Spanish period of Belize

The Spanish period of Belizean history began with the arrival of the Spanish in 1500, and ended with the Tipu rebellion in 1638. The period was marked by Spanish conquest and ensuing attempts at establishing political, economic, and religious authority, all of which succeeded to varying degrees, especially in northern Belize. Further trends included the rise of Elizabethan piracy in the 1570s, and of Maya resistance to Spanish rule in the 1600s.
At the start of the Spanish period, Belize, then part of the central and southern Maya Lowlands, is thought to have been split into at least two cultures (Yucatecan, Cholan) and four polities (Chetumal, Dzuluinicob, Mopan, Manche Chol).
Upon Spanish conquest, said polities came 'theoretically' under Yucatán's (and therefore New Spain's) jurisdiction. Practically, however, the lower polities were further claimed by Verapaz (and therefore Guatemala), resulting in a grey zone of 'two poorly delimited colonial jurisdictions' that persisted into the Precolonial period.
First contact with the Maya civilisation is ascribed to the 1502 Honduran leg of Columbus's fourth voyage, 1508–1509 Pinzon–Solis voyage, 1511 stranding of Guerrero, Aguilar, and company, or 1517 Hernandez de Cordoba expedition. News of these events is thought to have 'travelled rapidly' across the Maya region, trickling down through long-established trade routes, thereby giving even uncontacted polities prior notice of the Spanish. Belize's polities, in particular, 'almost certainly' heard tell of Columbus's 1502 landing, with Chetumal further benefitting from Guerrero's insider knowledge (said sailor having relocated or been relocated there from Ecab).
The first impact of conquest, even prior to its proper start in 1527, is thought to have been either epidemic disease, economic collapse, or impressment or enslavement. By the time the Spaniards arrived to conquer, they may have come upon 'a wary population and a hard-hit landscape.'
Conquest did not properly start, however, until Montejo's failed entrada of 1527–1528, which entered Chetumal by sea, and further intended to enter by land. In 1528, Montejo decided they needed a more strategic location for their recently founded villa of Salamanca de Xelha. He set off due south in a brig, while his lieutenant, Davila, followed over land. Montejo then entered the port of Chetumal (possibly Santa Rita). Its officials led him to believe that Davila had met an ill end, and so Montajo carried on his reconnaissance south. Davila, meanwhile, was told that Montejo had met an ill end, leading him to turn back without reaching Chetumal. The manoeuvre afforded Chetumal, and lower polities, a brief respite from Spanish incursions.
The next entrada to Chetumal, Davila's of 1531–1533, likewise failed, but this time not so easily. Davila managed to actually take over the port in 1531, rechristening it Villa Real, though he was eventually routed in 1532. Chetumal and the lower polities 'were left to their own devices until late 1543 or 1544, when a most cruel conquest of the area bagan.'
The final entrada to Chetumal and lower polities, Melchor and Alonso Pacheco's of 1543–1544, is thought to have been particularly brutal, even for the time. Their atrocities reportedly included the use of dogs, starvation, and mutilation. In the end, though, the Pachecos are thought to have conquered at least Chetumal and Dzuluinicob, founding their villa, Salamanca de Bacalar, by late 1544.
The work of conquest was still not done, however, as widespread revolts erupted in 1546–1547, including in Bacalar. Not until these were quelled could the Yucatán province 'be said to have been pacified.'
Bacalar soon found itself cut off from the rest of Yucatán, given 'poor roads [...] many of which remained impassable throughout the year,' and obstructed sea routes dotted by 'dangerous shallows and reefs,' resulting in the villa's protracted poverty, and a tenuous grip on northern Belize.
Missionary efforts are noted for having been 'militantly anti-pagan' (with paganism loosely defined), and for extending into temporal affairs (such as reduccions). Franciscan efforts (from Yucatán) are further deemed to have been assiduous, and to have extended 'as far south as Monkey River,' with Dominican work (from Verapaz) more periodic and restricted to southern Belize.
Evangelising work may have begun upon Cortes's 1525 crossing of Mopan and Manche Chol territory, or Montejo's 1528 landing in Chetumal. The earliest non-expeditionary friar in Belize is thought to have been the Franciscan Lorenzo de Bienvenida, who may have catechised independently as early as during the 1543–1544 Pachecos entrada, whilst en route from Golfo Dulce to Mérida. Bacalar itself may have had no resident clergy in its first two decades, though, as the earliest record of such dates to 1565 with the arrival of Pedro de la Costa, a secular priest.
Lamanai and Tipu are known to have been visita missions, possibly as easily as during the Pachecos entrada. They are thought to have been primarily serviced by Franciscans. A further number are thought to have been founded in northern and southern Belize.
Piracy is thought to have been first introduced to the Bay of Honduras by Pedro Braques who, in a patax with 22 Frenchmen, had 'sailed to Honduras' and been apprehended in 1544. In 1558, their compatriots took Truxillo for the first time, followed by Puerto Caballos in 1559. The French were followed into the Bay by the Dutch and English, with the latter first arriving in 1572 or 1573. The earliest known notice of piracy in Belizean waters is Francisco de Acles's raid of Bacalar in 1578.
Piratical activity in the Bay was sporadic at first, but noticeably intensified in the 1570s, due principally to Elizabethan sea dogs, who more than offset a concomitant decline in French presence. This tide is thought to have reached Belize in the 1630s, and to have contributed to demographic flight away from the coast.
By the opening years of the seventeenth century, 'resistance and rebellion were in the air' in the Bacalar district. The yet unconquered Peten Itza kingdom is thought to have been the primary driver of resistance, encouraging widespread flight towards its zone of refuge. Further motivating factors may have included famine conditions (from increased encomienda demands, and harvest shortfalls), and piratical depradations.
The earliest sign of something being awry was the desertion of encomienda towns near Tipu, possibly due to increasingly burdensome tribute obligations, necessitating reduccions in 1608 and again in 1615. Three years later, the Fuensalida–Orbita mission left the friars with a (well-founded) fear 'that an alliance was developing between Tipu and the Itzas,' and further strained Spanish relations with Peten Itza. Further missions to Peten Itza in 1619 and 1623 similarly failed, the latter spectacularly so (the entire missionary party of over 80 having been executed, purportedly for desecrating an Itza temple). Said mass execution or massacre was promptly followed by another in 1624 in La Pimienta, this time due to egregiously ill treatment by an entrada party.
Conditions only worsened for the Spanish in the 1630s. The decade opened with desertion in Xibun and Soite, and closed with the pivotal Tipu rebellion, which (within a few years) depleted Bacalar of most of their Maya population.
The majority of the pre-conquest population is thought to have been settled in riverine towns and villages during the wet and dry seasons, with a minority moving to coastal villages during the dry.
The post-conquest Maya population of Bacalar is thought to have been spread around some 25 settlements across the district in 1544. But both 'flight and population loss characterised the years after 1544 in the Bacalar province,' with Bienvenida claiming that a town of 100 households would have been large in 1548, where once there were towns of 500 to 1,000. In the district (unlike in the rest of Yucatán), 'original population levels were never recovered' after conquest.
The Spanish population of Bacalar is thought to have never surpassed some estimated 130 individuals, with vecinos numbering fewer than circa 30. The tributary Maya population is estimated to have been some six to seven times greater, at least, possibly reaching circa 1,500 or 1,600. The non-tributary Maya population, living beyond Spanish reach, is thought have amounted to 'perhaps an equal number or even more.'
Belize's pre-conquest polities are thought to have been especially focussed on trade. Archaeological and historical evidence strongly suggest Chetumal, for instance, maintained overland or maritime trade with at least Uaymil (a neighbouring polity) and Acalan, Ecab, and Mani (polities further afield), while Dzuluinicob and Manche Chol maintained heavy overland trade with at least Peten Itza. Additional economic activities are thought to have included cash crop farming (of cacao, annatto, vanilla), beekeeping, and subsistence farming, hunting, and fishing. Commerce and these enterprises are thought to have carried on after conquest.
Encomiendas were first established in Belize in 1544, and lasted 'for about a century and a half.' They are not thought to have been altogether different from the pre-conquest tributary system, though, except that tributaries now paid 'different people different things in different amounts,' with the Spanish now primarily demanding (possibly onerous quantities of) cotton, honey, salt, beeswax, maize, and especially cacao. Though details are scarce, total encomienda income has been estimated at 'no more than 1,500 pesos' per annum, leading Jones to posit that it 'must have comprised a relatively small proportion' of the villa's revenue.
The Spanish in Bacalar are thought to have similarly focussed on trade with coastal Mopan and Manche Chol villages, and with Yucatán and Honduras, in addition to internal commerce. Further minor economic activities possibly included cattle ranching in Chetumal, cacao farming on New River, and salt making in Ambergris Caye.
Post-conquest society was 'formally and functionally' split into native and Spanish classes, with the former heavily outnumbering the former in Yucatán, which disparity is thought to have afforded the former some degree of autonomy. Nonetheless, the Spanish are thought to have 'in general, behaved towards their Maya neighbours and "subjects" as though the native population was there to be exploited for the comfort and survival of the colonists.'
Though little is known of Maya warfare prior to conquest, its rules of engagement are broadly thought to have been quite distinct to Spanish ones. Most starkly, Mayanists have noted the 'tacitcal discrepancy between the Spaniards' willingness to kill large numbers of Mayas indiscriminately, and the Mayas' preference for person-to-person combat and the taking of captives.' Furthermore, batttle is thought to have been ritualised, with rules of engagement 'which were agreed upon by all parties concerned–except, of course, Spanish soldiers.' Aims of warfare have also historically been thought to differ, with the Spanish waging war for acquisition of territory, profit, and conversion to Catholicism, and the Maya for acquisition of slaves and human sacrifice. The latter has come under scrutiny recently though, with some scholars arguing that profit (via the acquisition of tributary rights) was likely the primary motive for war.
Maya polities at the eve of conquest are now thought to have been primarily defined as networks of interpersonal relationships, rather than well-delimited territories. That is, the polity is thought to have been constituted by a set of people (and whatever space they happened to inhabit), rather than being made up of a demarcated space (and whatever people happened to inhabit it). Polities may have arisen from pre-existing chibals, and the newly-formed interpersonal relationships further knitting them together may have been patron-client ones entailing allegiance, tribute, among other rights and obligations. That is, an ambitious chibal may have risen to power (and thus formed a polity) 'not based on control of resources through acquisition of territory in which the actual resources lay or grew or were extracted, but rather, on control of resources through acquisition of rights to what was produced.'
The cabildo was the principal institution of governance in Bacalar. In its early years, the cabildo of Bacalar was composed of two alcaldes and three regidors (plus the escribano and procurador, ex officio), with alcaldes holding principal executive and judicial authority. By the 1570s, the cabildo had been reorganised to include only one alcalde and four regidors. Members were resident, encomienda-holding vecinos elected annually by outgoing members, though offices 'tended to be dominated by strong men [...] as there were probably never more than ten or so qualified vecinos.'
Some aspects of pre-conquest political organisation 'were maintained under Spanish rule,' such as tribute arrangements.
The Spanish colonial project in Belize is popularly deemed a failure. Catholic missions, on the other hand, 'had a lasting religious impact,' with Graham contending that Mayas genuinely came to see themselves as Christians, and so kept said faith even upon Spanish withdrawal.
Spanish records are especially scarce and unreliable for Belize, particularly for its southern half. Such historical and ethnographic sources nonetheless remain the mainstay of scholarship on this period, though increasingly supplemented by archaeological evidence, especially in Mayanist works. Graham, for instance, used excavations at Tipu and Lamanai for their study of Hispano–Maya religious interaction.
Some of the earliest published historical work on this period was Cogolludo's Historia de Yucatan, written 1647–1656 and published 1688. Further landmarks included Chamberlain's 1948 Conquest and Colonization, Roy's 1957 Political Geography, and Jones's 1989 Maya Resistance.
17°00′N 88°30′W﻿ / ﻿17.0°N 88.5°W﻿ / 17.0; -88.5