Colonial Period Maya Warfare

Our knowledge of contact period Maya warfare is based largely on the abundant body of historical documents available for this period. According to these documents, violent conflict was common, though not universal, between the invading Spanish and the numerous independent Maya groups that they encountered.

The Maya of Yucatan were the first to be encountered by the Spanish. The first contact came in 1502 when Christopher Columbus's brother Bartholomew encountered a Yucatec Maya canoe near one of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. Columbus seized valuables and the ship's captain. News of this encounter may have spread, for in 1511 when a small group of shipwreck survivors from Pedro de Valdivia's expedition washed up on the shores of Yucatan they were captured by a local Maya lord and several were sacrificed. When the expedition under Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba landed at the north-eastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula at Cabo Catoche in 1517, a number of large canoes full of Yucatec Maya came out to meet the Spaniards and encouraged them to come to shore, after which they were quickly ambushed and forced to beat a hasty retreat. De Cordoba's fleet followed the coast of the peninsula west and then south before low reserves of drinking water forced them to land at Champoton. The following morning they were set upon by a large and well-organised Maya military offensive that ultimately claimed the lives of most of the expeditionary crew. The ambush strategy continued to prove effective, as in 1532 when the Yucatec Maya of the Chel and Pech polities feigned friendship with the Spanish expedition under Montejo the Younger in order to lure them far inland. The Spanish believed they had finally managed to establish a permanent capital at Chichen Itza but eventually found themselves under siege and forced to escape.^[434] It was not until 1542 and after three attempts at invasion that the Montejo family was able to establish a permanent capital at Merida.

Not all violence was aimed at the Spanish, as some enmities born in the Post-classic continued after contact. The best-known episode involved the Cocom and Xiu, two noble families who had been among the most powerful at Mayapan. The Cocom had ruled that site until the Xiu led a violent overthrow that led to its collapse in the K'atun 8 Ahau from 1441 to 1661 and the death of all but one Cocom son. This act was not forgotten, for nearly a hundred years later, when the opportunity arose, the Cocom exacted revenge. During a period of drought, in 1536, a contingent of Xiu sought and were ostensibly granted safe passage through Cocom land in order to reach the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza to perform rain-bringing ceremo­nies. The Cocom massacred the Xiu at Otzmal, employing ambush tactics similar to those they used against the Spanish.

In highland Guatemala, establishing a permanent Spanish presence required two massive invasions, one in 1524 and the other in 1527, that together lasted five years and resulted in much bloodshed.^[435] Their Nahua and other Mesoamerican allies played a crucial role in this victory, a fact that is given greater recognition in native accounts of these events. The fact that the Spanish were met with such fierce resistance is likely due to the fact that at contact the Maya of this region, in particular the K’iche’, Kaqchikel and Tz’utujil kingdoms, were frequently at war with each other and, thus, were in a state of military preparedness. Despite the Balkanised nature of Maya polities, intelligence gathering could cross borders, as when Aztec emperor Moctezumah warned the K’iche’ of the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. Maya accounts written in K’iche’ and Kaqchikel using the Latin alphabet make it clear that they knew of the impending arrival of Pedro de Alvarado and his forces in 1524 and describe the large-scale preparations made in advance of the fighting, including the feting of General Tecum, blood­letting, songs, dances and processions, and the gathering of 8,400 warriors from throughout the kingdom.

It was not until 1697 that the Spanish subjugated the last independent Maya kingdom with its capital at Tayasal on Lake Flores in Guatemala. Conquest was not complete, however, and various independent Maya communities continued to exist far from the centres of Spanish control.

In sum, studies of colonial Maya warfare emphasise the importance of diplomacy, intelligence gathering and urban ambushes as typical strategies employed against the Spanish as well as other Maya groups. These strategies may have considerable time-depth in the region, though much additional work is needed to verify this claim. Despite the abundance of ruins dating from throughout the colonial period in the Maya area, this period remains relatively unknown archaeologically, though this is slowly changing. A large­scale project at Tipu in Belize included excavation of a Spanish church and cemetery directly beneath it that contained over 500 interments dating to the period 1544-1707.^[436] Analyses of these remains found surprisingly little evi­dence of violence given the numerous rebellions and reprisals that are described in colonial accounts for this frontier area. Future studies of early colonial sites and skeletal remains in particular promise to transform our knowledge of Maya warfare and its role in the momentous changes in Maya society during contact.