ABSTRACT
Guatemala has been the seat of a great empire and of a colonial government claiming authority above other colonial governments. As is the case with other small countries, the literature on Guatemala is disappointingly small and rather erratic. Guatemala is, however, luckier than others in that its intrinsic archaeological and anthropological interest has stimulated much more attention than have its modem problems. The leaders of Guatemala have, like leaders of other small countries, from time to time aspired to play a larger role on the world stage. In the nineteenth century and, indeed, down to the time of the creation of the Central American Common Market, they hoped to recreate the Central American Republic that Guatemala had broken up in 1838. Historically, the United States has in general not had to intervene. No Guatemalan government, throughout most of the recent period, would have dreamed of taking any action without one eye on the United States.
