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Spanish Conquest Of Petén
The Spanish conquest of Petén was the last stage of the conquest of Guatemala, a prolonged conflict during the Spanish colonisation of the Americas. A wide lowland plain covered with dense rainforest, Petén contains a central drainage basin with a series of lakes and areas of savannah. It is crossed by several ranges of low karstic hills and rises to the south as it nears the Guatemalan Highlands. The conquest of Petén, a region now incorporated into the modern republic of Guatemala, climaxed in 1697 with the capture of Nojpetén, the island capital of the Itza kingdom, by Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi. With the defeat of the Itza, the last independent and unconquered native kingdom in the Americas fell to European colonisers. Sizeable Maya populations existed in Petén before the conquest, particularly around the central lakes and along the rivers. Petén was divided into different Maya polities engaged in a complex web of alliances and enmities. The most important group ...
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Spanish Conquest Of Guatemala
In a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonisers gradually incorporated the territory that became the modern country of Guatemala into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. Before the conquest, this territory contained a number of competing Mesoamerican kingdoms, the majority of which were Maya. Many conquistadors viewed the Maya as "infidels" who needed to be forcefully converted and pacified, disregarding the achievements of their civilization.Jones 2000, p. 356. The first contact between the Maya and European explorers came in the early 16th century when a Spanish ship sailing from Panama to Santo Domingo was wrecked on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511. Several Spanish expeditions followed in 1517 and 1519, making landfall on various parts of the Yucatán coast. The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a prolonged affair; the Maya kingdoms resisted integration into the Spanish Empire with such tenacity that their d ...
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Guatemalan Highlands
The Guatemalan Highlands is an upland region in southern Guatemala, lying between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south and the Petén lowlands to the north. Description The highlands are made up of a series of high valleys enclosed by mountains. The local name for the region is ''Altos'', meaning "highlands", which includes the northern declivity of the Sierra Madre. The mean elevation is greatest in the west (Altos of Quezaltenango) and least in the east (Altos of Guatemala). A few of the streams of the Pacific slope actually rise in the highlands, and force a way through the Sierra Madre at the bottom of deep ravines. One large river, the Chixoy or Salinas River, escapes northwards towards the Gulf of Mexico. The relief of the mountainous country which lies north of the Highlands and drains into the Atlantic is varied by innumerable terraces, ridges and underfalls; but its general configuration is compared by E. Reclus with the appearance of "a stormy sea breaking ...
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Chiapas
Chiapas (; Tzotzil and Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 124 municipalities and its capital and largest city is Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Other important population centers in Chiapas include Ocosingo, Tapachula, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Comitán, and Arriaga. Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico, and it borders the states of Oaxaca to the west, Veracruz to the northwest, and Tabasco to the north, and the Petén, Quiché, Huehuetenango, and San Marcos departments of Guatemala to the east and southeast. Chiapas has a significant coastline on the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. In general, Chiapas has a humid, tropical climate. In the northern area bordering Tabasco, near Teapa, rainfall can average more than per year. In the past, natural vegetation in this region was lowland, tall perennial rainforest, but ...
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Petén Department
Petén is a department of Guatemala. It is geographically the northernmost department of Guatemala, as well as the largest by area at it accounts for about one third of Guatemala's area. The capital is Flores. The population at the mid-2018 official estimate was 595,548. Geography The Petén department is bordered on the east by Belize and by Mexico (with the Mexican states of Chiapas to the west, Tabasco to the northwest and Campeche to the north). To the south it borders the Guatemalan departments of Alta Verapaz and Izabal.ITMB Publishing Ltd. 2005. Much of the western border with Mexico is formed by the Usumacinta River and its tributary the Salinas River. Portions of the southern border of the department are formed by the rivers Gracias a Dios and Santa Isabel. The Petén lowlands are formed by a densely forested low-lying limestone plain featuring karstic topography. The area is crossed by low east-west oriented ridges of Cenozoic limestone and is characterise ...
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Departments Of Guatemala
Guatemala is divided into 22 departments ( Spanish: ''departamentos'') which are in turn divided into 340 municipalities. In addition, Guatemala has claimed that all or part of the nation of Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ... is a department of Guatemala, and this claim is sometimes reflected in maps of the region. Guatemala formally recognized Belize in 1991, but the border disputes between the two nations have not been resolved. Departments See also * ISO 3166-2:GT References External resources Interactive map of Guatemalan departments and municipalities
{{Americas topic, Administrative divisions of
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Petén Savannah 1
Petén or Peten may refer to: *Petén Department, a department of Guatemala *Petén Basin, the geographical/archaeological region of Mesoamerica and a center of the Maya civilization *Lake Petén Itzá Lake Petén Itzá (''Lago Petén Itzá'', ) is a lake in the northern Petén Department in Guatemala. It is the third largest lake in Guatemala, after Lake Izabal and Lake Atitlán. It is located around . It has an area of , and is some long an ..., a lake in the Petén Basin region * Peten Itza kingdom, a kingdom in modern-day Central America centered on the city of Nojpetén *The Hebrew name ( he, פתן) for the Boeing AH-64A Apache in Israeli service, meaning "Cobra" in English * Peten (Egypt), a place name in Ancient Egypt {{disambig ...
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Mérida, Yucatán
Mérida () is the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán, and the largest city in southeastern Mexico. The city is also the seat of the eponymous Municipality. It is located in the northwest corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, about 35 km (22 mi) inland from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In 2020 it had a population of 921,770 while its metropolitan area, which also includes the cities of Kanasín and Umán, had a population of 1,316,090. The city's rich cultural heritage is a product of the syncretism of the Maya and Spanish cultures during the colonial era. It was the first city to be ever named American Capital of Culture and is the only city that has received the title twice. The Cathedral of Mérida, Yucatán was built in the late 16th century with stones from nearby Mayan ruins and is known to be the oldest cathedral in the mainland Americas. In addition, the city has the third largest old town district on the continent. In 2007, the city was visited by former U.S. P ...
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Captaincy General Of Yucatán
The Province of Yucatan ( ; es, Provincia de Yucatán ), or the Captaincy General, Governorate, Intendancy, or Kingdom of Yucatan, was a first-order administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the Yucatan peninsula.The Yucatecan Mayan orthography in this article follows that of . At least two other orthographic systems exist , neither of which is used in this article.Various dates for periods of the Mesoamerican chronology have been given. This article uses those provided by — # Lithic – 8000 BC and prior dates, # Archaic – 8000 to 2000 BC, # Preclassic – 2000 BC to 250 AD, # Classic – 250 to 900 AD, and # Postclassic – 900 AD and posterior dates. Furthermore, dates prior to 12 October 1492 constitute the pre-Columbian era, and all others the Columbian era. Geography The Yucatan peninsula is a low-lying, tropical, karstic platform of circa 300,000 km2 (115,831 sq mi), bound by the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.Including the Bay ...
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Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish '' conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Born in Medellín, Spain, to a family of lesser nobility, Cortés chose to pursue adventure and riches in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an '' encomienda'' (the right to the labor of certain subjects). For a short time, he served as ''alcalde'' (magistrate) of the second Spanish town founded on the island. In 1519, he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, which he partly funded. His enmity with the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuél ...
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Chinamita
The Chinamita or Tulumkis (Nahuatl ''chinamitl'', Mopan ''tulumki'') were a Mopan Maya people who occupied a territory in the eastern Petén Basin and western Belize between the Itza of Nojpetén, within the borders of modern Guatemala, and their allies at Tipuj, now in Belize. In the early 17th century, the Chinamita probably occupied a territory along the Mopan River south of the Yaxhá and Sacnab lakes in Petén, and in neighbouring portions of Belize. In 1698, after the fall of Nojpetén to the Spanish, the Itza told the Spanish that the Chinamita had territory nine days to the east of the Itza capital. Etymology The term ''Chinamita'' is derived from the Nahuatl ''chinamitl'', meaning "cane hedge". This was equivalent to the Mopan term ''tulum ki'', meaning "wall of agave", which was the name of the Chinamita capital. Spanish chronicler Juan de Villagutierre Soto-Mayor described the Chinamita and Tulunquies as two distinct peoples; however, ''chinamitl'' is merely the Na ...
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Acala Chʼol
The Acala Chʼol were a former Chʼol-speaking Maya people who occupied a territory to the west of the Manche Chʼol and east of the Chixoy River in what is now the Alta Verapaz Department of Guatemala. The Acala should not be confused with the people of the former Maya territory of Acalan, near the Laguna de Terminos in Mexico. By the 17th century the Acala had two principal towns; Cagbalam had 300 multiple-family houses and Culhuacan had over 140. The towns were divided into four sections, each governed by their own ruler. The combined population of these two towns has been estimated at 7,000. The Acala were allies of the Lakandon Chʼol, their immediate neighbours to the west, and the two peoples sometimes cooperated militarily. The Acala are known to have cultivated cacao and achiote. In 1555 the Spanish carried out a military expedition against the Acala in retaliation for their killing of Dominican friar Domingo de Vico and his companion Andrés López. The Spanish a ...
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Maya Peoples
The Maya peoples () are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical region. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. "Maya" is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region, however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves. There was no common sense of identity or political unity among the distinct populations, societies and ethnic groups because they each had their own particular traditions, cultures and historical identity. It is estimated that seven million Maya were living in this area at the start of the 21st century. Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras have managed to maintain numerous remnants of their ancient cultural heritage. Some are quite integrat ...
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