Spanish Conquest of Yucatán
While the Aztec Empire fell in two years and the Inca in less than one, the Maya of the Yucatán Peninsula resisted Spanish conquest for nearly two decades. Unlike the centralized empires of the Aztecs and Incas, the Yucatán Maya were organized into roughly sixteen independent city-states. There was no single capital to capture, no paramount ruler whose defeat would trigger imperial collapse. Francisco de Montejo the Elder received his royal charter in 1526 and launched his first expedition in 1527. His initial campaigns were disasters — the Maya resisted fiercely and repeatedly drove the Spanish back to the coast. It was not until Francisco de Montejo the Younger took command in the early 1540s, establishing permanent fortified towns including Mérida (founded 1542), that the conquest gained lasting traction. The last independent Maya kingdom, the Itza of Tayasal in the Petén rainforest, held out until 1697 — 176 years after the fall of Tenochtitlan.
- Year: 1527 CE
- Category: Military
