Kaqchikel

The Kaqchikel are a Quichean-speaking Maya people of the central Guatemalan highlands, whose late Postclassic kingdom was one of the strongest in the region. Once warriors and allies of the K'iche, their four clans left the K'iche capital Q'umarkaj after court intrigue and founded their own capital Iximche around 1470.

They defeated the K'iche around 1491, capturing their kings and the idol of their god Tohil. Their scribes later wrote their history in the Kaqchikel language using Latin letters, the work known as the Annals of the Cakchiquels.

When Pedro de Alvarado arrived in 1524, the Kaqchikel first allied with the Spanish against the K'iche and Tz'utujil, and Iximche became colonial Guatemala's first capital. Exorbitant gold tribute drove them to abandon the city and fight from the hills; the Spanish burned Iximche and moved their capital in 1527, and the last Kaqchikel kings surrendered in 1530.