The Spanish conquest of Petén was the last stage of the conquest of Guatemala, a prolonged conflict during the Spanish colonisation of the Americas. The Itza, the Yalain, the Kowoj, and other Maya populations in Petén were engaged in a complex web of alliances and enmities before the conquest. Petén was first penetrated by Hernán Cortés with a sizeable expedition that crossed the territory from north to south in 1525. In the first half of the 16th century Spain established neighbouring colonies in Yucatán to the north and Guatemala to the south. In 1622 a military expedition from Yucatán led by Captain Francisco de Mirones was massacred by the Itza. In 1628 the Manche Ch'ol of the south were placed under the administration of the colonial governor of Verapaz within the Captaincy General of Guatemala. In 1695 another expedition tried to reach Lake Petén Itzá from Guatemala. Martín de Ursúa y Arizmendi captured Nojpetén, the island capital of the Itza kingdom, in 1697, defeating the last of the independent native kingdoms in the Americas and incorporating them into the Spanish Empire.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Pet%C3%A9n
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1430:
Hundred Years' War: Joan of Arc was captured at the Siege of Compiègne. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Compi%C3%A8gne
1706:
War of the Spanish Succession: Led by the Duke of Marlborough, the allied forces of England, the Dutch Republic, and Denmark–Norway defeated the Franco-Bavarian army in Ramillies, present-day Belgium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ramillies
1873:
The North West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was established to bring law and order to and assert Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Territories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Mounted_Police
1934:
American criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ambushed and killed by police on a desolate road near their hideout in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_and_Clyde
2008:
To resolve a 29-year-old territorial dispute, the International Court of Justice awarded Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca to Singapore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedra_Branca_dispute
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
fief: 1. An estate held by a person on condition of providing military service to a superior. 2. Something over which one has rights or exercises control. 3. (metaphor) An area of dominion, especially in a corporate or governmental bureaucracy. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fief
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would have every path laid open to Woman as freely as to Man. Were this done, and a slight temporary fermentation allowed to subside, we should see crystallizations more pure and of more various beauty. We believe the divine energy would pervade nature to a degree unknown in the history of former ages, and that no discordant collision, but a ravishing harmony of the spheres, would ensue. Yet, then and only then will mankind be ripe for this, when inward and outward freedom for Woman as much as for Man shall be acknowledged as a right, not yielded as a concession. --Margaret Fuller https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller