MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Guatemala

ONE LAND · 4 ATLASES

Guatemala, on the map of history

What was Guatemala before it was Guatemala? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Captaincy of Guatemala (mod. Guatemala) · The Age of Revolutions, 1775–1848

OPEN THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS ON THE LIVING MAP →

Guatemala · The American Civil War, 1861–1865

Guatemala and the Central American republics spent the 1850s fighting off exactly what the Confederacy dreamed of: William Walker’s filibuster expeditions to plant new slave states in the tropics (he ruled Nicaragua in 1856–57 and reinstated slavery there). The war ended the filibuster era — the men who might have sailed south died at Shiloh and Franklin instead — and Central America was left in peace by its northern neighbor for a generation.

OPEN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →

Guatemala · The Great War, 1914–1918

OPEN WWI ON THE LIVING MAP →

Guatemala · The Cold War, 1945–1991

OPEN THE COLD WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →