Centro Americas

Another history lesson? The coolest thing i´ve found this week is a rum smoothie. Here is a thoroughly unreferenced short history of Centro America.

Central America has history of conflict, a tragedy, for example the 36 year civil war in Guatemala only ended in 1996. They threw government adversaries into active volcanoes from helicopters in that one.

Starting from the beginning, peoples from Asia came across the Bering straight into Alaska and down through the Americas. Around 3000BC the savage and sophisticated Mayan civilisation was gathering momentum before reaching a pinnacle at around 900AD and falling into decline. So the Spanish didn't destroy the civilisation but were extremely cruel to the dissembled Mayan people, they arrived in the early 1500's. The Spanish brought Guns, Horses and Disease (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel) all of which scared the bejeezus out of the indigenous peoples. They pillaged the land (along with the British) and enslaved the people until they ran out of the indigenous peoples and had to start importing African slaves. The mix of White European, African and Indigenous gives the diversity of people that can be found today. In 1821 the Centro Americas got independence from Spain, creating the 5 states of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

The 19th-20th centuries were full of US intervention, dictators, revolutions, war and poverty. This has lead to countries today that have high unemployment, crime and corruption. There is an abandonment of subsistence farming and emigration north in search of the American dream, to the greatest country in the world.

In the Guatemalan past there was a lot of resistance to the Spanish conquests for land and slaves, In the North the people resisted the armed attack of Spanish but were converted to Christianity instead, another method of subduing the indigenous peoples. In Colonial society there were different classes of peoples any mix that wasn't pure Spanish was generally enslaved, for the mining gold and silver, and working in plantations. The Spanish brought sugar cane to the Americas.

After independence from Spain the next major conquistador was United Fruit [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company] or "El Pulpo" from US in 1902. They bought the best tracts of land and built the port Barrios and a railway through the country solely for the export of Bananas, giving them a monopoly on the export of fruit with no Taxes. This was frustrating for the people of an overpopulated country that had given away the best land. Eventually a president was elected that was too bold for America, whom reclassified huge tracts of land for the people. Then came the CIA sponsored Coup [The American Ambassador in Guatemala and a CIA director were chairmen in United fruit], and the next half of the century, in which 350 villages were destroyed, 35,000 widows were created and 2 million people emigrated. When the mountains tremble . . . http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421089/


Now Guatemala has the highest population in Centro America, with 75% living below the poverty line of $2 a day, and no sign of Ajis, thats a midget who wears a red coat, and if you follow him back to his little red house, he will make you rich [Guatemalan Story]. If that wasn't interesting heres the story how to catch a Haggis.