comes), that eventually disintegrated circa 1194, giving way to a period of anarchy and fragmentation into small domains which the Spanish conquistadors found in 16th century.
Exploration by Conquistadors
In 1513, Juan Ponce de Le�n had already conquered the island of Borinqu�n (now Puerto Rico) and had discovered Florida. Ant�n de Alaminos, who was with Ponce de Le�n on this latest discovery, suspected that in west of Cuba they, could find new land. Under their influence, Diego Vel�zquez de Cu�llar, supported by the governor of Cuba, organized an expedition commanded by Francisco Hern�ndez de C�rdoba to explore the west seas of the island.
This expedition sailed from port of Ajaruco on February 8, 1517, to La Habana and after circling the island and sailing south west by what is now known as the Yucat�n Channel, the expedition made landfall at the Yucat�n Peninsula on March 1. There are discrepancies about where the first explorers arrived. Some say it was in Isla Mujeres. Bernal D�az del Castillo places it at Cabo Catoche where they saw a great city which they named the �Gran Cairo�.
Spanish Conquest
The conquest of Yucatan was completed two decades after the conquest of Mexico; by Francisco de Montejo "el Adelantado", his son Francisco de Montejo y Le�n "el Mozo" and his nephew,Francisco de Montejo "el Sobrino". El Adelantado was in the expedition of Juan de Grijalva and was with Hern�n Cort�s in the third expedition that eventually became the Conquest of Mexico. He was subsequently appointed for the conquest of the maya of Yucat�n, but failed in his first attempt in 1527�28. In 1529 he was appointed Governor of Tabasco, with the order to pacify Tabasco and conquer Yucat�n and Cozumel.
From Tabasco, Montejo led a new campaign to Yucat�n by western (1531�35) and failed again in his attempt. Circa 1535, after many bloody battles with the natives, he reached the complete pacification of the Province of Tabasco
