Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
competition for scarce resources, with the effects rippling outwards. The massive
increase in population may have put intolerable pressure on food production,
ultimately exhausting the soil. But also, the growth and demands of an unproductive
elite may well have led to a peasant revolt, leading to the abandonment of city life. By
the tenth century, the Maya had largely abandoned their central cities and most of
those that remained were reduced to a primitive state.
Not all Maya cities were deserted, however: many in northern Belize survived and
even prospered, with Lamanai and others remaining occupied throughout the
Postclassic period
(c.900 AD-1540 AD). The Yucatán peninsula escaped the worst of
the depopulation, and came under the influence (possibly by outright conquest) of the
militaristic
Toltecs
, who came from central Mexico in 987 AD, creating a hybrid of
Classic Maya culture.
From around 900 AD to the time of the Spanish Conquest the Yucatán peninsula
and northern Belize consisted of over a dozen rival provinces, bound up in a cycle of
competition and conflict. Northern Belize was part of the Maya province of
Chactemal
(later known as Chetumal), covering an area from around Maskall, near the site of
Altun Ha, to Laguna Bacalar in southern Quintana Roo in Mexico, and with Santa
Rita, near Corozal, as its likely capital. Chetumal was a wealthy province, producing
cacao and honey; trade, alliances and wars kept it in contact with surrounding Maya
states up to and beyond the Spanish conquest of Aztec Mexico. Further south, thick
forests and the ridges of the Maya Mountains intruded, becoming known as
Dzuluinicob
to the Maya of Chetumal - “land of foreigners” - whose capital was Tipú,
located at present-day Negroman on the Macal River. Here, the Maya controlled the
upper Belize River valley, strenuously resisting attempts by the Spanish to subdue and
convert them.
Arrival of the Europeans
The general assumption that Belize was practically deserted by the time Europeans
arrived is now widely discredited. In 1500 AD the native population in the area which
was to become Belize is estimated to have been around two hundred thousand - almost
as high as it is today - and the Maya towns and provinces were still vigorously
independent.
Spanish
sailors Pinzón and de Solis first set eyes on the mainland of
Belize in the early sixteenth century, though a landing didn't occur until 1511, when a
small group of shipwrecked Spanish sailors reached land on the southern coast of
Yucatán: five were immediately sacrificed and the others became slaves. At least one of
the slaves must have escaped and regained contact with his fellow countrymen, because
when
Cortés
reached Cozumel in 1519 he knew of the existence of two other enslaved
survivors, and sent gifts for their release. Geronimo de Aguilar immediately joined
Cortés, but the other survivor,
Gonzalo Guerrero
, refused: Guerrero had married the
daughter of Na Chan Kan, the chief of Chactemal, and preferred life among his former
captors. Due to his knowledge of Spanish tactics he became a crucial military adviser to
the Maya in their subsequent resistance to Spanish domination: the archeologist Eric
Thompson calls him the first European to make Belize his home.
The Spanish made few reports of their early contact with the Maya in Belize,
probably because they heard no stories of gold - their overriding obsession. In 1525
1250
1511
1521
Rivalry and trade among the city-
states of Petén, Yucatán and Belize.
New, competitive power structures
formed along trade routes
First Spanish contact with
Maya in Yucatán; Spanish
sailors are captured
Aztec capital Tenochtitlán
falls to Spanish troops
commanded by Cortés
