Spanish conquest of Yucatán The Spanish Conquest of Yucatán was
the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against
the Late Postclassic Maya states. This part of the conquest and
colonization of the Americas began in the early 16th century,
but it took more time than the similar campaigns against the
Aztec and Inca Empires. It was about 170 years later before the
last Maya stronghold fell, that of the Itza capital of Tayasal
on Lake Petén Itzá, in 1697. But except for the Petén region and
the Guatemalan highlands, the Spanish had control over Yucatán
itself already by 1546. Unlike the campaigns against the Aztec
and Inca states, the Maya had no single political center.
Therefore the Spanish had to fight city by city to break
resistance by the indigenous peoples. In the beginning the
conquistadores were mainly interested to get as much gold and
silver as possible. Because the Maya lands were poor in this
respect, they were not very interesting for the Spanish at that
stage. But when land workers bec