But it is easy to forget that there were many other societies and civilizations on the margins of these realms that the Spanish also had to subjugate: prominent among them were the Maya. This is, after all, Mesoamerica’s sole possessor of written language, a society the equal of those in Mexico and Peru.
Spanish Advantages and Disadvantages
The Spanish had lost certain factors in their favour they had had when they embarked to conquer the Aztecs and Inca. The firearms and steel weapons which had aided the Spanish against the Aztecs and the Inca were somewhat nullified in Maya country. Unlike Mexico or the Andes, Yucatan is a jungle, where gunpowder becomes sodden, metal rusts, and the Spaniards’ vanguard of epidemic turned against them.
Cortez and Pizarro had surprise; the Aztecs and Inca had no direct contact with Spaniards before the conquistadors arrived.
In Yucatan, they struggled actually finding the enemy. In jungles, before the Spanish reached Maya communities, they had been harrassed by guerillas and the locals retreated into the forest, taking all provisions. Making it impossible to defeat enemies or recruit labour.
Maya Advantages and Disadvantages
The Maya had considerable forewarning. Shipwreck survivors washed up on the Yucatan coast, and a few assimilated into Maya society. A few slave raids onto Maya soil took place before conquest was attempted. Maya archery repulsed raiders before they could close ranks and bring their steel weapons to bear.
Inland, the Maya had the landscape on their side: Bernal Diaz’s chronicle of the Aztec conquest describes fighting on open plains, where the Spanish had room to take full advantage of their artillery and firearms.
The Maya political system confounded the Spanish. They sought to hold hostage the Maya leader. The trouble was that there was no such person. The Maya lived in rivalling princedoms. The Spanish allied with some of them, but no sweeping takeover was possible, and their first significant gain didn’t come until 1540, over a decade after conquest began, when they were able to take sides in a major dynastic feud.
The Long Defeat
Yucatan was a backwater colony of Spain, especially as it became clear that it had no gold. The Maya’s scorched earth and guerilla warfare warded off Spain for a time, but in the end led to shortages and strife.
But this was the last great struggle of a civilization more ancient than its Aztec neighbours. It also presents an interesting incident of a reversal of the Spaniards’ usual technological and immunological advantage. The Aztec and Inca conquests are remembered for their speed and scale, neither of which the conquest of the Yucatan had; a telling story in the clash of civilizations.
Sources:
Chamberlain, Robert S., The Conquest and Colonization of Yucatan: 1517-1550. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1948.
Clendinnen, Inga, Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Diaz del Castillo, Bernal, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico: 1517-1521. Translated by A.P. Maudslay. New York: Noonday Press, 1965.
Morley, Sylvanus Griswold, The Ancient Maya. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1956.
Restall, Matthew, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
