Nojpetén

Tayasal on Mayathan Noh Petén ("city island " ), or Tah Itzá ( "Place of the Itza " ) was a Maya city state in the Itza ethnic group, located in the north of present-day Guatemala. It was the last until 1697 independent Maya state. On its ruins, the Spanish erected the city of Flores.

Location

Tah Itzá was located on an island in Lake Petén Itzá in the Petén department of Guatemala today. Therefore, its location, the city was to defend well.

History

After the destruction of the Itza Chichen Itza moved south to the Petén Itzá lake, where they founded in 1194 on an island their new capital Tayasal.

Hernán Cortés arrived in 1523 on his march to Honduras in pursuit of Cristóbal de Olid, shortly after the Aztec king Cuauhtémoc at Xicalango be hung with an army of Spaniards and about 600 Chontal Maya by Tayasal. Here he met the Itza rulers ( halach Winik ) Ah Kaan Ek ( " Black Snake ", Hispanicized Canek ), and held with this from a Catholic mass. The Spaniards left behind a dying horse. For fear that the Spaniards would make the Itza responsible for the death of the horse, they built a wooden horse as a replacement.

After the conquest of Guatemala and Yucatan, the Spaniards tried repeatedly, Tah Itzá take. An attack under Hernán Cortés in 1541 was blocked by the Itza warriors.

1618 attended two Jesuit priests, accompanied by several hundred Indians from Belize City Tah Itza and were initially greeted warmly. When the priests saw that the Itza in the time established by Cortés wooden horse Tzimin worshiped Chac ( "Horse of Thunder " ), they destroyed this, and it came to battle. The ruler ( Ahau ) of the Itza, Ek Kaan Ah, let expel the Spaniards.

There were several unsuccessful attempts at military conquest the Spaniards, so 1685 of Belize, 1687 Alta Verapaz, and in 1691 and 1695 by Yucatán. The governor of Yucatán, Martín de Ursua finally asked a Spanish army of units of Tabasco and Yucatán together. These stormed on 13 March 1697 last free Mayan city. It also battleships came to use, which were brought from the coast and assembled on the banks of the Petén Itzá lake.