The Fall Of Guatemalan Dictator, Manuel Estrada Cabrera: U.S. Pressure or National Opposition?

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to examine the origins and development of the movement that ousted Central America's longest reigning dictator, Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920). Unlike many recent studies of Estrada Cabrera's removal, this paper questions the role of the United States State Department and its officials in Washington and Guatemala. Although the author acknowledges that the State Department was a significant player during the political crisis of 1919 and 1920, this paper suggests that the activities of a broad coalition of students, labourers, professionals and wealthy merchants was much more important. The article's revisionist thesis challenges several general interpretations of Guatemalan history in the first decades of this century and suggests that a complete understanding of the region's socio-economic development is possible only with a thorough investigation of Central America's internal political contradictions.