6. Conquests

Oxford University Press eBooks · 2020

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Ancient history

“Conquests” gives a history of the Spanish invasions of late Postclassic Maya states in the sixteenth century. Whether these invasions could be called conquests at all is debatable. These incursions were protracted and incomplete. The fragmentary, plural nature of Maya city-states made conquest a challenge. Spanish conquistadors only managed to establish colonies with the aid of former Aztec warriors and other Mesoamerican allies. Historically, the Maya had disappeared into the rainforest to escape undesirable political or environmental situations and continued to use tactical migration as another form of resistance. Their susceptibility to New World diseases such as typhus, measles, smallpox, and influenza decimated the Maya population.

The Maya: A Very Short Introduction

Oxford University Press eBooks · 2020 · 5 citations

• History
• Ancient history
• Art

<italic>The Maya: A Very Short Introduction</italic> examines the history and evolution of Maya civilization, explaining Maya polities or city-states, artistic expression, and ways of understanding the universe. Study of the Maya has tended to focus on the 2,000 years of history prior to contact with Europeans, and romantic ideas of discovery and disappearance have shaped popular myths about the Maya. However, they neither disappeared at the close of the Classic era nor were completely conquered by Europeans. Independent Maya kingdoms continued until the seventeenth century, and while none exists today, it is still possible to talk about a Maya world and Maya civilization in the twenty-first century.