Spanish Conquest of Guatemala - Legacy of The Spanish Conquest

Legacy of The Spanish Conquest

The initial shock of the Spanish conquest was followed by decades of heavy exploitation of the indigenous peoples, allies and foes alike. Over the following two hundred years colonial rule gradually imposed Spanish cultural standards on the subjugated peoples. The Spanish reducciones created new nucleated settlements laid out in a grid pattern in the Spanish style, with a central plaza, a church and the town hall housing the civil government, known as the ayuntamiento. This style of settlement can still be seen in the villages and towns of the area. The civil government was either run directly by the Spanish and their descendents (the ladinos) or was tightly controlled by them. The introduction of Catholicism was the main vehicle for cultural change, and resulted in religious syncretism. Old World cultural elements came to be thoroughly adopted by Maya groups, an example being the marimba, a musical instrument of African origin. The greatest change was the sweeping aside of the pre-Columbian economic order and its replacement by European technology and livestock; this included the introduction of iron and steel tools to replace Neolithic tools, and of cattle, pigs and chickens that largely replaced the consumption of game. New crops were also introduced; however, sugarcane and coffee led to plantations that economically exploited native labour. Sixty per cent of the modern population of Guatemala is estimated to be Maya, concentrated in the central and western highlands. The eastern portion of the country was the object of intense Spanish migration and hispanicization. Guatemalan society is divided into a class system largely based on race, with Maya peasants and artisans at the bottom, the mixed-race Ladino salaried workers and bureaucrats forming the middle and lower class and above them the creole elite of pure European ancestry. Some indigenous elites such as the Xajil did manage to maintain a level of status into the colonial period; a prominent Kaqchikel noble family, they chronicled the history of their region.