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4 - Guatemala since 1930

from PART TWO - CENTRAL AMERICA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

James Dunkerley
Affiliation:
Queen Mary College, London
Leslie Bethell
Affiliation:
University of London
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Summary

Although the 108,900 square kilometres of its landmass made it smaller than both Nicaragua (148,000) and Honduras (112,000), Guatemala had in 1930 the largest population in Central America (1.7 million). The capital – Guatemala City – had, however, a population of only 130,000 and the country's second city, Quezaltenango (20,000), was no more than a modest provincial town. With a minuscule manufacturing base and an export sector almost completely dominated by coffee (which generated 77 per cent of export revenue) and bananas (13 per cent), Guatemala conformed to the stereotype of a backward plantation economy in which large commercial farms coexisted with a patchwork of small peasant plots dedicated to subsistence agriculture and the provisioning of a limited local market in foodstuffs. On the eve of the depression, GDP stood at $450 million, making Guatemala's economy considerably greater in size than those of the other states of the isthmus. (The second largest was that of El Salvador, with a GDP of $227 million; the weakest, that of Nicaragua with a GDP of only $129 million.) Moreover, Guatemala still retained much of the regional political influence it had enjoyed under Spanish colonial rule, when it was the seat of civil and ecclesiastical administration as well as the centre of commerce for the entire area. Hence, although it was a decidedly small and impoverished state compared to most in Latin America, and was dwarfed by Mexico to the north, Guatemala remained the strongest power in Central America, which constituted a distinct political arena just as much in 1930 as it does today.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1990

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References

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  • Guatemala since 1930
  • Edited by Leslie Bethell, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge History of Latin America
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521245180.005
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  • Guatemala since 1930
  • Edited by Leslie Bethell, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge History of Latin America
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521245180.005
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Guatemala since 1930
  • Edited by Leslie Bethell, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge History of Latin America
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521245180.005
Available formats
×