Samabaj, Guatemala

According to the historic record, the city of Quetzaltenango was founded on May 7, 1424. However, the archaeological excavations in the area prove that there was a settlement in this area long before that date. By the time when Quetzaltenango was officially mentioned in the documents, the city had existed for at least three centuries. Spanish conquerors were the first European settlers. They tried to make Guatemala a Spanish colony. At that time, the indigenous people were not strong enough to resist the armed enemies, so the invaders captured the territory within a short period.

The new rulers immediately imposed their laws. They didn’t take into consideration the lifestyle and traditions of the indigenous people, so the former residents of Quetzaltenango had to leave their houses and move to other cities or countries. The Spanish managed to develop Quetzaltenango so quickly that the settlement became the capital of a mountain region in western Guatemala just several years later. In the 20s of the 19th century, Quetzaltenango became a part of the Federal Republic of Central America. The American city reached a peak in its development at the edge of the 19th and 20th centuries when the coffee boom started in the region.
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