The last Mayas in Guatemala

16 Jul 2012 0

When the Spaniards came, there were 3 large Latin American civilizations:

Aztecs
Mayas
Incas

The Mayas in Central America have endured the longest against the Spaniards.

Mayan dance

Why?

Aztecs and Incas were empires.
Mayas lived in many city-states.

The Aztecs have never recovered from the fact, that their emperor Moctezuma was killed by some Spanish troops. Even less Spanish troops managed to kill the Inca king Atahualpa in South America.

Both empires took a quick end.

Tikal, near Flores - left to the jungle

Mayas organized themselves as independent city-states. Kings ruled over small areas and for short periods of time. The Spaniards had to conquer every Mayan city one by one. They needed a total of 170 years.

The heyday of the Mayan civilization has long passed, though. 500 years before the Spaniards arrived, most of the towns were abandoned and left to the jungle. Perhaps there was a great drought, but no one knows.

Flores in Guatemala, formerly Tayasal

Mayas have always left their cities to the jungle. El Mirador was a city with more than 100,000 inhabitants and was abandoned before the birth of Christ. Today it takes two days of trekking through the jungle to the gigantic, overgrown Mayan ruins.

The Mayan city that survived the longest, is in the vicinity of El Mirador in today’s Guatemala. Tayasal held against the Conquistadores until shortly before the invention of the steam engine. This is because Tayasal is an island in a lake.