had been abandoned by the year AD 1,000; however, the states in the Guatemalan central highlands, flourished until the arrival of Pedro de Alvarado, the Spanish Conquistador who began subjugating the Indian states of Guatemala in 1525. Conquered Guatemala was part of the Spanish Empire for approximately 300 years, when it became independent in 1821, when it was part of the Mexican Empire (1821–23) until becoming fully independent in the 1840s. Since then, Guatemala's history has been divided into periods of democratic rule and periods of civil war and military juntas. In the late 20th-century, Most Guatemala emerged from a 36-year civil war (1960–96), which re-established representative democracy in 1996.