Guatemala, a republic of Central America, lying between 13° 46' and 17° 44' N. lat., and bounded on the W. and N. by Mexico; on the E. by Belize, the Gulf of Honduras, and the republic of Honduras; on the S. and W. by San Salvador and the Pacific. Part of the frontier, however, is not yet fixed, the boundary line towards Yucatan in particular being still undetermined. In the absence of government surveys the area is estimated at some 46,600 sq. m., much of which is wholly unexplored, so that the course of even the larger rivers and the direction of the main mountain-chains, as laid down in the maps of the country, are to a considerable extent hypothetical. The greater part of Guatemala is mountainous, the highlands having a mean elevation of about 7000 feet above the sea; but the surface presents great variety, with extensive plateaus, terraces, and upland valleys—the last notable for their beauty, fertility, and favourable climate. The main chain runs generally parallel with the Pacific coast, which it approaches within fifty miles; on this side the slope is steep and broken by many volcanoes, while towards the Atlantic it sinks in gentle incline, with subsidiary ranges extending to the water's edge. Of the volcanoes several are active; the most noted is Fuego (12,075 feet), which lays claim to nearly half of the recorded eruptions in Central America. Agua, from whose crater-lake a deluge of water destroyed the first capital in 1541, has been extinct for centuries. Earthquakes are frequent, and occasionally (as in 1863 and 1874) very severe; sulphur and other hot springs are numerous. Guatemala is well watered, the principal rivers being the Usumacinta, which flows into Campeachy Bay, and the Polochic and Motagua (about 280 miles), which fall into the Gulf of Honduras; yet, owing to the configuration of the country, water in many parts is scarce in the dry season. Those of the streams, moreover, that are navigable possess the ever-present bar common to Central American rivers. The lakes include the Lago de Izabal (36 miles long), below which the Polochic becomes the Rio Dulce; the Laguna del Peten (27 miles by 15); and the Lagos de Atitlan (17 by 8) and Amatitlan (9 by 3).
The climate, except in the low-lying districts, may be described as perpetual spring, and is generally healthy, but the people are for the most part utterly regardless of all sanitary laws. The hot coast-lands on the Pacific are especially liable to visitations of yellow fever. At the capital the temperature ranges from 40° to 87° F., and the annual rainfall is about 53 inches; in the lowlands the mean range is from 70° to 90°; in the uplands ice appears in the dry winters. The rainy season extends generally from April to October, April and May being the hottest months.
Guatemala is as yet of little importance as a mining country, but chiefly because its resources are almost wholly undeveloped. Gold, which is found in most of the river beds, is worked to some extent in the department of Izabal; some silver-mines are also worked, and a mint was established in 1888; and salt and saltpetre are mined, though not in large quantities. Other minerals are lead, iron, copper, coal, quicksilver, marble, porphyry, sulphur, zinc, gypsum, &c. But the wealth of the country consists in its rich soil, which, according to the altitude, yields the products of every zone. The shores are lined with mangroves, the rivers with bamboos, beyond which rise the forests, where the mahogany, the cocoa-nut, cohune, and other palms tower above the wild bananas, ferns, and gingers that scantily cover the bare soil below, whilst the exuberance of orchids and trailing parasites confuses the identity of the trees. In the uplands are forests of huge pines and spruces and oaks, agaves and cherimoyas appear on the hillside, and thick grass clothes the ground; even in the dry lava plains a coarse grass springs up between the lava blocks, and acacias and calabash trees are met with. The forests contain over a hundred kinds of timber trees, including many of the most valuable; yet, owing to the absence of roads and means of transport, Guatemala is obliged to import a large quantity of Californian red-wood and other timber. In 1888 the appointment of keepers of the national forests was ordered. Maize and haricot beans (frijoles) grow freely everywhere, peas and potatoes in sufficient quantity for consumption, wheat in the uplands, and rice in the bottom-lands. Other products are coffee (the chief export), sugar, cacao, india-rubber, tobacco, cotton, pita and sisal hemp, sarsaparilla, and many medicinal plants, bananas, and a number of other fruits, mostly of the finest quality. The export of cochineal, formerly of chief importance, has almost ceased. Cattle are raised sufficient for the needs of the country, though not, as in Honduras, for exportation. The fauna of Guatemala includes the jaguar, puma, ocelot, coyote, red-deer, tapir, peccary, armadillo, and several monkeys; iguanas and turtles are numerous, whereas the alligators are small and not frequent, and boas and venomous snakes, though the number of species is considerable, are seldom met with. The birds are of great variety and beauty, comprising several hundred species; the national emblem is the superbly coloured Quetzal (q.v.). Insects abound, the most notable being the brilliant butterflies, immense beetles, locusts, many kinds of ants, scorpions, tarantulas, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, flies, and jiggers.
The industries of Guatemala are chiefly confined to the manufacture of woven fabrics, pottery, and saddlery; there are several chocolate factories, and flour and saw mills in the country, and numerous distilleries of the fiery aguardiente, the sale of which is a government monopoly, yielding about a fourth of the annual revenue. San José, the chief port, Champerico, and Ocos, all on the Pacific, are merely open roadsteads, provided with iron piers; but Santo Tomás, on the Atlantic side, has a good harbour; and in 1883 Livingston, at the mouth of the Rio Dulce, was proclaimed a free port for ten years, since when the trade has considerably increased. The development of the country, however, is greatly hampered by the absence of serviceable roads, which are for the most part represented by rough mule-tracks. For the five years ending 1894, the average annual imports amounted to about 7,000,000 dollars, the average annual exports to about 15,000,000 dollars. The imports, of which Britain supplies nearly a third and the United States a sixth, are chiefly specie, cotton, woollen, and silk goods, wines and spirits, railway plant, and flour; the principal exports are coffee, sugar, fruits, and hides.
About a third of the people are said to be of European descent, and the rest aborigines (Maya-Quichés); but this rough division takes no account of the mixed races, which embrace nearly a score of distinct crosses recognised by separate names; these Ladinos greatly outnumber the comparatively few pure descendants of the Spanish invaders or settlers. The Indians of the northern forest-country are wild and uncivilised. A census taken in 1880 returned the population at 1,224,602; that of 1890 recorded a total of 1,460,017. The capital, Guatemala la Nueva, in 1895 had 85,000 inhabitants, Quetzaltenango 20,000, Chimaltenango and Antigua Guatemala about 14,000. The state religion is the Roman Catholic, which is practically the only form in use, although others are allowed by the constitution. But many of the fine old churches of the country are crumbling to ruin; and it is said that scarcely a tenth of the population ever enter those that remain in use. About a fourth of the births are illegitimate, the larger proportion occurring among the whites. Since 1879 primary education has been compulsory and gratuitous. There are now about a thousand primary schools of all kinds, attended by some 50,000 pupils; excellent high schools for boys are found in the capital, Quetzaltenango, and Chiquimula, and for girls in the capital and at Belen; and schools of law, medicine, engineering, philosophy, literature, and music are also provided.
Guatemala is divided into twenty-two departments, under civil governors. The executive is vested in a president, elected for six years by direct popular vote; he appoints six secretaries of state, who with nine others form the council. The assembly is elected by universal suffrage, to the number of one for every 20,000 of the population. The standing army consists nominally of about 2500 men, the militia of nearly 65,000. This force is a heavy drain on the resources of the country, whose finances are not in a flourishing condition. Calculated at the average rate of 6½ dollars per pound sterling, the revenue is about £1,000,000, but the expenditure generally exceeds the revenue. In 1895 the internal debt was returned (on the same calculation) at £964,000, the floating debt at £400,000, and the foreign debt at £890,000—making a total of near £2,500,000, including past interest. To meet the increase in the floating debt, which has grown up since 1887, large quantities of paper money have been put in circulation. But on the whole it must be said that of late the interest on both the internal and the foreign debt has been punctually paid, and the bonds have risen greatly in value.
Guatemala was conquered in 1524 by Cortez' lieutenant, Alvarado, with every accompaniment of cruelty and oppression. After three centuries of harsh and greedy rule, under which the viceroyalty of Guatemala embraced all that is now known as Central America, independence was proclaimed. 15th September 1821. A confederation survived with difficulty from 1824 to 1839; it fell before the attacks of Rafael Carrera, an uneducated Indian of low birth, who founded the present republic, and reigned over it until his death in 1865. From 1871 until he was killed in a war with Salvador in 1885, General Barrios was president, and under his iron rule the country made considerable progress; monastic orders were rigorously suppressed, and much of the church property was confiscated and appropriated to the uses of public education and for other purposes. There are at present only two short lines of railway (150 miles) in operation; a line from Puerto Barrios, on the Atlantic, to Guatemala city, to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific, was commenced in 1884, but in the meantime has been abandoned. There are in the republic 180 post-offices, and 2500 miles of telegraph.
The best work on Guatemala is Brigham's Guatemala, the Land of the Quetzal (1887). See also Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America (New York, 1841); Dollfus and Montserrat, Voyage géologique dans les Républiques de Guatemala et de San Salvador (Paris, 1868); Boddam Whetham, Across Central America (Lond. 1877); Laferrière, De Paris à Guatemala (Paris, 1877); a paper by Mr A. P. Maudslay in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. (1883); Charnay, Les Anciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde (Paris, 1885); Stoll, Zur Ethnographie der Republik Guatemala (Zurich, 1884), and Guatemala, Reisen und Schilderungen (Leip. 1886); a very full report by Consul-general Hayes Sadler, in No. 600 of 'Diplomatic and Consular Reports' (1889); for the geography, Lemale, Guía geográfica (Guatemala, 1881); and for the early history, Milla y Vidaurre, Historia de la América Central (Guatemala, 2 vols. 1879).