Pre-Columbian Era

Before the arrival of the Spanish in the area, the Yucatán was the home of the Maya civilization, and in particular the Yucatecan Maya people. Archaeological remains show ceremonial architecture dating back some 3000 years; some Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions found in the area date back to the Maya Pre-Classic era (before Christ 200). Maya cities of the Yucatán continued to flourish after the central and southern lowland Classic-era Maya cities collapsed (c. 900); some continued to be occupied up to and beyond the 16th Century arrival of the Spanish. The ruins of well over a hundred Maya sites of varying sizes can still be found on the peninsula, such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal; most of these have not been extensively investigated. Other important ancient Maya cities were built over by the Spanish, and their sites are still occupied today, such as Izamal (Itsmal in Yucatecan Maya) and Mérida (T'ho in Yucatecan Maya).

The lords of Chichen Itza ruled with extensive influence in the Yucatán region for centuries until 1221 when revolt and civil war broke out. Not long after lords of the region set up a new capital at the walled city of Mayapan . Mayapan was the major center of Yucatán until a revolt against the dominant Cocom dynasty in 1441 resulted in the burning of the city; the Yucatán region then broke apart into smaller states, which remained the situation until the Spanish conquest.

Arrival of the Spanish
Main article: Spanish conquest of Yucatán

According to Hernan Cortes' first letter (Cartas de relacion) to the King of Spain, "Yucatan" represents a mis-naming of the land by his political antagonist Diego Velazquez. Cortes alleges that when Velazquez initially landed in the Yucatan and asked about the name of the well-populated land, the indigenous people answered, "We don't understand your language." This was rendered as Yucatan by the Spaniards which weren't used to the phonetics of Mayan.[1] Because of the political antagonism between Cortes and Velazquez, it is unclear whether this story in Cortes' letter is accurate or whether it represents an attempt to defame Velazquez.

The conquest of the Maya city-states took decades of long fighting. Three expeditions explored the coastal areas from 1517 to 1519, but no major effort was made to conquer the country until 1527 when the first expedition under Francisco de Montejo landed with Spanish crown authority to conquer and colonize Yucatán. While the chiefs of some states quickly pledged allegiance to the Spanish crown, others waged war against the Spanish. Montejo was forced to retreat from Yucatán in 1528. He came back with a large force in 1531, briefly established a capital at Chichén Itzá, but was again driven from the land in 1535. Montejo turned over his rights to his son, also named Francisco, who invaded Yucatán with a large force in 1540. In 1542 the younger Montejo set up his capital in the Maya city of T'ho , which he renamed Mérida. The lord (also known as Tutul Xiu in the Yucatec Maya language) of Mani converted to Roman Catholicism and became an ally, which greatly assisted in the conquest of the rest of the peninsula. When the Spanish and Xiu defeated an army of the combined forces of the states of eastern Yucatán in 1546, the conquest was officially complete.

As of 1564 Yucatan became a Captaincy General and from 1786 an Intendencia, as a result of the Bourbonic Reforms in the administration of the Indies .

The Spaniards were granted land and natives to work it for their benefit. Priests and monks set to bringing the population into the Roman Catholic Church. The first Bishop of Yucatán, Diego de Landa, burned all the Maya books that could be located (saying "they contained nothing but the lies of the Devil") and suppressed any remnants of pagan beliefs with such vigour that he was for a time recalled to Spain to answer charges of improper harshness. The book he wrote (in the 1560s) in his defense, Relación de las cosas de Yucatán ("Relation of the Things of Yucatán"), is one of the single-most detailed accounts of Yucatán and of indigenous life from the time of the Conquest. Segments of this work would much later prove to be of instrumental value in the much-later decipherment of the pre-Columbian Maya writing system.

While the Maya embraced Christianity, many took it on as an addition to rather than a replacement of Pre-Columbian beliefs, and some Christian Maya continue to offer prayers to the ancient agricultural deities in addition to the Christian God and saints.

Until the mid 20th century most of Yucatán's contact with the outside world was by sea; trade with the USA and Cuba , as well as Europe and other Caribbean islands, was more significant than that with the rest of Mexico . In the 1950s the Yucatán was linked to the rest of Mexico by railway, followed by highway in the 1960s, ending the region's comparative isolation. Today the Yucatán still demonstrates a unique culture from the rest of Mexico , including its own style of food.

Commercial jet airplanes began arriving in Mérida in the 1960s, and additional international airports were built first in Cozumel and then in the new planned resort community of Cancún in the 1980s, making tourism a major force in the economy of the Yucatán peninsula.

The first Maya governor of Yucatán, Francisco Luna Kan , was elected in 1976.

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