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History of Yucatan Peninsula


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The Maya � accomplished astronomers and mathematicians, and architects of some of the grandest monuments ever known � created their first settlements in what is now Guatemala as early as 2400 BC. Over the centuries, the expansion of Maya civilization moved steadily northward, and by AD 550 great Maya city-states were established in southern Yucat�n. In the 10th century, with the invasion of the bellicose Toltecs from Central Mexico, the great cities of southern Yucat�n slowly dissolved, as attention shifted northward to new power centers like Chich�n Itz�.

The last of the great Maya capitals, Mayap�n, started to collapse around 1440, when the Xi� Maya and the Cocom Maya began a violent and protracted struggle for power. In 1540, Spanish conquistador Francisco de Montejo the Younger (son of legendary conquistador Francisco de Montejo the Elder) utilized the tensions between the still-feuding Maya sects to conquer the area. The Spaniards allied themselves with the Xi� against the Cocom, finally defeating the Cocom and gaining the Xi� as reluctant converts to Christianity.

Francisco de Montejo the Younger, along with his father, Francisco de Montejo the Elder, and cousin (named�you guessed it, Francisco de Montejo) founded M�rida in 1542 and within four years brought most of the Yucat�n Peninsula under Spanish rule. The Spaniards divided up the Maya lands into large estates where the natives were put to work as indentured servants.

When Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, the new Mexican government used the Yucatecan territory to create huge plantations for the cultivation of tobacco, sugar�cane and henequ�n (agave rope fiber). The Maya, though legally free, were enslaved in debt peonage to the rich landowners.

In 1847, after being oppressed for nearly 300 years by the Spanish and their descendants, the Maya rose up in a massive revolt. This was the beginning of the War of the Castes. Finally, in 1901, after more than 50 years
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