The Mopan Territory, historically also known as Aycal, was a Postclassic polity of the former Maya Lowlands, in present-day Belize and Guatemala.

Geography 
The Territory 'lay immediately north of the Manche Chol [Territory] and southeast of Lake Peten,' with the modern town of San Luis, Peten, as the most likely site of ancient Mopan. Though its full extent remains 'virtually unknown,' the Territory is thought to have stretched north along the Mopan River, thereby encompassing the Chinamita Territory, and east to the Sittee and Sibun Rivers, thereby encompassing the Muzul Territory. This would situate the Territory directly south of Dzuluinicob, southeast of the Peten Itza Kingdom, east of Lacandon territory, and north and west of Manche Chol Territory. The aforementioned Kingdom, in particular, is thought to have held marked political, cultural, or spiritual influence over the Territory.

History

Pre-Columbian 
Classic city-states in what would later become the Mopan Territory are believed to have met their political and demographic demise during the mid-eighth and mid-ninth centuries of the Classic Maya collapse, with only residual hinterland settlements remaining afterwards.

Columbian 
The earliest Spanish arrival to the Territory may have been Hernán Cortés, who in 1525 is thought to have crossed its northeastern portion. The earliest Spanish military campaign into the Territory may have been the 1543–1544 Pachecos entrada, which failed due to timely intercession of Dominican friars. The Dominicans' early proselytising efforts in the Territory 'were notably unsuccessful,' though. This prompted more determined activity beginning in the 1570s, which 'continued throughout the next century.'

Some  much of the Territory was reportedly attacked by the Peten Itza Kingdom  the latter purportedly seeking to conquer the former. This is naturally thought to have strained Mopan–Itza relations.

The Spanish conquest of Peten resulted in the western portion of the Territory being 'militarily bludgeoned into submission at the end of the seventeenth century.' Coincident and ensuing  throughout the Territory forcibly removed most residents to the newly-Spanish Peten by the 1720s.

Society 
The Territory was dotted by dispersed, riverine hamlets, each consisting of one or a few families of Mopan speakers. Settlements are thought to have shown 'little evidence of wealth,' for instance, with 'generally a hut of regular house type, although somewhat larger, serv[ing] as the temple.' Despite this, the hamlets are thought to have been organised into various lineage groups which, in turn, 'clearly constitute[d] an identifiable "people" or larger "nation" living in a contiguous region.'

Legacy 
The earliest description of the Territory in print is thought to have appeared in the 1688  by Diego López de Cogolludo, who credited this information to Bartolomé de Fuensalida, a Franciscan friar who himself likely first got it from an Itza delegation to Tipu in 1618. Scholarship has advanced little since then, however. As of 2009, the state of archaeological and archival research on the Territory was deemed 'poor,' with the former Mopans described as '[a people who] remain virtually unknown materially and geopolitically except for documentary references or linguistic reconstructions.'

The Territory's residents are deemed the main ancestors of the modern Mopan Maya people of Belize and Guatemala.

Notes and references

Explanatory footnotes

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Former countries in North America
Mayan chiefdoms of the Yucatán Peninsula
History of Belize
History of Petén
History of the Maya civilization