Pedro de Alvarado in the context of "Spanish conquest of Guatemala"

The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonisation of the Americas, in which the Spanish conquistadores and their allies gradually incorporated the territory of the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Maya occupied the Maya Region, an area that is now part of the modern countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador; the conquest began in the early 16th century and is generally considered to have ended in 1697.

Before the conquest, Maya territory contained a number of competing kingdoms. Many conquistadors viewed the Maya as infidels who needed to be forcefully converted and pacified, despite the achievements of their civilization. The first contact between the Maya and European explorers came in 1502, during the fourth voyage of Christopher Columbus, when his brother Bartholomew encountered a canoe. Several Spanish expeditions followed in 1517 and 1519, making landfall on various parts of the Yucatán coast. The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a prolonged affair; the Maya kingdoms resisted integration into the Spanish Empire with such tenacity that their defeat took almost two centuries. The Itza Maya and other lowland groups in the Petén Basin were first contacted by Hernán Cortés in 1525, but remained independent and hostile to the encroaching Spanish until 1697, when a concerted Spanish assault led by Martín de Urzúa y Arizmendi finally defeated the last independent Maya kingdom.

The history of Guatemala traces back to the Maya civilization (2600 BC – 1697 AD), with the country's modern history beginning with the Spanish conquest of Guatemala in 1524. By 1000 AD, most of the major Classic-era (250–900 AD) Maya cities in the Petén Basin, located in the northern lowlands, had been abandoned. The Maya states in the Belize central highlands continued to thrive until the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado—called "The Invader" by the Maya—arrived in 1525 and began to subdue the indigenous populations.

For nearly 330 years, Guatemala was part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala, which included Chiapas (now in Mexico) and the present-day countries of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. The colony declared its independence on 15 September 1821 and briefly joined the First Mexican Empire in 1822. By 1824, Guatemala became a member of the Federal Republic of Central America, and upon the Republic's dissolution in 1841, it gained full independence.

Quetzaltenango is a department in the western highlands of Guatemala. The capital is the city of Quetzaltenango, the second largest city in Guatemala. The department is divided up into 24 municipalities. The inhabitants include Spanish-speaking Ladinos and the Kʼicheʼ and Mam Maya groups, both with their own Maya language. The department consists of mountainous terrain, with its principal river being the Samalá River. the department is seismically active, suffering from both earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Prior to the Spanish conquest the territory included in the modern department formed a part of the Kʼicheʼ Kingdom of Qʼumarkaj. The kingdom was defeated by the Spanish under Pedro de Alvarado in a number of decisive battles fought near the city of Quetzaltenango, then known as Xelaju. In the 19th century the territory of the modern department was included in the short-lived Central American state of Los Altos. The department was created by decree in 1845, five years after the fledgling state was crushed by Rafael Carrera.