1. Material basis of the colony – Was the colony built on extraction, agriculture, slave trade, or something else- i.e. land annexation/conquest. What was the primary source of labor in this economy? Slaves, indigenous people, indentured migrants, local residents, etc
- The colonization of Guatemala was primarily driven in order to extract precious metals from the region, and to establish rule under the Spanish King. The region was dubbed “New Spain”. While slaves were taken from the indigenous populations, this was usually done not for the sake of the slave trade but in order to have laborers to mine the precious metals and conduct other resource extraction labor.
2. Political and Judicial basis of the colony – how did colonization sustain power and order in the economic system it established? Who were the rules, and how did they enforce their rules/laws?
- The colony was functioning under the rule of the Spanish crown. Rulers were different levels of conquistadors who had travelled from Spain, usually former military leaders and lower level bureaucrats and lords who desired more land and gold. The highest ranking official was the conquerer of central Mexico, Hernando Cortes, and that is who the leading conquistador of Guatemala answered to. Other officials in the region then answered to the leading official of the Guatemalan conquistador, or viceroy, which the title had changed hands multiple times due to the multi-century occupation of the region by Spain.
3. Idealogical foundation of the colony – how did they justify their colonial presence? What good did the colonizing force think they were bringing to the people in the colonized region?
- The Spanish viewed the native Maya as barbarous infidels who needed to be pacified and subdued in order to be educated and assimilated into the kingdom of “New Spain” that stretched across the Mayan kingdoms already present in Guatemala and nearby countries. The Spanish were not doing much good for the local peoples beyond the belief that they were assimilating them into a more civilized culture. (their own) The main drive behind the colonization was in order for the Spanish King to obtain more land and power, as well as to extract the natural resources found in the form of precious metals.