Guatemala After Independence:
After independence, in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Guatemala solely relied on coffee as a means of exports. Life in Guatemala did not change significantly after independence. However, the major change came economically after independence Guatemala focused on the production of coffee. Coffee became their main cash crop, and foreign investment in coffee increased.
Coffee then began to be produce at a large scale, large masses of lands were required to cultivate it. As a result many of the indigenous people who owned land in the countrysides lost their lands. The government support if the production of coffee, drove off the indigenous off their lands. The masses of lands then required for people to work the lands. As a result of being driven off their lands, and not having means of production of crops to sell and to have to eat, the indigenous were driven to work and cultivate the lands they once owned. The indigenous became dependent on this type of employment. The work of indigenous people cultivating land developed a complex system of labor into three types of classes as
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Democratic reforms were passed with the goals to modernize Guatemala. As the nineteenth century was coming to an end, the twentieth century saw the benefits of industrialization. Industrialization had modernized many countries, and as a result there was an expansion world capitalism. Capitalism brought in a large frequency of monopolization of these modernized and industrialized countries such as those in Europe and the US. The book The Battle for Guatemala written by Susanne Jonas explains “for Guatemala this meant a new kind of foreign investment , giving control over important productive sectors of the economy to foreign interests, and producing a new alliance between those interests and the Guatemalan bourgeoisie” (Jonas,
In Guatemala when president Arbenz took office in 1951, he announced the agrarian reform law in 1952 and the sweeping agenda, he found himself at odds with the American companies that dominated Guatemalas economy which together these three companies had more than $100 million invested in Guatemala. (pp. 132-133).This factored American intervention in Guatemala and the overthrow of Arbenz.
Our history backtracks similarly as the administration of Andrew Jackson. The daily paper started distribution in 1829 and was known as The Planter°s Gazette. It turned into the Montgomery Advertiser in 1833 and rose as the main daily paper of the new Confederate states by 1861.After the Civil War, Major William Wallace Screws, a Confederate veteran, turned into the proofreader and started to lead the distribution toward article unmistakable quality in
The author of this book is Juan Jose Arevalo and he was a professor of philosophy who became Guatemala’s first democratically elected president in 1944. He was elected after a popular uprising against the United States, backed by Dictator Jorge Ubico, which began the Guatemalan Revolution. He stayed in office until 1951 and had survived 15 coup attempts. During his presidency he had passed several social reform policies that included an increase in minimum wage and a series of literacy programs. He also directed and ministered the drafting of a new constitution in 1945. Arevalo focused much on the need of advancement with individuals and communities. After he was exiled as being a university professor he went back to Guatemala to help the new post-Ubico government, focusing on the areas of social security and drafting of a new constitution. He developed the term “spiritual socialism”, in which he defined his political philosophy as. The philosophy was pointed towards the moral development of Guatemalans with the intent to liberate man psychologically. Arevalo strongly believed that this theoretical doctrine was vital to the making of a progressive and peaceful Guatemalan society. He felt in order to create an ideal society it was necessary to allow the citizens the freedom to pursue their own opinions, property, and way of life. He proclaimed that protecting the freewill of the citizens creates more support for governmental institutions, which in turn ensures the security of
United States’ system has its foundation on an agreement between the people and the government to ensure that individual liberties continue to prosper under a free society. The Declaration of Independence lists three important rights that the Founding Fathers considered natural and unalienable. They are the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Government exists to protect these rights. On other hand, the purpose of Guatemala’s government, according to the Guatemala’s Constitution, is to promote the common welfare, the consolidation of the regime of legality, security, equality, justice, liberty and peace. Both countries have its foundation on democracy; nevertheless, there are specific characteristics that mark a difference between them.
In his article Michael Newbern argued that college campuses should allow guns and license. He supported his opinion by comparing college campuses to other public locations like shopping mall and food locations. The author’s argument is not persuasive enough in this article. The fact that he is comparing campus location with any other locations is something that should not be compared because school is not the same place as any other locations. Institution is a place where people are learning and getting knowledge. Whereas, other public places are a place for people to just hang out and enjoy their life. As a result, it would be unethical for professionals to carry guns around.
The United States was in favor of democracy in Latin America; however, the reforms made by these “democracies” had to stay within the limits imposed by the US. Therefore, Arbenz became a communist threat after legalizing the communist party and moving to nationalize the plantation of the United Fruit Company . By nationalizing the United Fruit Company, the US and the land owners in Guatemala were going to lose money; therefore, they shared common ground, and were against it. They did not agree with the empowerment of the indigenous people of Mayan descent, and were always discriminated upon. The dictators from neighboring countries were afraid that the reforms being made in Guatemala were going to influence their “respective oligarchies” (Rabe, Stephen G.) and helped organize a possible coup with the United States (Miller, Talea). The CIA desperately searched for any ties between the USSR and Arbenz, but could not find anything. The CIA in Guatemala reported a list with names of communists that they wanted to eliminate when an anti-communist coup was taken place (Document 2), and the killings
However, Guatemalan presidents only serve one term, opposed to the two of the United States. The Guatemalan capital and largest city is Guatemala City, but it hasn’t always been. Guatemala’s capital city used to be Antigua before it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1773. Although it is no longer the capital, Antigua has been rebuilt, and remains a prominent city to date. The armed forces of Guatemala include
Ever since the first coffee bean tree was discovered in Ethiopia, the bean became a pleasurable commodity that spread quickly to Yemen and other Asian countries. It wasn’t long before it came to Brazil, becoming one of the largest coffee producing countries in the world today. Throughout time, people came up with brewing systems and coffee-making machines that made it easy to manufacture coffee but it wasn’t like that in the early 1800’s. Slaves came into Brazil and were forced to work in difficult labor conditions to collect and roast coffee beans.
In 1964, Guatemala was being run by a military junta, violence was a part of every day life, the economy was in shambles, and jobs were scare (Cuevas, 2011). It was in this setting that a young man, my future father-in-law, took a chance at a better life for he and his family. Enticed by rumors of prosperity in the United States, Alex and his brother Rene saved their money to journey to Chicago, leaving their families behind in a search for hope that was borne of desperation. Alex left his wife Ruth with 20 Guatemalan Quetzal, the equivalent of $20 dollars, and their three children, Vivien, 5, Ingrid, 3, and Marvin, a newborn baby. What experience lay in store for he and his family? How would they fare in an unknown country, without
Guatemala is the key trade partner of the United States, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama are other major trading partners. Between 2008 – 2009 total exports have decreased from $17,848 billion, to $6,768 billion. While imports are estimated to have declined from 13.42 billion dollars in 2008 to 10.91 billion dollars in 2009. Even though Guatemala tries to expand its manufacturing activities to reduce economic dependence on agriculture. The agricultural sector is a major contestant of Guatemala’s import, export
Until late 1996, Guatemala was backed by U.S. authoritarian governments, which can only mean that they made much of an impression on what was going on
The Guatemalan culture is very different than the American culture. They eat and drink almost the same food as us but at different times. Almost every meal in Guatemala consists of black beans, white rice, and corn tortillas. Their breakfast is a little different then us as they eat scrambled eggs with fried plantains. Fresh fruit is very common as they love it in Guatemala. The country’s favorite meat are chicken and beef. These meats and all other meats are usually salted and put in chili sauce. There traditional snacks are tamales and empanadas. They usually drink weak coffee with little milk along with their meals. They also love having fruit juice mixed with water or milk. In Guatemala they can’t drink their tap water because it’s not clean which could result in upset stomach or infections. Guatemala has similar foods to us but they still don’t have the amount of food or sanitation we have in America.
Overall i have learned through my research that Guatemala is a very peaceful country. These features are important to this country because every part of the flag makes the country better in every way. My favorite part about this project is how much thought goes into the making of a flag and how they gained independence from
The Guatemalan Revolution was on October 1944 and it forced the resignation of Jorge Ubico. He was the President of Guatemala in the previous thirteen years. Ubico's government was a fear period in the country and it was called the “peace on the cemeteries”
With little to no economic activity, an extremely unstable government, natural disaster, and constant emigration Guatemala has faced a large amount of challenges. One of the largest challenges in Latin Americas history being the brutal 36 year Guatemalan Civil War that tore apart the country. Leaving over 200,000 dead, 200,000 in refugee camps, and the nation in extreme poverty.