Following independence from Spain (1821) and Mexico (1823), Guatemala was the political centre of the United Provinces of Central America. The principal factor in the collapse of the federation was the backcountry uprising in Guatemala led by Rafael Carrera, who established himself as the military arbiter of the state (1838) and, from the executive’s chair or from behind it, controlled policy until his death in 1865. Elections were dispensed with in 1854, when the presidency was conferred upon him for life.

Carrera, who enjoyed support from Indigenous people as well as from conservative estate owners, returned Guatemala to a regime similar to that of the colonial period. He restored the church to its position of privilege and power and catered to the aristocracy. Carrera followed a nationalistic policy, and in March 1847 he formally declared Guatemala an independent and sovereign nation. In 1859 he failed to get Britain to follow through on a treaty defining the status and boundaries of British Honduras, an issue that remained unsettled even after British Honduras became independent as Belize.

In 1871 a revolution headed by Miguel García Granados and Justo Rufino Barrios overthrew Gen. Vicente Cerna, Carrera’s conservative successor in office, and inaugurated a period of liberal ascendancy that extended almost unbroken to 1944. After a brief period in the presidency, García Granados ceded to Barrios (1873), who became known as the Reformer because of the sweeping changes he introduced.

With the approval of the assembly, Barrios broke the power of the local aristocracy; brought the church under civil control and confiscated its properties; instituted lay education; promulgated a new constitution (1876); fostered the construction of roads, railways, and telegraph lines; encouraged development by private initiative of Guatemala’s resources; and opened the country to foreign capital. His government promoted the cultivation of coffee to replace the dye products, which were now being produced artificially in Europe, and enacted legislation that assured producers of a ready supply of labour. By the end of his administration, coffee was the number one export of Guatemala. Barrios also took steps to professionalize the Guatemala military. He was an ardent exponent of a Central American union, and, when political means failed to produce results, he invaded El Salvador in order to force it to join the union. However, he was killed at the Battle of Chalchuapa (1885), and the movement collapsed.

After the death of Barrios, Manuel Lisandro Barillas occupied the presidency. He was succeeded by José María Reina Barrios, a nephew of “the Reformer,” who was elected in 1892 and assassinated in 1898. Manuel Estrada Cabrera then became provisional president, regularized his status by an election, and by repeated reelections maintained himself in power until leaders of the opposition Unionist Party forced him from office by having the assembly declare him insane (1920). During his long tenure, Estrada Cabrera fostered economic development and progress along the lines established by Barrios. He encouraged improvements in agriculture, made concessions to the United Fruit Company (owned by U.S. businessmen), continued to build roads, and supported railroad construction, seeing completion of the railroad to the Atlantic. Health conditions were improved, and education was stimulated. Estrada Cabrera persecuted political opponents, disregarded individual rights, muzzled the press, and summarily disposed of his enemies.

After the fall of Estrada Cabrera, the presidency was held by a series of short-term rulers who continued to rule in behalf of the coffee elite. Following a military coup in 1931, Gen. Jorge Ubico was elected president without opposition and began the fourth of Guatemala’s extended dictatorships.

Guatemala from 1931 to 1954

Ubico stressed economic development and, in particular, the improvement and diversification of agriculture and the construction of roads. He balanced the national budget and transformed a deficit into a surplus. His paternalistic policies toward Indigenous people established him as their patron, although his vagrancy law (1934) made workers, especially Indigenous ones, liable to periods of forced labour at critical seasons. During his motorcycle tours of the country or in his office, he listened to their complaints and dispensed immediate “justice.” This relationship deluded Ubico (called Tata, “Father”) into stating that Guatemala no longer had an “Indian problem.”

Ubico’s administration dramatized the degree to which liberal thought had lost its idealism and was concerned principally with material progress. The new socioeconomic groups found no stimulation and no hope in the dreary materialism and military repression that had come to characterize liberal regimes, and these potential sources of opposition were brought together by the increasing disregard shown for individual rights and liberties. The discontent was increased by economic dislocation during World War II. In December 1941, with pressure and promises of economic aid from the United States, Ubico’s government declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy.

In June 1944 a general strike forced Ubico to resign, leaving the government in the hands of a military junta which favoured change. Labour was allowed to organize, political parties were formed, and a presidential electoral campaign was begun, in which Juan José Arévalo soon emerged as the most popular candidate. Gen. Federico Ponce Vaides, head of the interim government, was deposed on October 20, 1944, by a popular uprising, and a revolutionary junta presided over the drafting of a new constitution and the electoral campaign, which was won by Arévalo. The Arévalo administration attempted to consolidate the social revolution implicit in the October uprising. A favourable labour code was enacted, and a social security system that promised progressive extension of benefits was inaugurated. Following the example of Mexico and its Indigenista (Indigenismo) movement, Arévalo took additional steps to support Guatemalan Indigenous communities, which included encouraging Indigenous leaders to organize in campesino leagues to defend their interests. Arévalo also pressed the Belize border issue with Britain, subjected foreign enterprises to regulation, and attempted to guarantee Guatemalan labourers larger benefits. Thus, the Arévalo regime transferred political power from the military to a popular group, of which organized labour was the most important element.

Lack of leadership from the rank and file allowed Guatemalan communists to organize the labour movement and use it for their own ends. Arévalo was not friendly to their activities, but his nationalistic bent gave them opportunity to establish themselves as his most enthusiastic and reliable supporters.

Jacobo Arbenz, a military officer who received communist support, was elected to succeed Arévalo and assumed office in March 1951. Arbenz made agrarian reform the central project of his administration, signaling a turn to the political left. The National Congress passed a measure providing for the expropriation of unused portions of landholdings in excess of a specified acreage and for the distribution of the land among landless peasants.

The land reform, which had a heavy impact upon the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company, and the growth of communist influence became the most troublesome issues of the Arbenz regime. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began efforts to destabilize the regime and recruited a force of Guatemalan exiles in Honduras, which was led by the exiled Col. Carlos Castillo Armas. After the group launched an invasion of Guatemala in June 1954, Arbenz was forced to resign.