Caste War of Yucatán
The Caste War of Yucatán or ba'atabil kichkelem Yúum[2] (1847–1901) began with the revolt of native Maya people of the Yucatán Peninsula against Hispanic populations, called Yucatecos. The latter had long held political and economic control of the region. A lengthy war ensued between the Yucateco forces based in the northwest of the Yucatán and the independent Maya in the southeast.[3][4][5]
The Caste War took place within the economic and political context of late colonial and post-independence Yucatán.[6] By the end of the eighteenth century, Yucatán's population had expanded considerably, and white and mestizo Mexicans migrated to rural towns. 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.[7] Shortly after the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, the Yucatecan congress passed a series of laws that facilitated and encouraged this process. By the 1840s, land alienation had increased precipitously, forcing much of the Maya peasantry to work as indebted laborers on large estates (haciendas). This had a dramatic effect on the Maya and precipitated the war.[8]
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.[9] By 1867, the Maya occupied parts of the western part of the Yucatán, including the District of Petén, where the Xloschá and Macanché tribes allied with them. Growing investment in Mexico resulted in a change in United Kingdom policy, and in 1893 London signed a new treaty with the Mexican government, recognizing its control of all of the Yucatán, formalizing the border with British Honduras, and closing the British colony to trade with Chan Santa Cruz, the capital of the Maya.
The war unofficially ended in 1901 when the Mexican army occupied Chan Santa Cruz and subdued neighboring areas. The formal end came in 1915 when Mexican forces led by Yucatán Governor Salvador Alvarado subdued the territory. Alvarado introduced reforms from the Mexican Revolution that ended some Maya grievances. Skirmishes with small settlements that rejected Mexican control continued until 1933.
Background[edit]
In Spanish colonial times, the Yucatán population (like most of New Spain) operated under a legal caste system: peninsulares (officials born in Spain) were at the top, the criollos of Spanish descent in the next level, followed by the mestizo population (of partial indigenous descent but culturally European/Hispanic), next descendants of the natives who had collaborated with the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, and at the bottom were the other native indios and African slaves.[10]
Some historians have argued that the conflict was more of an inter-ethnic conflict than a caste conflict. It was the members of a large sector of the Maya, not fully assimilated or subdued and living for the most part in the east, who led the struggle. They rebelled against the Europeans, Mestizos, and the assimilated Maya who lived in the area. Not all of the Maya participated in the revolt. For example, Maya in the southern region remained neutral for most of the conflict. In the northern portion of the peninsula, many Maya fought directly against the insurgents.[11]
The indigenous population was concentrated in the Campeche-Mérida region. This was known as the Camino Real, because the majority of the peninsulares and criollos lived in that area. The Maya roughly outnumbered the Latino and Spaniard groups by three to one throughout the Yucatán, but in the east, this ratio was closer to five to one. The elites maintained the strictest discipline and control over the Maya population in the east. The Catholic Church, generally allied with the stronger classes, also had a preponderant role where the military organization was strongest.
During the Mexican War of Independence, the intelligentsia of Yucatán watched the events to the north. Following 1820 they organized their resistance to Spain, forming the Patriotic Confederation, which declared independence from Spain in 1821. The confederation subsequently joined the First Mexican Empire that same year; in 1823 it became a part of the federal Mexican government as the Federated Republic of Yucatán. The government of the republic, based in Mexico City, tended towards centralization, which some people in frontier areas resented.
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.[12] Imán appealed to the indigenous Maya population, providing them with firearms. He promised to give them land free of tribute and exploitation. With their support, he prevailed in battle. In February 1840, Imán proclaimed Yucatán's return to a federal regime, then in 1841, declared it to be an independent republic. Antonio López de Santa Anna, head of the Mexican government, did not accept this independence, and invaded Yucatán in 1842, establishing a blockade. Land invasion followed, but the Mexican forces were frustrated in their attempts to take either Campeche or Mérida and withdrew to Tampico.
As Yucatán was struggling against Mexican authority, its population became divided into factions. One faction, based in Mérida, was led by Miguel Barbachano, who leaned toward reintegration with Mexico. The other faction was led by Santiago Méndez, based in Campeche. 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. By 1847, the Yucatán Republic had effectively two capitals in the two cities. At the same time, in their struggle against the central government, both leaders had integrated numerous Maya into their armies as soldiers. The Maya, having taken up arms in the course of the war, decided not to set them down again.
Mayan independence[edit]
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. José María Echeverría, a sergeant in the army taken captive by the Maya, resided in the town in 1851–53. He reported later that it had about 200 Maya and 200 whites, all well-armed and apparently fighting together. The whites were under their commander, "a man of reddish complexion". They also had several outlying communities under their control; one contained about 100 people and the others unknown numbers.[20] An English visitor in 1858 thought the Maya had 1,500 fighting men in all. He noted that they took the Santa Cruz with them and that its priests were prominent in the society.[21]
The Ixcanha Maya community had a population of some 1,000 people, who refused the Cruzob's break with traditional Catholicism. In the years of stalemate, Ixcanha agreed to nominal recognition of the government of Mexico in exchange for some guns to defend themselves from Cruzob raids and the promise that the Mexican government would otherwise leave them alone. Mexico City gave Ixcanha autonomy to govern itself through 1894 (following a treaty with the United Kingdom that recognized Mexico's rule over the Yucatán), as it was more worried about the Chan Santa Cruz.
Another important group were the Icaiche Maya, who dominated the jungles of the lower center of the peninsula. In the 1860s under their leader Marcus Canul, they battled against the Mexicans, the Cruzob, and the British from the nearby settlement of British Honduras. Marcus Canul and the Icaiche Maya routed a detachment of British troops on December 21, 1866, at the Battle of San Pedro Yalbac. In 1867 the British mounted a counter-offensive, equipped with newly arrived Congreve rockets.[22] This counter-offensive burned down the villages of San Pedro, Santa Teresa, San José, Naranjal, Cerro, Santa Cruz, and Chunbalche.[23] The Maya briefly took Corozal Town in 1870 and their last major attack was on September 1, 1872, when Canul was mortally wounded at the Battle of Orange Walk.[24] The new Icaiche leaders promised friendship with the British. They soon agreed with the Mexican central government similar to that of the Ixcanha. 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 January 11, 1884, in Belize City by a Chan Santa Cruz general and the vice-Governor of Yucatán. It recognized Mexican sovereignty over Chan Santa Cruz in exchange for Mexican recognition of Chan Santa Cruz leader Crescencio Poot as Governor of the State of Chan Santa Cruz. The following year a coup d'état took place in Chan Santa Cruz, and the government declared the treaty cancelled.