The
Spanish conquest of Yucatán was the campaign undertaken by the
SpanishThe Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in world history, and one of the first global empires. It included territories and colonies in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, from the 15th century through—in the case of its African holdings—the latter portion of the 20th century...
conquistadorConquistador is the term widely used to refer to the Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th through the 17th centuries following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
es against the
Late Postclassicalign=right style="margin: 0 0 1em 1em;"||}Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into a number of named successive eras or periods, from the earliest evidence of human habitation through to the early Colonial period which followed the Spanish colonization of the...
MayaThe Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Preclassic period , many Maya cities reached their highest...
states and
politiesPolity is a form of government Aristotle developed in his search for a government that could be most easily incorporated and used by the largest amount of people groups, or states...
, particularly in the northern and central
Yucatán PeninsulaThe Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...
but also involving the Maya polities of the
GuatemalaGuatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. Its size is just under 110,000 km² with an estimated population...
n highlands region. This episode in the conquest and
colonization of the AmericasThe Spanish colonization of the Americas was the settlement and political rule over much of the western hemisphere which was initiated by the Spanish conquistadors and fought mostly by their native allies...
began in the early 16th century, but would prove to be a more difficult and lengthier exercise in subjugation than the equivalent campaigns against the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Often the term...
and
Inca EmpireThe Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca Empire arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in early 13th century...
s. It would take some 170 years and the help of the Xiu Maya before the last recognized Maya stronghold fell, that of the
ItzaThe Itza are a Guatemalan ethnic group of Maya affiliation speaking the Itza' language. They inhabit the Petén department of Guatemala in and around the city of Flores on the Lake Petén Itzá. Although there are still around 30,000 ethnic Itza, which retain their indigenous culture, the Itza...
capital of
TayasalTayasal is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site that dates to the Postclassic period. The site is located in the southern Maya lowlands on a small island in Lake Petén Itzá, now part of the Department of Petén in northern Guatemala...
on
Lake Petén ItzáLake Petén Itzá is a lake in central Petén department in Guatemala. It is the second largest lake in Guatemala, the Izabal lake being the largest. It is located around . It has an area of 99 km² some 32 km. long and 5 km wide. Its maximum depth is 160 m...
, in 1697. However, except for the Petén region and the Guatemalan highlands, Spanish control over Yucatán itself was effectively in place by 1546.
Unlike the campaigns against the Aztec and Inca states, the Maya had no single political center whose overthrow would hasten the end of collective resistance by the
indigenous peoplesThe term indigenous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside more recent immigrants who have populated the region and may be greater in number...
. Instead, the Maya were organized into a number of independent states, which the conquistador forces needed to subdue almost one by one, and many of these fiercely resisted the Spanish incursions.
Particularly in the early stages, a prime motivating factor for the
conquistadores was their interest in seizing great quantities of precious metals, such as
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
and
silverSilver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
. Since the Maya lands were poor in these resources, they held comparatively little initial interest for the Spanish, who were attracted instead to central
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico...
by promising reports of the greater rewards on offer there. However, with the prospects of new land grants and the acquisition of labour forces, it was not long until Spanish intentions turned to the Maya region, with the first concerted efforts to establish a presence commencing from the 1520s.
After Spanish dominion over the region was finally established, the
Maya peoplesThe Maya peoples constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a convenient collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the...
themselves remained restive against Spanish rule, both under the colonial phase of
New SpainThe Viceroyalty of New Spain , was the political unit of Spanish territories in North and Central America, and Asia-Pacific. The territory included the present-day California, Southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America , the Caribbean, and the Philippines. It was ruled by a viceroy from...
and then under the newly-independent
Mexican stateThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Maya discontent in Yucatán would later erupt into open revolt during the latter half of the 19th century, in the
Caste War of YucatánThe Caste War of Yucatán began with the revolt of native Maya people of Yucatán against the population of European descent in political and economic control. A lengthy war ensued between the Yucateco forces in the north-west of the Yucatán and the independent Maya in the south-east...
. The major portion of this conflict lasted over fifty years, during which much of the southeastern portion of the Peninsula was an effectively independent Maya state,
Chan Santa CruzChan Santa Cruz or U Noh Kah Balam Nah Chan Santa Cruz is the Maya town now known as Felipe Carrillo Puerto in what is now the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. This name is often assigned to the Maya free state ruled from Chan Santa Cruz for much of the second half of the 19th century...
. Complete suppression of the revolt was difficult to obtain, and skirmishes continued up into the 1930s (Rugeley 1996).
First encounters (1511)
The first known Spanish landing on the
Yucatán PeninsulaThe Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...
was a product of misfortune, when in 1511 a small vessel bound for the island of
Santo DomingoSanto Domingo, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, estimated at 2,253,437 in 2006. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
from Darién, Panama ran aground on some shoals in the
Caribbean SeaThe Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the tropics of the Western hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the American landmass, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest...
, south of the island of
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. The ship's complement of fifteen men and two women set off in the ship's boat in an attempt to reach
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
or one of the other colonies, but the prevailing currents forced them westwards until after approximately two weeks of drifting they reached the eastern shoreline of the Peninsula possibly in Current-Day Belize. Captured by the local Maya, they were divided up among several of the chieftains as slaves and a number were sacrificed and killed according to offeratory practices. Over the succeeding years their numbers dwindled further as others were lost to disease or exhaustion, until only two were left–
Gerónimo de AguilarGerónimo de Aguilar was a Franciscan friar born in Écija, Spain. Aguilar was later involved with the 1519 Spanish conquest of Mexico, and with La Malinche he assisted Hernán Cortés in translating indigenous language to Spanish....
who had escaped his former captor and found refuge with another Maya ruler, and
Gonzalo GuerreroGonzalo Guerrero was a sailor from Palos, in Spain who shipwrecked along the Yucatan Peninsula and was taken as a slave by the local Maya. Earning his freedom, Guerrero became a respected warrior under a Mayan Lord and raised three of the first mestizo children...
who had won some prestige among the Maya for his bravery and had now the standing of a ranking warrior and noble. These two would later have notable, but very different, roles to play in future conflicts between the Spanish and the Mesoamerican peoples– Aguilar would become Cortés's translator and advisor, with Guerrero instead electing to remain with the Maya and served as a tactician and warrior fighting with them against the Spanish.
These Spanish castaways had unknowingly brought with them an epidemic disease to the region,
smallpoxSmallpox is an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning spotted, or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, which would kill many people over the next few years.
Early expeditions (1517–19)
The next contact was not until 1517 when
Francisco Hernández de CórdobaFrancisco Hernández de Córdoba was a Spanish conquistador, known to history mainly for the ill-fated expedition he led in 1517, in the course of which the first European accounts of the Yucatán Peninsula were compiled...
sailed out from
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
in search of slaves to replace the native Cubans who had been dying off in great numbers. The Spaniards were surprised to see stone cities along the coast of Yucatán. Córdoba landed at several towns; some greeted the Spanish with friendship and offered to trade goods with them (the Spaniards acquired a few pieces of gold ornaments this way), while other towns greeted him with hostility and shot arrows when the Spanish approached close to shore. The expedition returned to Cuba to report on the discovery of this new land.
Diego VelázquezDiego Velázquez de Cuéllar was a Spanish conquistador. He conquered and governed Cuba for Spain....
, the governor of Cuba, ordered an expedition sent out with four ships and some 240 men led by his nephew,
Juan de GrijalvaJuan de Grijalva was a Spanish conquistador. Some authors said he was from the same family as Diego Velázquez.He went to Hispaniola in 1508 and to Cuba in 1511....
. The Grijalva expedition had similar mixed experiences with the native Maya as it sailed along the coasts of Yucatán for months. He was disappointed at gathering very little gold, but came back to Cuba with a tale that a rich empire was further to the west.
This prompted the
Hernán CortésHernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the King of Castile, in the early 16th century...
expedition in 1519. Cortés spent some time at the island of
CozumelCozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, opposite the Playa del Carmen, and close to the Yucatan Channel. It is one of the nine municipalities of the state of Quintana Roo...
, tried with mixed results to convert the locals to Christianity, and heard stories of other bearded white men living in the area. He sent messengers to these reported
castilianos, who turned out to be the survivors of the 1511 shipwreck, Aguilar and Guerrero. Aguilar petitioned his Maya chieftain to be allowed leave to join with his former countrymen, and he was released and made his way to Cortés's ships. According to Bernal Díaz, Aguilar relayed that before coming he had unsuccessfully attempted to convince Guerrero to leave as well. Guerrero declined on the basis that he was by now well-assimilated with the Maya culture, had a Maya wife and three children, and he was looked upon as a figure of rank within the Maya settlement of
ChetumalChetumal is a city on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. It is the capital of the state of Quintana Roo and the municipal seat of the Municipality of Othón P. Blanco...
where he lived.
Aguilar, now quite fluent in Yucatec Maya as well as some other
indigenous languagesMesoamerican languages are the languages indigenous to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The area is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity containing several hundred different languages and...
, would prove to be a valuable asset for Cortés as a translator, a skill of particular significance to the later
conquest of the Aztec EmpireThe Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The invasion began in February 1519 and was acclaimed victorious on August 13, 1521, by a coalition army of Spanish conquistadors and Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés...
which would be the end result of Cortés's expedition.
Although Guerrero's later fate is somewhat uncertain, it appears that for some years he continued to fight alongside the Maya forces against Spanish incursions and provide military counsel and encouraging resistance; he quite possibly was killed in a later battle.
First attempted conquest (1527–28)
The richer lands of Mexico engaged the main attention of the Conquistadors for some years, then in 1526
Francisco de MontejoFrancisco de Montejo y Alverez was a Spanish conquistador in Mexico and Central America.Francisco de Montejo was born in Salamanca, Spain, in 1479 to Juan de Montejo and Catalina Alverez de Tejeda. He left Spain in 1514, and arrived in Cuba in time to join Grijalva's expedition along the coast of...
(a veteran of the Grijalva and Cortés expeditions) successfully petitioned the King of Spain for the right to conquer Yucatán. He arrived in eastern Yucatán in 1527 and at first was greeted peaceably, and most local chiefs agreed with his demand that they swear loyalty to the King of Spain, for they had heard news of the Spanish conquest of the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Often the term...
s. However, as the Spanish advanced they found towns already deserted when they reached them, and the Spanish were first harried as they traveled and then openly attacked. The Spanish set up a small fort on the coast at Xamanha in 1528, but had no further success in subduing the country. Montejo went to Mexico to gather a larger army.
Second attempted conquest (1531–35)
Montejo returned in 1531 with a force that conquered the Maya port city of Campeche. While he set up a fortress at Campeche, he sent his son Francisco Montejo The Younger inland with an army. The leaders of some Maya states pledged that they would be his allies. He continued on to
Chichen ItzaChichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Yucatán state, present-day Mexico....
, which he declared his Royal capital of Spanish Yucatán, but after a few months the locals rose up against him, the Spaniards were constantly attacked, and the Spanish force fled to
HondurasHonduras is a republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras...
. It was rumored that
Gonzalo GuerreroGonzalo Guerrero was a sailor from Palos, in Spain who shipwrecked along the Yucatan Peninsula and was taken as a slave by the local Maya. Earning his freedom, Guerrero became a respected warrior under a Mayan Lord and raised three of the first mestizo children...
, the Spaniard shipwrecked in 1511 who chose to stay in Yucatán, was among those directing Maya resistance to the Spanish crown. Meanwhile the elder Montejo was frequently besieged in his fort in Campeche, and many of his soldiers were tired of a long fight with little to show for it, and stated that they wished to find easier conquests elsewhere. In 1535, Montejo withdrew his forces to Veracruz, leaving the Yucatán once again completely in the control of the Maya.
Final conquests (1540–46)
Montejo the elder, who was now in his late 60s, turned his royal rights in Yucatán over to his son, Francisco Montejo the Younger. The younger Montejo invaded Yucatán with a large force in 1540. In 1542, he set up his capital in the Maya city of T'ho, which he renamed
MéridaMérida is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Yucatán and the Yucatán Peninsula. It is located in the northwest part of the state, about 35 km from the Gulf of Mexico coast, at...
. The lord of the Tutal Xiu of
ManíManí is a small city, and surrounding municipality of the same name, in the Mexican state of Yucatán. It is about 100 km to the south south-east of Mérida, Yucatán, some 16 km east of Ticul, at....
converted to Christianity. The Xiu dominated most of Western Yucatán and became valuable allies of the Spanish, greatly assisting in the conquest of the rest of the peninsula. A number of Maya states at first pledged loyalty to Spain, but revolted after feeling the heavy hand of Spanish rule. Fighting and revolts continued for years. When the Spanish and Xiu defeated an army of the combined forces of the states of Eastern Yucatán in 1546, the conquest was officially complete; however, periodic revolts, which would be violently put down by Spanish troops and
Indian auxiliariesAuxiliary Indians or indios auxiliares were the name used in old Spanish chronicles and historical texts for the indigenous peoples who were integrated into to the armies of the Spanish conquerors with the purpose of supporting their advance and combat operations, during Conquest of America...
, continued throughout the Spanish colonial era.
The Itza of Petén
The Postclassic
Itza MayaThe Itza are a Guatemalan ethnic group of Maya affiliation speaking the Itza' language. They inhabit the Petén department of Guatemala in and around the city of Flores on the Lake Petén Itzá. Although there are still around 30,000 ethnic Itza, which retain their indigenous culture, the Itza...
of the
Petén BasinThe Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of Mesoamerica, located in the northern portion of the modern-day nation of Guatemala, and essentially contained within the department of El Petén...
region should be mentioned; while that area is now part of
GuatemalaGuatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. Its size is just under 110,000 km² with an estimated population...
, in colonial times it was part of the land under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Yucatán. The Itza capital was in
TayasalTayasal is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site that dates to the Postclassic period. The site is located in the southern Maya lowlands on a small island in Lake Petén Itzá, now part of the Department of Petén in northern Guatemala...
, an island city in lake Petén Itza. The Itza land was separated from Spanish Yucatán to the north and Spanish Guatemala to the south by thick jungles with little population. It had been visited by
CortésHernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the King of Castile, in the early 16th century...
on his march to Honduras in 1525, when the lords of the Itza pledged loyalty to Spain, but was thereafter neglected by Spanish authorities. In 1618 two Franciscan friars were sent from
MéridaMérida is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Yucatán and the Yucatán Peninsula. It is located in the northwest part of the state, about 35 km from the Gulf of Mexico coast, at...
to teach Christianity to the Itza. They arrived in Tayasal to find the people uninfluenced by European ways and still worshipping the traditional
MesoamericaMesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries...
n gods. While the Itza king received them politely, they made no progress in converting the people to Christianity. In 1622, the Governor of Yucatán sent a force of 20 Spaniards and 140 Christian Indian allies to march on Tayasal, but the Itza quickly killed them. A second force on their way to the Petén in 1624 was ambushed by the Itza and met a similar fate. The Governor of Yucatán decided his energies were best spent elsewhere, and the Itza continued in independence.
In 1695, three
FranciscanThe term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
s headed to Tayasal accompanied by four Christian Maya singers. They were well received, and a number of the Itza consented to be baptized. The Itza King, however, refused to convert to Christianity or pledge loyalty to Spain; he said a time would come when this would be the proper thing to do but that time had not arrived. A force of 60 Spanish soldiers and Maya allies were sent to the Petén the following year, but were beaten back by fierce Itza attacks. The command in Merida decided that a major force was needed, and in 1697 sent out a force of 235 Spanish soldiers and tens of thousands of Xiu Mayas. Along with artillery and a large supply train of mules and men to cut a path through the jungle. They set up a fort on the shore of Lake Petén Itza across from Tayasal, and reconstructed a small warship on the lake which had been brought with them in pieces. On March 13 1697, this force succeeded in conquering the Itza capital of Tayasal. The Spanish burned the Itza library of books "containing lies of the devil", and reported later that the city had so many idols that with almost the entire army set at work, it took from nine in the morning until half past five in the evening to break them all.
MesoamericaMesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries...
was not to see another independent native state for over a hundred years.
See also
- Yucatán
Yucatán is one of the 31 states of Mexico, located on the north of the Yucatán Peninsula. The Yucatan peninsula includes three states: Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo; all three modern states were formerly part of the larger historic state of Yucatán in the 19th century. The state capital of...
- Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Preclassic period , many Maya cities reached their highest...
- Hernan Cortes
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the King of Castile, in the early 16th century...
- Spanish Conquest of Mexico
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The invasion began in February 1519 and was acclaimed victorious on August 13, 1521, by a coalition army of Spanish conquistadors and Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés...
- Spanish colonization of the Americas
The Spanish colonization of the Americas was the settlement and political rule over much of the western hemisphere which was initiated by the Spanish conquistadors and fought mostly by their native allies...
- Conquistador
Conquistador is the term widely used to refer to the Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th through the 17th centuries following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...