Conquest and Survival in Colonial Guatemala examines the impact of Spanish conquest and colonial rule on the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, a frontier region of Guatemala adjoining the country’s northwestern border with Mexico. While Spaniards penetrated and left an enduring mark on the region, the vibrant Maya culture they encountered was not obliterated and, though subjected to considerable duress from the sixteenth century on, endures to this day. This fourth edition of George Lovell’s classic work incorporates new data and recent research findings and emphasizes native resistance and strategic adaptation to Spanish intrusion. Drawing on four decades of archival foraging, Lovell focuses attention on issues of land, labour, settlement, and population to unveil colonial experiences that continue to affect how Guatemala operates as a troubled modern nation. Acclaimed by scholars across the humanities and social sciences, Conquest and Survival in Colonial Guatemala remains a seminal account of the impact of Spanish colonialism in the Americas and a landmark contribution to Mesoamerican studies.

W. George Lovell is professor of geography at Queen’s University and visiting professor in Latin American history at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain.

W. George Lovell's profile page

"Historical geography at its best." Hispanic American Historical Review

"George Lovell is a man of imagination and a writer of considerable talent. He is also a fine researcher, deeply respectful of the rules of evidence yet capable of seeing, and helping us to see, the human lives behind documents and dry statistics." Ronald Wright, author of Time Among the Maya

“Lovell’s monograph stands virtually alone … he rewrites Guatemala’s entire colonial history by placing evidence and protagonists from an overwhelmingly Maya periphery at its center. The result is a deeper and more balanced understanding of the people and

"A careful craftsman has produced a gem of a book." American Ethnologist

"This is an excellent book in all respects. It remains an important resource on Guatemala and in the impact of the Spanish presence on the New World's native populations." Journal of Cultural Geography