What was the Caste War of Yucatán in Mexico?
The Caste War of Yucatán
La Guerra de Castas de Yucatán
July 1847–1901. In July 1847 Maya communities in the south and east of the Yucatán peninsula rose against the creole and mestizo landowners and officials who had taxed them,…
Draft: not yet checked against its sources.
Where: Mexico, Yucatán
What happened
In July 1847 Maya communities in the south and east of the Yucatán peninsula rose against the creole and mestizo landowners and officials who had taxed them, taken their land for sugar and henequen and conscripted them for Yucatán's own quarrels with Mexico. In the eastern forests the rebels built a state around a Talking Cross at Chan Santa Cruz, with its own priests and officers, and traded logwood for British arms from Belize. The federal army took Chan Santa Cruz in 1901, and in the same year the rebel region became the territory of Quintana Roo. INAH calls it the longest Indigenous resistance in Latin America; a figure of about a quarter of a million dead is often cited for the whole war.
Say it
La Guerra de Castas de Yucatán duró más de cincuenta años, de 1847 a 1901.
The Caste War of Yucatán lasted more than fifty years, from 1847 to 1901.
Why it matters
The Caste War is the reason eastern Yucatán, today's Quintana Roo, was settled so late and why Maya is still widely spoken there. It is also a reminder that independence from Spain did not end colonial relations inside the new republics.
Read about it
Connected
- Mexico loses half its territory: the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (2 February 1848)
- The Porfiriato: order, progress and inequality (1876–May 1911)
- The Conquest of the Desert (1878–1885)
- Before: The Plan de Iguala and Mexican independence
- After: Mexico loses half its territory: the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Sources
- Inicio de la Guerra de Castas — Secretaría de Agricultura (gob.mx)
- Con presentación editorial, conmemoran 178 aniversario del inicio de la Guerra de Castas, en Quintana Roo — INAH