Caste War of Yucatán

Economic opportunities, primarily in the production of henequen and sugar cane, attracted investment and encroachment onto indigenous customary lands in the south and east of the peninsula.[9] In the 1850s, the United Kingdom recognized the Maya state because of the value of its trade with British Honduras (present-day Belize) and provided arms to the rebels at the beginning of the insurgency.Near the end of the next decade, several provinces revolted against the central government, including Guatemala in the south and Texas in the north (which was receiving significant unsanctioned European immigration from the United States in the eastern section).To bear the costs of the war against Texas, the national government imposed several taxes, including raising importation duties and the movement of local goods.In response to this, on 2 May 1839, a federalist movement led by Santiago Imán created a rival government in Tizimín, which soon took over Valladolid, Espita, Izamal, and finally Mérida on the Yucatán peninsula.Antonio López de Santa Anna, head of the Mexican government, did not accept this independence, and invaded Yucatán in 1842, establishing a blockade.He feared reintegration would expose the region to attack by the United States, as tensions loomed on the northern border that would soon break out in the Mexican–American War."[16] Pat's companion, Cecilio Chi, added in 1849 that promises made by the rebel Santiago Imán, that he was "liberating the Indians from the payment of contributions," was a reason to resist the central government.The Yucatecan governor Miguel Barbachano had prepared a decree to evacuate Mérida but was possibly delayed in publishing it by the lack of suitable paper in the besieged capital.Yucateco forces rallied, aided by guns, money, and troops from Mexico City, and pushed back the Maya from more than half of the state.[20] The Chan Santa Cruz state, stretching from north of Tulum to the Belize border and a considerable distance inland, was the largest of the independent Maya communities of the era but not the only one.[24] The Maya briefly took Corozal Town in 1870 and their last major attack was on 1 September 1872, when Canul was mortally wounded at the Battle of Orange Walk.Years after, the Belize Estate and Produce Company (BEC) began a series of campaigns to forcibly remove Maya from the Yalbac area.Negotiations in 1883 led to a treaty signed on 11 January 1884, in Belize City by a Chan Santa Cruz general and the Vice-Governor of Yucatán.In previous decades, the Mexican Army had twice managed to fight its way to the town of Chan Santa Cruz but was driven back both times.Inspired by the persistent Talking Cross sect, the Maya of Chan Santa Cruz remained actively hostile to the Mexican government well into the twentieth century.The combination of new economic factors, such as the entry of the Wrigley Company's chicle hunters into the region, and the political and social changes resulting from the Mexican Revolution, eventually reduced the hatred and hostility.Alvarado, sent by the revolutionary government in Mexico City to restore order in Yucatán, became governor of the state and implemented reforms that mitigated grievances that had caused the conflict.The Mayan Zapatista Army (EZLN) on January 1, 1994, the day when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, issued its First Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle and its Revolutionary Laws.The EZLN stressed that it opted for armed struggle due to the lack of results achieved through peaceful means of protest (such as sit-ins and marches).[28] In September 2020, archaeologists from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) identified the remains of the ship La Unión as one that was used to carry Maya slaves from Yucatán to Cuba during the Caste War.