CHAPTER 2 LATE POSTCLASSIC MESOAMERICA 111itime commercial economy that connected them to a larger world of exchange with
Central Mexico and Honduras. Mayapan fell from power in A.D. 1441, as a result of
factional divisions among its principal noble families.
The historian Matthew Restall (1997) refers to the A.D. 1441 (post-Mayapan) to
1542 (year of Spanish contact) period as the “segmented century,” and a wealth of
contact period documents inform our understanding of Mayan society at this time.
Initial Spanish visits to cities like Ecab, Campeche, and Champoton were met with
hostility, and the northern peninsula resisted defeat until 1542. Spanish control over
the northern Mayan realm was ultimately enabled by the political treachery of rival
factions descended from Mayapan: the Xiu and the Cocom. These are the same fac-
tions who had, a century earlier, broken up the Mayapan confederacy.
For another 155 years, southern Mayan groups in Belize and the Peten resisted
the Spaniards in regular, episodic rebellions. It was not until Spanish troops built a
road to Lake Peten Itza and conquered the rebellious island polity of the Itza that
the Spanish conquest was completed. Notably, indigenous rebellions on local or re-
gional scales have arisen periodically in the Mayan area to this day. The following dis-
cussion provides details on the main features of the lowland Mayan peoples during
the Postclassic and early Colonial periods.
Mayan Economy. Slash-and-burn (milpa) agriculture, timed with the annual cycle
of rainy and dry seasons, supported Mayan society at Spanish contact and still forms
the basis of village agriculture today. Crops such as corn, beans, squash, and peppers
are planted when the rains start in late May or June. Fruit trees, along with other
crops, are grown in domestic gardens in Mayan houselots, where animals are also
raised. Hunting game and wild fowl provide important supplements (Figure 2.7).
A lively trade in subsistence goods existed on the peninsula between coastal and
inland towns, which exchanged fish and salt for game and fruit. Across the Mayan low-
lands, the peoples specialized in the production of specific goods for export, al-
though this was not an exclusive pattern. Products such as honey and wax, wooden
canoes (and other wood products), cacao, copal (incense), and cotton textiles were
exchanged between polities located in different ecological pockets of the lowlands.
Large groves of cacao were cultivated in well-watered, agriculturally fertile areas
of the eastern and southern lowlands. Cacao was grown in lesser quantities in the
northwest peninsula, in cenotes(sinkholes) or other wet depressions that offered suit-
able moisture and greater soil depth. Northern production was not sufficient to meet
the demand of centers like Mayapan, which acquired large quantities of it through
trade and tribute from southern polities. Cacao was used as a currency in marketplace
exchange. The cacao beans were counted in units, including a contle(400 beans),
xiquipile(1,800 beans), and a carga(2,400 beans). A Spanish realcoin was worth
200 beans (half a contle). Other forms of money included copper bells and axes,
red stone or shell beads (kan), and other precious stones.
The exchange economy during the Postclassic period was complex, and it involved
gifting, tribute taking, long-distance trading, and market exchange. Postclassic lords and