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( Spanish conquest of Yucatán)
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Yucatán The Spanish Conquest of Yucatán was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities, particularly in the northern and central Yucatán Peninsula but also involving the Maya polities of the Guatemalan highlands region. This episode in the conquest and colonization of the Americas 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 Aztec and Inca Empires. It would take some 170 years before the last recognized Maya stronghold fell, that of the Itza capital of Tayasal on Lake Petén Itzá, in 1697. However, except for the Petén region and the Guatemalan highlands, Spanish control over Yucatán itself was effectively in place by 1546.[1] 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 peoples.[2] 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.[3] Particularly in the early stages, a prime motivating factor for the conquistadores was their interest in seizing great quantities of precious metals, such as gold and silver. Since the Maya lands were poor in these resources, they held comparatively little initial interest for the Spanish, who were attracted instead to central Mexico and Peru 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.
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