HISTORY
Earliest Man
During the Pleistocene Epoch when the level of the sea fell (around 50,000
B.C.), people and animals from Asia crossed the Bering land bridge into the
North America continent.
For nearly 50,000 years, man continued his epic trip southward. It is
believed that the first Indians reached Tierra del Fuego, at the tip of South
America, in approximately 1000 B.C.
As early as 10,000 B.C., Ice Age man hunted wolly mammoth and othe large animals
roaming the cool, moist landscape of central Mexico. Between 7000 and 2000 B.C.,
society evolved from hunters and gathers to farmers. Such crops as corn, squash,
and beans were independently domesticated in widely separated areas of Mexico
after about 6000 B.C. The remains of clay figurines from the Preclassic Period,
presumed to be fertility symbols, marked the rise of religion in Mesoamerica,
beginning around 2000 B.C.
Around 1000B.C. the Olmec Indian culture, believed to be the region’s
earliest, began to spread throughout Mesoamerica. The large-scale ceremonial
centers grew along Golf coast islands and much of Mesoamerica was influenced by
these Indians’ often sinister religion of worshipping strange jaguar-like
gods, as well as the New World’s first calendar and a beginning system of
writing.
Classic Period
The Classic Period, began about A.D. 300, is now hailed as the peak of cultural
development among the Maya Indians and other cultures throughout Mexico. Until
A.D. 900, phenomenal progress was made in the development of artistic,
architectural, and astronomical skills. Impressive buildings were constructed
during this period, and codices (folded bark books) were written and filled with
hieroglyphics symbols that detailed complicated mathematical calculations of
days ,months, and years. Only the priests and the privileged held this
knowledge, and continued to learn and develop until, for some unexplained reason
there was a sudden halt to this growth.
Postclassic
After A.D. 900, the Toltec influence took hold, making the end of the most
artistic era and the birth of a new militaristic society built around a blend of
ceremonialism, civic and social organization, and conquest.
COLONIAL HISTORY
Herman Cortes
Following Columbus’ arrival in the New World, other adventures traveling the
same seas soon found the Yucatan Peninsula. In 1519, 34-year-old Herman Cortes
sailed from Cuba against the wishes of the authority of the Spanish governor.
With 11 ships, 120 sailors, and 550soldiers he set out to search for slaves, a
lucrative business with or without the blessings of the government. His search
began on the Yucatan coast and would eventually encompass most of Mexico.
However, he hadn’t counted on the ferocious resistance and cunning of the Maya
Indians. The fighting was destined to continue for many years—a time of
bloodshed and death for many of his men. This "war" didn’t really
end on the Peninsula until the Chan Santa Cruz Indians finally signed a peace
treaty with the Mexican federal government in 1935, over 400 years later. By the
time Cortes died in 1547 (while exiled in Spain), the Spanish military and
Franciscan friars were well entrenched in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Diego De Landa
The Franciscan priests were shocked by the acts that they believed to be
influences of the devil, such as body mutilation and human sacrifice, performed
in the name of the Mayan religion. The Franciscans felt it their duty to God, to
eliminate these ceremonies and all other traces of the Mayan cult, and gather
the Indians into the fold of Christianity. Diego de Landa arrived in Mexico in
1549 as a 25-year-old friar, and was instrumental in the destruction of many
thousands of Maya idols. He over saw the burning of 27 codices filled with
characters and symbols that he could not understand, which he believed contained
only superstitions and the devils evil lies. Since then only three codices have
been found and studied, though only parts of them have been completely
deciphered. While Landa was directly responsible for destroying the history of
these ancient people, he did redeem himself before his death by writing the most
complete and detailed account of the life of the Maya in his book (Relaciones de
las Cosas de Yucatan). Landa’s book describes daily living in great detail,
including the growth and preparation of food, the structure of society, the
priesthood, and the sciences. Although he was aware of their sophisticated
"count of ages," he didn’t understand it. Fortunately, he left a
one-line formula which, used a mathematical and chronological key, to open up
the science of Maya calculations and their great knowledge of astronomy.
Landa was called back to Spain in 1563 after colonial civil and religious
leaders accused him of "despotic mismanagement." He spent a year in
prison, and while his guilt or innocence was being decided, he wrote his book in
defense of the charges. During his absence, his replacement, Bishop Toral, acted
with great compassion toward the Indians. Landa was ultimately cleared and was
allowed to return to the New World in 1573, where he became a bishop and resumed
his previous methods of proselytizing. He lived in Yucatan until his death in
1579.
Franciscan Power
Bishop Toral was cut from a different cloth. A humanitarian, he was appalled by
the unjust treatment of the Indians. Though Toral, after Landa’s imprisonment
tried to impose sweeping changes, he was unable to make inroads into the power
held by Franciscans in the Yucatan. Defeated, he retired to Mexico. However,
shortly before his death (in 1571) his reforms were implemented with the
"Royal Cedula," which prohibited the friars from shaving the heads of
Indians against their will, flogging them, and keeping prison cells in
monasteries. It also called for the immediate release of all Indians held
prisoner.
Catholicism
Over the years, the majority of Indians were indeed baptized into the
Catholic faith. Most priests did their best to educate the people, teach them to
read and write, and protect them from the growing number of Spanish settlers who
used them as slaves.The Indians, then and now, practice Catholicism in their on
manner, combining their ancient cult beliefs handed down through centuries with
Christian doctrine. These mystic yet Christian ceremonies are performed in
baptism, courtship, marriage, illness, farming, house-building, and fiestas.
Further Subjugation
While all of Mexico dealt with the problems of economic colonialism, the Yucatan
Peninsula had an additional one: harassment by vicious pirates who made life on
the Gulf coast unstable. Around 1600, when silver production began to wane,
Spain’s economic power faltered. In the following years, haciendas
(self-supporting estates or small feudal systems) began to thrive, over running
communal villages jointly owned by the Maya. But later, between 1700 and 1810 as
Mexico endured the backlash of several government upheavals in Europe, Spanish
settlers on the Peninsula began exploring the native Maya in earnest. The
passive Indians were ground down, their lands taken away, and their numbers
greatly reduced by the white man’s epidemics and mistreatment.
Caste War
The Spanish grabbed the Maya land and planted it with tobacco and sugar cane
year after year until the soil was worn out. Added to other abuses, it was
inevitable that the Indians would eventually explode in a furious attack. This
bloody uprising in the 1840’s was called the Caste War. Though the Maya were
farmers, not soldiers, this savage war saw them taking revenge on every white
man, woman, and child by means of rape and violent murder. European survivors
made their way to the last Spanish strongholds of Merida and Campeche. The
governments of the two cities appealed for help from Spain, France and the
United States. No one answered the call, and it was soon apparent that the
remaining two cities would be wiped out. But fate would not have it that way;
just as the governor of Merida was about to begin evacuating the city, the Maya
picked up their primitive weapons and walked away.
Sacred Corn
Attuned to the signals of the land, the Maya new that the appearance of the
flying ant was the first sign of rain. Corn was their sustenance, a gift from
the gods without which they would not survive. When the rains came, the corn had
to be in the soil otherwise the gods would be insulted. When, on the brink of
destroying the enemy, the winged ant made an unusually early appearance, the
Indians turned their backs on certain victory and returned to their villages to
plant corn.
This was just the breather the Spanish settlers needed. Help cmae from cuba,
Mexico City, as well as 1,000 U.S. mercenary troops. Vengeance was merciless.
Most Maya, regardless of their beliefs, were killed. Some were taken prisoner
and sold to cuba as slaves; others left their villages and hid in the jungles,
in some cases for decades. Between 1846-1850 the population of the Yucatan
Peninsula was reduced from 500,000 to 300,000. Guerilla warfare ensued, the
escaped Maya making sneak attacks upon the whites. Quintana Roo along the
Caribbean coast was considered a dangerous no-man’s land for almost another
hundred years.
(In 1936 President Lazaro Cardenas declared Quintana Roo a territory of the
Mexican government; in 1974, with the promise of tourism, the territory was
admitted to the Federation of States of Mexico.)
Growing Maya Power
Many Maya Indians escaped slaughter during the Caste War by fleeing to the
isolated territory know today as Quintana Roo. The Maya revived the cult of the
"talking cross," a pre Columbian oracle representing gods of the four
cardinal directions. This was religious/political marriage. Three determined
survivors of the Caste War---a priest, a master spy, and a ventriloquist---all
wise leaders, new their people’s desperate need for divine leadership. As a
result of the words from the talking cross, shattered Indians came together in
large numbers and began to organize. The community guarded the cross’s
location, and advice from it continued to strengthen the Maya.
They called themselves Chan Santa Cruz (meaning people of the little holy
cross). As their confidence developed so did the growth and power of their
communities. Living very close to the British Honduras border (now Belize) they
found they had something their neighbors wanted. The Chan Santa Cruz Maya began
selling timber to the British and were given arms in return. These weapons gave
the Maya even more power. From 1855-1857 internal strife weakened the relations
between Campeche and Merida. While the Spaniards were dealing with the problem
on the Gulf coast, the Maya took advantage of the vulnerability of Fort Bacalar
and in 1857 took possession, giving them control of the entire Caribbean from
Cabo Catouche in the far north to the border of British Honduras in the south.
In three years they destroyed all the Spanish settlements while slaughtering or
capturing thousands of whites.
The Indians of the coastal community of Chan Santa Cruz were also known as
Cruzobs. For years they had murdered their captives, but starting in 1858 they
took lessons from the colonials and began to keep whites for slave labor. In the
fields and forest; women were put to work doing household chores and some became
concubines. For the next 40 years, the Chan Santa Cruz Indians kept the east
coast of the Yucatan for themselves; a shaky truce with the Mexican government
endured. The Indians were financially independent, self-governing, and with no
roads in, totally isolated from technological advancements beginning to take
place in other parts of the Peninsula. They were not at war as long as everyone
left them alone.
The Last Stand
It was only when president Porfirio Diaz took power in 1877 that the Mexican
government began to think seriously about the Yucatan Peninsula. Over the years,
because of Quitana Roo’s isolation and the strength of the Maya in their
treacherous jungle, repeated efforts of Mexican soldiers to capture the Indians
failed. Long periods of time elapsed between attempts, but it rankled Diaz that
a handful of Indians were able to keep the Mexican federal army at bay for so
long. In 1901 under the command of army General Ignacio Bravo the Feds made a
new assault on the Indians. The general captured a village, laid railroad
tracks, and built a walled fort. Supplies got through the jungle to the fort by
way of the railroad, but General Bravo also suffered at the hands of the clever
Indians. The garrison was besieged; for a year, by Mexican prisoners within
their own fort. Reinforcements arrived from the capital and the upstarts were
finally put down. Then began another cycle of brutal Mexican occupation
until1915, but the scattered Indians didn’t give up. They persisted with
guerilla raids from the rainforest until the Mexicans, defeated once again,
pulled out and returned to Quintana Roo to the Maya From 1917 till 1920,
hundreds of thousands of Indians died from influenza and smallpox epidemics
(introduced by the Spanish). An Indian leader, General May took stock of his
troops, and it was apparent that the old soldiers were fading. They put up a
long tough battle to hold on to their land and culture. In 1920, the end of
their independent reign in the Quintana Roo jungle began. Foreign gum-makers
initiated the chicle boom, bringing chicleros to work the trees. It was then
that General May demanded (and received) a negotiated settlement. In 1935 the
Chan Santa Cruz Indians signed a peace treaty with the Mexican Federals. Now
came a time of new beginnings, new growth, and another era of government.
MODERN TIMES
Meanwhile, in the northern part of the Peninsula, prosperity settled upon Merida,
capital of the state of Yucatan. In 1875, the henequen boom began. Twine and
rope made from the sword-shaped leaves of this variety of agave plant were in
demand all over the world. Merida became the jewel of the Peninsula. Spanish
haciendas with their Indian slaves cultivated the easily grown plant, and for
miles the outlying areas were planted with the henequen, which required little
rainfall and thrived in the Peninsula’s thin rocky soil. Beautiful mansions
were built by entrepreneurs who led the gracious life, sending their children to
Europe to be educated, taking their wives to New Orleans, looking for new
luxuries and entertainment. Port towns were developed on the Golf coast, and a
two kilometer-long wharf named Progreso was built to accommodate the large ships
that came for sisal (hemp from the henequen plant). The only thing that didn’t
change was the lifestyle of the peone. The Indian peasants’ life was still
lacking in human rights; they labored long, hard hours to keep henequen
production up. Living in constant debt to the company store, where their meager
peso wage was spent before it was received, the Indians were caught upon a cycle
bondage that existed for many years in Merida. One legend says that it was
during this time that the lovely huipil (Indian dress) was mandated to be worn
by all Indians and mestizos (those of mixed blood) on the Peninsula. There would
now be no problem of distinguishing Indians from full-blooded Spaniards.
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