How Did the Spanish Conquest Change Maya Society?

The Spanish conquest and the long colonial period that followed transformed Maya society in ways that are still being felt. The most dramatic change was the demographic catastrophe caused by newly introduced diseases, especially the smallpox epidemic of 1520 and the cascade of epidemics that followed. The encomienda and repartimiento systems extracted tribute and forced labor from indigenous communities. The Catholic mission system dismantled much of the pre-Columbian religious infrastructure and destroyed almost all painted books. Spanish language and Spanish political institutions displaced, but did not replace, the Maya languages and Maya political structures. Maya communities survived, often in syncretic forms that combined Christian and pre-Columbian Maya practices, and the colonial period saw the gradual emergence of new political identities, including the ladino (Spanish-speaking non-elite) and the modern Maya cultural-political movement of the 19th to 21st centuries.

For a high-level overview, see the History of the Maya Civilization pages. For the political-military story, see the Spanish conquest and colonial era. For the modern consequences, see the living Maya: heritage and modern descendants pages.

Demographic catastrophe

The single most important change was the demographic catastrophe. Estimates of pre-conquest Maya population vary widely, but most scholars agree on a range of perhaps 5 – 10 million in the entire Maya region. By the early 17th century, this number had fallen to perhaps 1 – 2 million, and by 1700 to perhaps 500,000. The smallpox epidemic that arrived in Mexico with the Spanish in 1520 spread rapidly through the Maya region in the 1520s and 1530s, killing perhaps 60 – 90 percent of those infected. Subsequent epidemics of measles, influenza, typhus, yellow fever, and other diseases continued to decimate the population well into the 19th century. By the time of the census of 1577 in the Yucatec Maya region, the population had fallen to perhaps 200,000 – 400,000, and by 1700 the total Maya population of the Yucatán Peninsula was around 100,000.

The demographic collapse had profound effects on Maya society. Many towns were abandoned; many political units were merged; the repartimiento system of forced labor drafts became more important than the encomienda; the colonial economy in many areas contracted to a few staple products. The surviving population was concentrated in fewer, smaller communities, often in the more remote areas that the Spanish did not control effectively. The Lacandon Maya of Chiapas, the Itza of the Petén, and the highland Maya of the Verapaz and the Cuchumatanes were among the groups who survived in part because of their geographic isolation.

The encomienda and colonial labor

The encomienda was the central institution of the early colonial economy. A Spanish encomendero was granted the right to receive tribute and labor from a specified indigenous town, in exchange for protection, religious instruction, and tribute to the Spanish crown. The system was brutal in practice, especially in the early decades of the conquest, and was the object of several Spanish legal reforms, including the New Laws of 1542 of Charles V and the Leyes de Indias of the 16th and 17th centuries. By the 18th century, the repartimiento (a system of rotating forced-labor drafts) had replaced the encomienda in many areas, but the basic structure of indigenous labor extraction remained.

The colonial economy of the Maya region produced a small number of export commodities — chiefly cacao, cotton, indigo, cochineal, and cattle hides — and a much larger subsistence economy based on the milpa system, the traditional Maya maize-beans-squash agriculture described on the Maya agriculture, food, and cuisine pages. The full account of the Maya trade, markets, and economy is treated on its own page.

The destruction of Maya books and ceremonial objects

The most famous single act of cultural destruction in Maya history is the auto-da-fé of 1562 in Maní, Yucatán, in which Bishop Diego de Landa ordered the destruction of hundreds of Maya painted books and ceremonial objects. Landa’s own account, in his Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, gives a vivid picture of the act:

“We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which there were not superstitions and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they [the Maya] regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction.”

Of the thousands of books that must have existed in the 16th century, only four survive: the Dresden, Madrid, Paris, and Grolier codices (see the Maya codices and surviving books page). The single most important surviving text in Maya is the Popol Vuh, the K’iche’ creation narrative, which was written down in Roman script in the 16th century and translated into Spanish by Fray Francisco Ximénez in the 18th century. The full account of the Popol Vuh is on the Popol Vuh: Maya creation myth page.

The colonial period also saw the destruction or displacement of most pre-Columbian stelae and altars, especially in highland Guatemala, where many monuments were either broken up, used as building material, or moved to church plazas. Some of the surviving highland monuments were protected in the late colonial period; many others were rediscovered only in the 19th century by explorers like John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood.

The Catholic mission system and syncretic religion

The Catholic Church was a major social and political institution in colonial Maya life. The bishop of a diocese, the friars of the major orders (Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian), and the parish priests of the smaller towns all exercised significant authority. The maya-curato (Indian-curate) system, in which literate Maya were trained as low-level clergy and instructed Maya populations in their own languages, was an important part of the colonial church.

The friars established missions in nearly every highland and lowland town, built churches and convents, and produced an extensive body of religious literature in Maya languages. The most famous missionary-ethnographer of the 16th century is Diego de Landa (the same friar who presided over the auto-da-fé at Maní); others include Bernardo de Lizana, Diego López de Cogolludo, Pedro Sánchez de Aguilar, and the Fray Francisco Ximénez who translated the Popol Vuh.

The religious change, however, was incomplete. Maya religious traditions survived, often in syncretic forms that combined Christian and pre-Columbian Maya practices. The cult of the maize god and the rain god Chaak continued in many communities, sometimes attached to the cult of specific Catholic saints. The cult of the Holy Cross of the Maya (especially at Quetzaltenango and San Cristóbal de las Casas) and the cult of Maximón (a deity worshiped in highland Guatemala, sometimes identified with the Catholic Saint Simon) are examples of this syncretism. The most famous syncretic religious complex is the Caste War cult of the Speaking Cross of Chan Santa Cruz, treated on the Caste War and Yucatec resistance page.

The colonial social order was organized around a hierarchy of Spanish, ladino, and Maya (or indigenous) categories. The Spanish, including the peninsulares (born in Spain) and the criollos (born in the Americas of Spanish descent), held most of the political, military, and ecclesiastical offices. The ladinos were a heterogeneous category of mixed Spanish and indigenous heritage, often urban, often Spanish-speaking, who occupied an intermediate position. The Maya, the indigenous population, were concentrated in rural communities and small towns, and they were subject to tribute, labor drafts, and the repartimiento system.

The colonial land tenure system was a complex mixture of Spanish and pre-Columbian institutions. The Spanish crown claimed ownership of all land not formally held by indigenous communities, but most indigenous communities retained the right to use their traditional lands under a system of “república de indios” (Republic of Indians). The colonial repartimiento and encomienda systems extracted labor and tribute from these communities. The sale of criollo and ladino lands to indigenous communities, and the gradual expansion of indigenous landholdings, were important features of the late colonial period. The Mexican Revolution (1910 – 1920) led to land reform and the recognition of communal indigenous lands in Chiapas; similar processes in Guatemala were slower and more contested.

Maya language and writing

The colonial period saw a major change in the status of Maya languages. Spanish became the language of government, the Catholic Church, and the colonial economy, but Maya languages continued to be spoken in most indigenous communities. The Franciscan and Dominican friars compiled grammars and dictionaries of the major Maya languages, including Yucatec Maya (the Calepino de Motul dictionary, the Arte de la lengua maya of the Franciscans, and the works of Fray Francisco de Toral), K’iche’, Kaqchikel, Tz’utujil, Mam, and others. The Roman alphabet replaced the Maya hieroglyphic system for most purposes, although Maya scribes continued to use hieroglyphic characters in some ceremonial contexts well into the colonial period. The full account is on the Maya writing, language, and books pages and on the Maya languages from Classic to modern page.

The Bourbon reforms and the late colonial period

The 18th century saw the Bourbon reforms, the administrative reforms of the Spanish Bourbon kings, that restructured colonial administration and increased the tax burden on indigenous communities. In the Maya region, these reforms are associated with the founding of new towns, the reorganization of the repartimiento system, the increased production of indigo and cacao for export, and growing tensions between the colonial state and the Maya communities. The most famous late colonial events in the Maya region are the Tupac Amaru II rebellion in the Andes (1780 – 1781) and the Tz’utujil rising in Guatemala, the independence of Mexico in 1821, and the establishment of the Federal Republic of Central America (which broke up in 1841).

Maya identity in the colonial and modern periods

The category of “Maya” as a unified ethnic and cultural identity is, in many ways, a product of the colonial and modern periods. Pre-Columbian Maya people identified themselves by their city, language, and lineage — as Tikaleros, Copanecos, Yaxchilaneros, K’iche’s, Kaqchikels, Mams, and so on. The unifying concept of “Maya” was constructed gradually, partly by the colonial administration, partly by the Catholic Church, and partly by the indigenous intellectual traditions of the 18th and 19th centuries. The modern Pan-Maya movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries has built on this foundation, and modern Maya identity is now organized around the Maya language family, shared historical experience, and shared cultural and religious traditions. The full account is on the living Maya: heritage and modern descendants pages and on the modern Maya identity and survival page.

The most important legacies

Three legacies of the colonial period are particularly important for understanding the modern Maya:

The persistence of the Maya language family. Despite the dominance of Spanish, 31 Maya languages are still spoken today by perhaps 6 million people in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, and Honduras. The full account is on the Maya languages today: living tongues page.
The syncretic religious tradition. The combination of pre-Columbian Maya ritual practices with Catholic forms produced a distinctive Maya Catholic tradition that continues in many communities today. The Maya calendar system, the Maya priesthood, the Maya rituals of bloodletting and sacrifice, and many other pre-Columbian practices survived in modified forms. The full account is on the Maya religion, mythology, and cosmology pages.
The colonial land tenure and labor systems. The land tenure and labor systems of the colonial period set the stage for the land conflicts of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Mexican Revolution, the Guatemalan Civil War, and the modern indigenous rights movement. The full account is on the Maya society, politics, and daily life pages.

Sources

Coe, M. D. (1993). The Maya (5th ed.). Thames & Hudson. — link
Sharer, R. J. & Traxler, L. P. (2006). The Ancient Maya (6th ed.). Stanford University Press. — link
Demarest, A. A. (2004). Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization. Cambridge University Press. — link
Martin, S. & Grube, N. (2008). Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens (2nd ed.). Thames & Hudson. — link
Schele, L. & Freidel, D. (1990). A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. William Morrow. — link
Canuto, M. A. et al. (2018). Ancient lowland Maya complexity as revealed by airborne laser scanning of northern Guatemala. Science 361 (6409), eaau0137. — link