section_path: History/Early history
section_name: Early history
paragraph_text: Early history
  
  Human settlement on the present site of Guatemala City began with the native indigenous Maya people, who built a large ceremonial center at Kaminaljuyu. This large Maya settlement, the biggest outside the Maya lowlands in the Yucatán Peninsula, of southeast Mexico, rose to prominence around 2,300 years ago, about 300 B.C. due to an increase in mining and trading of obsidian, a valuable commodity of volcanic glass (Igneous rock) for the Pre-Columbian American civilizations in Mesoamerica. Kaminaljuyu then mysteriously collapsed around A.D. 300 for as yet unknown historical causes.
  
  A series of devastating earthquakes in 1773 had left the old second Royal Spanish colonial / provincial capital city of La Antigua Guatemala, and surrounding area in ruins and unusable to the Imperial Spanish colonial authorities. During this period of the late 18th century after the move three years later in 1776 to the current site of modern Guatemala City, that the central plaza in the new town, with its premier landmark neo-classical style architecture of the immense Metropolitan Cathedral (officially named: Catedral Primada Metropolitana de Santiago), built 1782–1815, completed / dedicated 1871. Its the center of the country's Roman Catholic Church and its Archdiocese of Guatemala and the seat (chair) for the serving current Archbishop of Guatemala. Also erected in that post-1773 Santa Marta Earthquake was the massive regional colonial Royal Spanish government's Palace of the Captain-General, were constructed in the old second capital of the 1700s, now semi-ruined town Antigua Guatemala and preserved historic site, which later was partially repaired and maintained, even though the capital had been moved away to the current city in Emmita Valley. The old monumental palace served then as the headquarters for the colonial government regional jurisdiction of the Captaincy General of Guatemala, from its organization in 1542 to independence in 1821. Today it serves as the site for several current national government offices, national police, several tourism agencies along with galleries / exhibits of the National Museum of Guatemalan Art.
  
  A half-century later, after the ratification / enactment of the Act of Independence of Central America declaration, the city became the capital of the independent newly organized United Provinces of Central America in September 1821.
  
  The subsequent decades in the 19th century saw the construction of some significant structures in the town, such as the monumental Carrera Theater in the 1850s, and the modern-day historic executive residence of the Casa Presidencial de Guatemala|Casa Presidencial de Guatemala (Presidential Palace of Guatemala) in the 1890s for the former and still occupied by the current President of the Republic. At this time, the capital city was expanding around the 30 de Junio Boulevard and elsewhere, unfortunately displacing native / indigenous peoples in the settlements on the peripheries of the growing city. The early 20th century series of earthquakes during the years of 1917–1918 destroyed many historic structures from the era of the late 18th and following 19th centuries of the first period of Guatemala City capital history, erected during the 144 years since the previous devastating tremors in the infamous Santa Marta Earthquake of 1773, (referred to previously further above), which destroyed the previous nearby Royal Spanish and colonial / provincial capital city of La Antigua Guatemala (now a historic site with preserved ruins).
  
  A decade later, under former military General, then elected 21st President (later unfortunately becoming an authoritarian dictator) of Jorge Ubico (1878–1946, ruled 1931–1944). General / President Ubico after clinging to power for 13 years, was later overthrown in the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944, a democratic pivotal event in the nation's history that is still celebrated annually 80 years later in the country, alongside the earlier 15 September Independence Day of Central America from 1821.
  
  In the subsequent 1930s decade with the worldwide Great Depression affecting many nations' economies and commerce / trade during the Ubico dictatorship era, however using public works projects such as a hippodrome and many new public buildings were constructed in the period. This was highlighted by the design and construction of the monumental National Palace (built 1939–1943, as an official residence and offices for the President of the Republic, renovated 2010 and now known as the National Palace of Culture, and used as a national museum).
  
  Although slums that had formed with the major displacement of the city and region's population after the 1917–1918 series of earthquakes, continued to grow and spread around the edges of the capital city with the lack of civilized normal basic amenities and public services / utilities, such as fresh water piping, sewer drainage systems / filtration plants, electric power lines with paved / lighted streets and highways, etc.
  
  Guatemala City continues to be subject to an unusual amount of natural and climate-related disasters, (especially recurring earthquakes) with the latest being the two disasters that struck simultaneously in May 2010: the eruption of the Pacaya volcano and, two days later, the torrential downpours from Tropical Storm Agatha of 2010.