From: The Historian | Date: June 22, 1995| Author: Salvucci, Richard J. | COPYRIGHT 1995 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

On 29 July 1773, a catastrophic earthquake destroyed Santiago de Guatemala, the capital city of the Kingdom of Guatemala. Oakah L. Jones Jr., writes that this event was perhaps the single worst catastrophe that Guatemalans have experienced. Surely this is an overstatement. In the beginning, there were so many catastrophes from which to choose. First came conquest, with the brothers Alvarado. Pedro de Alvarado later participated in the conquest of Peru, from which he emerged with a re...