What is Spanish conquest of Yucatán?
The '''Spanish Conquest of Yucatán''' was the campaign undertaken by the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] ''[[conquistador]]es'' against the [[Mesoamerican chronology|Late Postclassic]] [[Maya civilization|Maya]] states. This part of the conquest and [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|colonization of the Americas]] began in the early [[16th century]], but it took more time than the similar campaigns against the [[Aztec]] and [[Inca Empire]]s. 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.<ref>See ''The Spanish Conquest of Yucatán (1526-46)'' (1999).</ref> Unlike the campaigns against the Aztec and Inca states, the Maya had no single political center.<ref>See Coe (1987, pp.153 ''et. seq.'') for discussion and description of Maya political structures.</ref> Therefore, the Spanish had to fight city by city to break resistance by the [[indigenous peoples]].<ref>At the time of Spanish arrival, many of the Maya states of northern and western Yucatán were ruled by prestigious dynasties, such as the Cocom and Xiu. Their control had been established in the wake of the 15th-century breakup of the [[Mayapan]] polity, which ''had'' previously exerted extensive control over much of the region. Once the Spanish succeeded in gaining an alliance of sorts with the ruling Xiu family at [[Maní, Yucatán|Maní]], a number of other states followed suit in acquiescing to Spanish rule, which greatly assisted the Spanish cause. Other competing Maya families and states continued with their resistance, however. See ''The Spanish Conquest of Yucatán (1526-46)'' (1999), Coe (1987), and also later in this text.</ref> 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 Spanis