1847 – 1901
The Caste War of Yucatán
After independence in 1821, sugar and henequen estates spread over Maya common lands in Yucatán, and many Maya become indebted labourers. In the 1840s Yucatán breaks away from Mexico, and the rival factions of Mérida and Campeche both arm Maya soldiers. In 1847 the government of Santiago Méndez has Manuel Antonio Ay, the Maya leader of Chichimilá, shot at Valladolid on a charge of plotting a revolt, and burns the town of Tepich. On 30 July 1847 Cecilio Chi and Jacinto Pat attack Tepich.
A scene of the Caste War, an oil painting by an unknown artist of about 1850Wikimedia Commons, Not recorded, Public domain (Guerra de Castas.JPG)
By the spring of 1848 the Maya hold most of the peninsula except the walled cities of Campeche and Mérida. The Yucatecan troops abandon Valladolid on 14 March 1848, and in the southeast the Maya take Bacalar. With Mérida close to falling, the Maya armies break up, by one account to plant their fields, by another for lack of food. Yucatán rejoins Mexico on 17 August 1848, and with Mexican help the government drives the Maya back into the southeast.
A bastion of the fort of San Felipe at Bacalar, built in 1729 – 1733Wikimedia Commons, Bernard DUPONT, CC BY-SA 2.0 (Fuerte San Felipe - Bacalar Feb 2020.jpg)
In 1850 a talking cross at a cenote in the eastern forest tells the Maya to fight on. Its shrine town, Chan Santa Cruz, becomes the capital of an independent Maya state that buys guns and powder in British Honduras. Britain treats it as de facto independent until an 1893 treaty with Mexico fixes the border and closes that trade. In 1901 the Mexican general Ignacio Bravo occupies Chan Santa Cruz. An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people die in the fighting, and war, disease and flight halve the population of Yucatán.
The sanctuary of the talking cross at Felipe Carrillo Puerto, the former Chan Santa CruzWikimedia Commons, Ivanrahman, CC BY-SA 3.0 (IGLESIA DE LA CRUZ PARLANTE.JPG)
Sources
- Nelson A. Reed, The Caste War of Yucatán (rev. ed. 2001).
- Terry Rugeley, Yucatán’s Maya Peasantry and the Origins of the Caste War (1996).
- Wolfgang Gabbert, Violence and the Caste War of Yucatán (2019).
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