Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras

The territory that now makes up Guatemala is in the early sixteenth century divided into various competing polities, each locked in continual struggle with its neighburs.

he most important are the K'iche', the Kaqchikel, the Tz'utujil, the Chajoma, he Mam, the Poqomam and the Pipil.

All are Maya groups except for the Pipil, who are a Nahua group related to the Aztecs; the Pipil have a number of small city-states along the Pacific coastal plain of southern Guatemala and El Salvador.

The Pipil of Guatemala have their capital at Itzcuintepec.

The Xinca are another non-Maya group occupying the southeastern Pacific coastal area.

The Maya have never been unified as a single empire, but by the time the Spanish arrive Maya civilization is thousands of years old and has already seen the rise and fall of great cities.

On the eve of the conquest, the highlands of Guatemala are dominated by several powerful Maya states.

In the centuries preceding the arrival of the Spanish, the K'iche' had carved out a small empire covering a large part of the western Guatemalan Highlands and the neighboring Pacific coastal plain.

However, in the late fifteenth century the Kaqchikel had rebelled against their former K'iche' allies and …

…founded a new kingdom to the southeast with Iximche as its capital.

In the decades before the Spanish invasion the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of the K'iche'.

Other highland groups include the Tz'utujil around Lake Atitlán, the Mam in the western highlands and the Poqomam in the eastern highlands.

The kingdom of the Itza is the most powerful polity in the Petén lowlands of northern Guatemala, centered on their capital Nojpetén, on an island in Lake Petén Itzá.

The second polity in importance is that of their hostile neighbors, the Kowoj.

The Kowoj are located to the east of the Itza, around the eastern lakes: Lake Salpetén, Lake Macanché, Lake Yaxhá and Lake Sacnab.

Other groups are less well known and their precise territorial extent and political makeup remains obscure; among them are the Chinamita, the Kejache, the Icaiche, the Lakandon Ch'ol, the Mopan, the Manche Ch'ol and the Yalain.

The Kejache occupy an area north of the lake on the route to Campeche, while the Mopan and the Chinamita have their polities in the southeastern Petén The Manche territory is to the southwest of the Mopan.

The Yalain have their territory immediately to the east of Lake Petén Itzá.

Maya warfare is not so much aimed at destruction of the enemy as the seizure of captives and plunder.

The Spanish describe the weapons of war of the Petén Maya as bows and arrows, fire-sharpened poles, flint-headed spears and two-handed swords crafted from strong wood with the blade fashioned from inset obsidian, similar to the Aztec macuahuitl.

Pedro de Alvarado will describe how the Xinca of the Pacific coast attack the Spanish with spears, stakes and poisoned arrows.

Maya warriors wear body armor in the form of quilted cotton that has been soaked in salt water to toughen it; the resulting armor compares favorably to the steel armor worn by the Spanish.

The Maya have historically employed ambush and raiding as their preferred tactic, and its employment against the Spanish will prove troublesome for the Europeans.

In response to the use of cavalry, the highland Maya will take to digging pits on the roads, lining them with fire-hardened stakes and camouflaging them with grass and weeds, a tactic that according to the Kaqchikel kills many horses.

Cortés had sent Mexican allies to scout the Soconusco region of lowland Chiapas, where they met new delegations from Iximche and Q'umarkaj at Tuxpán; both of the powerful highland Maya kingdoms had declared their loyalty to the king of Spain.

Cortés' allies in Soconusco soon inform him that the K'iche' and the Kaqchikel ae not loyal, and are instead harassing Spain's allies in the region.

Cortés has dispatched Pedro de Alvarado with one hundred and eighty cavalry, three hundred infantry, crossbows, muskets, four cannons, large amounts of ammunition and gunpowder, and thousands of allied Mexican warriors.

Alvarado's army includes hardened veterans of the conquest of the Aztecs, and includes cavalry and artillery; there are also a great many indigenous allies from Cholula, Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, Tlaxcala, and Xochimilco.

When the army leaves the Basin of Mexico, it may have included as many as twenty thousand native warriors from various kingdoms, although the exact numbers are disputed.

By the time the army crosses the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the massed native warriors included eight hundred from Tlaxcala, four hundred from Huejotzingo, sixteen hundred from Tepeaca plus many more from other former Aztec territories.

They arrive in Soconusco in early 1524.

Further Mesoamerican warriors were recruited from the Zapotec and Mixtec provinces, with the addition of more Nahuas from the Aztec garrison in Soconusco.

Alvarado is received in peace in Soconusco, and the inhabitants swear allegiance to the Spanish Crown.

They report that neighboring groups in Guatemala are attacking them because of their friendly outlook towards the Spanish.

Alvarado's letter to Cortés describing his passage through Soconusco is lost, and knowledge of events there come from the account of Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who was not present, but related the report of Gonzalo de Alvarado.

By 1524, Soconusco has been completely pacified by Alvarado and his forces.

The conquistadors are all volunteers, the majority of whom do not receive a fixed salary but instead a portion of the spoils of victory, in the form of precious metals, land grants and provision of native labor.

Many of the Spanish are already experienced soldiers who had previously campaigned in Europe.

Other early conquistadors included Pedro de Alvarado's brothers Gómez de Alvarado, Jorge de Alvarado and Gonzalo de Alvarado y Contreras; and his cousins Gonzalo de Alvarado y Chávez, Hernando de Alvarado and Diego de Alvarado.

Pedro de Portocarrero is a nobleman who joins the initial invasion.

Bernal Díaz del Castillo is a petty nobleman who accompanies Hernán Cortés when he crosses the northern lowlands, and Pedro de Alvarado on his invasion of the highlands.

In addition to Spaniards, the invasion force probably includes dozens of armed enslaved Africans and free men.

Spanish weaponry and tactics differ greatly from that of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala.

This include the Spanish use of crossbows, firearms (including muskets and cannon), war dogs and war horses.

Among Mesoamerican peoples the capture of prisoners is a priority, while to the Spanish such taking of prisoners is a hindrance to outright victory.

The inhabitants of Guatemala, for all their sophistication, lack key elements of Old World technology, such as the use of iron and steel and functional wheels.

The use of steel swords is perhaps the greatest technological advantage held by the Spanish, although the deployment of cavalry helps them to rout indigenous armies on occasion The Spanish are sufficiently impressed by the quilted cotton armor of their Maya enemies that they soon adopt it in preference to their own steel armor.

The conquistadors apply a more effective military organization and strategic awareness than their opponents, allowing them to deploy troops and supplies in a way that increasesthe Spanish advantage.

Pedro de Alvarado and his army advance along the Pacific coast unopposed until they reach the Samalá River in western Guatemala.

This region forms a part of the K'iche' kingdom, and a K'iche' army tries unsuccessfully to prevent the Spanish from crossing the river.

Once across, the conquistadors ransack nearby settlements in an effort to terrorize the K'iche'.

On February 8, 1524, Alvarado's army fights a battle at Xetulul, called Zapotitlán by his Mexican allies (modern San Francisco Zapotitlán).

Although suffering many injuries inflicted by defending K'iche' archers, the Spanish and their allies storm the town and set up camp in the marketplace.

Alvarado now turns to head upriver into the Sierra Madre mountains towards the K'iche' heartlands, crossing the pass into the fertile valley of Quetzaltenango.

On February 12, 1524, Alvarado's Mexican allies are ambushed in the pass and driven back by K'iche' warriors but the Spanish cavalry charge that follows is a shock for the K'iche', who have never before seen horses.

The cavalry scatters the K'iche' and the army crosses to the city of Xelaju (modern Quetzaltenango) only to find it deserted.

A K'iche' army n the Quetzaltenango valley confronts the Spanish army almost a week later, on February 18, 1524, and are comprehensively defeated; many K'iche' nobles are among the dead.

This battle exhausts the K'iche' militarily: they ask for peace and offer tribute, inviting Pedro de Alvarado into their capital Q'umarkaj, which is known as Tecpan Utatlan to the Nahuatl-speaking allies of the Spanish.

Alvarado is deeply suspicious of the K'iche' intentions but accepts the offer and marches to Q'umarkaj with his army.

Alvarado, fearing that he is entering a trap, enters Q'umarkaj in March 1524 at the invitation of the remaining lords of the K'iche' after their catastrophic defeat.

He encamps on the plain outside the city rather than accepting lodgings inside.

Fearing the great number of K'iche' warriors gathered outside the city and that his cavalry will not be able to maneuver in the narrow streets of Q'umarkaj, he invites the leading lords of the city, Oxib-Keh (the king) and Beleheb-Tzy (the king elect) to visit him in his camp.

As soon as they do so, he seizes them and keeps them as prisoners in his camp.

The K'iche' warriors, seeing their lords taken prisoner, attack the Spaniards' indigenous allies and manage to kill one of the Spanish soldiers.

At this point Alvarado decides to have the captured K'iche' lords burned to death, and then proceeds to burn the entire city.

After the destruction of Q'umarkaj and the execution of its rulers, Pedro de Alvarado sends messages to Iximche, capital of the Kaqchikel, proposing an alliance against the remaining K'iche' resistance.