ABSTRACT
The process of under-development was initiated at the point when Guatemala was integrated into the Western capitalist system through the Spanish conquest. Guatemala's integration into the extended domain of Spain established the basic dependency relationship between a metropole and a subservient nation-state that continues into the present. Factors which set the stage for the metropolitan challenge such as the overthrow of the government of the subservient nation-state by a nascent middle class with the help of the military and governing class, and the establishment of a revolutionary government with a popular base of support were noted. The participation of the United States in World War II saw the mobilization of Guatemala into the former's war effort. The Germans were interned in the United States and their properties confiscated--property which parenthetically the governing class expected to acquire at a later date, Guatemala became fully integrated into the war effort of the United States.
