Guatemala City

Guatemala City (Spanish: Ciudad de Guatemala), also known colloquially by the nickname Guate, is the national capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala.^[7] It serves as the municipal capital of the surrounding Guatemala Department. Its metropolitan area is also the largest in Central America. The city is located in a mountain valley called Valle de la Ermita (English: Hermitage Valley) in the south-central part of the country.

Guatemala City is the site of the native Mayan city of Kaminaljuyu in Mesoamerica, which was occupied primarily between 1500 BCE and 1200 CE. The present city was founded by the Spanish after their colonial capital, now called Antigua Guatemala, was destroyed by the devastating 1773 Santa Marta earthquake and its aftershocks.^[8] It became the third royal capital of the surrounding Captaincy General of Guatemala; which itself was part of the larger Viceroyalty of New Spain in imperial Spanish America and remained under colonial rule until the nineteenth century.

In September 1821, Guatemala City was the site of the famous Act of Independence of Central America, which declared the independence of the region from the Spanish Empire. It was ratified and enacted on 15 September, now celebrated annually as Guatemala's independence day and called the Dias Patrios. For the next several decades, Guatemala City was the federation capital of the newly established and independent government of the United Provinces of Central America, which was later reorganized and renamed the Federal Republic of Central America.^[9] In August 1847, Guatemala declared itself an independent republic, separate from the larger federation, and Guatemala City became its national capital.^[10]

Guatemala City and the surrounding region were almost completely destroyed by the 1917–1918 Guatemala earthquakes and months of continued aftershocks. Reconstructions since have resulted in a more modern architectural landscape, including wider streets and a grid lay-out for new developments, inspired by post-18th century designs of architects in other national capital cities such as Paris, France and Washington, D.C.

Today, Guatemala City is the political, cultural, religious and economic center of the Republic of Guatemala and exerts a wide financial, commercial, and cultural influence on the Central America region and beyond, throughout Latin America.