Belizean History Study Guide, Test #3 Ms. Vianney Novelo

Maya- Spanish Contact

What is an Empire?

•imperialism ; the practice of a country extending its political power, especially through the acquisition of conquered territory

• areas controlled by the empire are called a colony

•An extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority (empire)

Europe in the dark ages and the renaissance

  • The “Dark Age” is a term used to describe the period when Europe went through a decline economically, socially, culturally and politically
  • After the period of turmoil in Europe the church managed to unify the European nations and that caused a rebirth of the European culture. This is referred to as the Renaissance/rebirth
  • within this period scientific, art, and cultural expansions began to occur.
  • More importantly, the Europeans began to manufacture sea travelling tools (the compass) and eventually began to explore different areas around the globe.

The Spanish Empire

•Queen Isabela (Castile) and King Ferdinand (Argon) are in search of alternative route to Asia and India.

•The 3 G’s motivate them to finance Christopher Columbus’s Voyage: God, gold, glory

A Late Postclassic Maya chronicle, known as the “Book of ChilamBalam of Chumayel”, notes that when the mighty men arrived from the east. They were the ones who first brought disease here to our land, the land of us who are Maya, in the year 1513”.

NACHAN CAN + GONZALO GUERRERO 1511

•Beached along the east coast of Yucatan the exhausted survivors were captured and Valdivia and four of his men were sacrificed. Eventually only two Spaniards, Geronimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero, remained alive. When Cortes reached the Yucatan in 1519, Aguilar was still serving a Maya lord while Guerrero had married the daughter of Nachan Can, ruler of Chetumal (Santa Rita, Corozal).

MAYACIMIL – EASY DEATH - 1515-1524

•Between 1515 and 1516 a great pestilence known as the mayacimil (or “easy death”) devastated the Maya people along the eastern coast of the Yucatan peninsula. “Characterised by great pustules that “rotted their bodies with great stench” (see Sharer 1994: 733), it is believed that this epidemic may have been caused by small pox that had been introduced by the Spanish. Not having any immunity to these new diseases, many Maya died within days of contracting the disease.

CORTES Crosses the SARSTOON - 1524

•Having received word that one of his captains who he had sent to control Honduras was rebelling against him, Cortes decided to march from Mexico city to Honduras to deal with the problem. On the way they briefly stopped at Tah Itza (Flores, Peten) where they met with the Peten Itza ruler Canek. From Flores they traveled to the southeast crossing the Sarstoon River at the Gracias a Dios rapids near the border between Belize and Guatemala

Map highlighting the Mesoamerican (Southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Western Honduras (bright brown) and Mayan region (green).

Map highlighting the 3 Maya areas of control.