CASTE WARFARE (MAYA): ANTECEDENTS, CAUSES, STAGES, CONSEQUENCES - HISTORY - 2024

The Caste War was the armed conflict that pitted the Mayan natives of the eastern and southern Yucatan against the Creoles and mestizos of that territory, who mainly inhabited the northwestern part of the peninsula.

The war began in 1847 and lasted for more than fifty years. The official end of the conflict took place in 1901, when the troops of the Mexican federal army occupied Chan Santa Cruz, the de facto capital of the state that the Mayans created during their rebellion. Porfirio Díaz, president of Mexico, signed the peace treaty with the insurgents.

Caste War - Source: Cuilomerto / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

The conflict consisted of three different stages. During the third of them, the Mayan rebels formed their own government, with a political and religious system named. Its leaders baptized the territory they dominated as Quintana Roo, which became a Mexican state after the war ended.

The causes of the Mayan rebellion were complex, but the main one was the social situation that these indigenous people lived through. Inequalities had not disappeared after independence and the Mayans continued to suffer unfavorable laws against the Creoles.

Background

The situation in the state of Yucatán was quite convulsed since years before the Mayan rebellion. At the beginning of the 1940s there was a strong separatist sentiment among the elites of the state. This sparked two attempts at independence: in 1841 and in 1846.

The Mexican government, which had already suffered the independence of Texas, reacted by sending its troops. In the Yucatan the Mayans were armed to face the federal army.

The result of the conflict of 1846 was the declaration of independence of Yucatán, on January 1 of that year. However, the weapons that had been distributed to the Mayan servants were not recovered.

Indigenous vassalage

Among the Maya of Yucatan there was great discontent for their social conditions. Their lower social status came from before the independence of Mexico, but they had not alleviated after this and the tension grew.

As early as the 18th century, a rebellion led by Jacinto Canek had broken out, which ended with his death in 1761. The leaders of independent Mexico, however, had done nothing to improve the lives of the Maya.

Monument statue to Jacinto Canek located in Mérida. Source: JUAN PEDRO BALAM CANUL / Copyrighted free use, Wikimedia commons

In Yucatán, only Creoles and other mestizos were citizens with full rights. It was these classes that held the positions of power, both political and economic.

Uprising

The governor of Yucatán, Santiago Méndez Ibarra, received news in July 1847 of a large concentration of armed Mayans on a farm near Valladolid. The owner of this hacienda was Jacinto Pat, a Mayan caudillo (batab).

Santiago Mendez

Méndez's reaction was to arrest the Mayan leader of Chichimilá, Manuel Antonio Ay, on the accusation of having found him a letter in which he planned an insurrection. The indigenous leader was summarily tried and executed by hanging.

After this, the governor tried to find the other Mayan caudillos. In that search, the town of Tepich was set on fire and its inhabitants violently repressed.

The Mayan response was just as violent: on July 30 of that same year, Cecilio Chi attacked Tepich and ordered that all the whites be killed. Pat joined Chi's men from the south. The war had started.

Causes of the Caste War

The War of the Castes had various social and economic motivations with a common origin: the situation of legal inferiority of the indigenous people since colonial times.

Castes and vassalage

When the Spanish took control of the territory after defeating the different indigenous peoples, a stratified social system was established. In this way the concept of caste arose, each of the ethnic groups into which society was divided.

The upper caste was occupied by the whites, although with differences between the peninsulares and the Creoles. Behind these were the mestizos and, at the base, the indigenous.

The Mayan population had undergone a process of acculturation since the conquest. In Yucatán, specifically, strict social control had been established for all non-white groups.

Over time, the Creoles were improving their economic position. However, there were still laws that prevented their access to positions of power, which became one of the reasons why they led the independence movements.

Although some of the leaders took a position in favor of indigenous rights, in practice the situation changed little after independence.

Situation after independence

During the 19th century, in much of independent Mexico, social control of the indigenous continued by the ruling class. One of the places where it was most strictly adhered to was the Yucatan.

Despite the prohibition of slavery during the presidency of Vicente Guerrero, the landowners of Yucatán maintained control of their indigenous workers, who continued in a regime of submission on the haciendas.

The route that the landowners found was that of the debt. The Mayans were born and died on the same farm where they worked. His salary was awarded through the raya shop, owned by the landowner himself.

Workers had to buy in these stores, with a system that caused them to go into debt more and more. In the event that someone wanted to leave the hacienda, they had to pay off that debt first, something impossible for them. Those debts were also hereditary.

Stages

Map of the Caste War. Source: Chan_Santa_Cruz_Maya.gif: PhJIsla_Mujeres_en_Quintana_Roo.svg: Battroidderivative work: Mircalla22 / CC SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/sa/1.0/)

Historians divide the long Caste War into three different stages: between 1847 and 1849; between 1850 and 1860; and the one that covers from 1861 to 1901.

First stage

In July 1847, Cecilio Chi and Jacinto Pat, two Mayan caciques, unified their forces to create a large armed battalion. The government of Yucatán, then independent from Mexico, responded with great violence to the threat and many indigenous caciques were executed indiscriminately.

This repression only increased the number of rebels, who began to take over many towns in the south east of the peninsula. In their advance, the insurgents killed all the whites and burned their property.

The intention of the rebels was to create a totally indigenous independent state, without whites or mestizos. Once achieved, they intended to appoint Cecilio Chi as governor.

At first, the war turned in favor of the Mayans. In April 1848, the Yucatan government only retained some coastal cities and the royal road to Campeche.

On the 19th of that month, Governor Miguel Barbachano and Chief Jacinto Pat signed the so-called Tzucacab treaties. In them the personal contribution was abolished and the payment for the right of baptism was reduced to 3 reales, as well as that of marriage to 10.

Miguel Barbachano

In addition, the agreement stated that the indigenous people did not have to pay anything for the rental of their lands and that all creditors were exempt. The treaty, in its articles 5 and 6, recognized Barbachano and Pat as governors for life, each representing their respective communities.

This solution did not convince Cecilio Chi, in command of the Eastern Maya. The chief continued the war with the intention of exterminating all the whites.

Second stage

Independent Yucatán did not have enough military force to defeat the rebels. For this reason, he was forced to ask for foreign aid, to countries like England, Cuba, Spain and the United States. However, his request was not answered positively by any of them.

Given this, the Mexican government offered Yucatán economic and military aid to end the conflict. Thanks to this support, the whites were able to begin to recover some territories in the hands of the Mayans.

One of the consequences of this aid was Yucatán's decision to rejoin the Mexican State.

Third stage

The armed confrontations began to diminish. The rebels, although their attacks were less and less, still resisted and maintained control over the southeastern part of the peninsula.

In that territory under their control, which they baptized as Quintana Roo, the Mayans formed a government and promoted their own political and religious system.

The war, however, was definitely turning in favor of the whites. General Ignacio A. Bravo advanced on the territories dominated by the Mayans until occupying their capital, Chan Santa Cruz in May 1901.

With both sides exhausted, the Mayans decided to surrender and negotiate a peace agreement with the Mexican president, Porfirio Díaz.

Consequences

The Caste War supposed enormous human and economic losses for Yucatán. Its population, for example, was reduced by half, since to those killed during the fighting it was necessary to add the victims of the multiple diseases that were unleashed and the massive migration to other territories.

Peace treaty

Portrait of President Porfirio Díaz 1877-1911

The Agora

Despite the defeat, the Mayans achieved some concessions in the peace agreement signed with Porfirio Díaz, then president of Mexico. In this way, the treaty recognized their rights and granted them political authority.

Territorial consequences

As noted, Yucatán decided to rejoin the Mexican Republic even before the conflict ended.

Mexico had been the only country that had provided aid to Yucatán during the War of the Castes. This convinced the Yucatecan government to become part of the country again.

However, the war had important territorial consequences for Yucatán. The peninsula was divided into three different states: Yucatán, Campeche and Quintana Roo. In the latter, founded by the Mayans during the conflict, it is still possible to find descendants of the rebels.

References

1. Unknown Mexico. The Caste War: the violent confrontation between Mayans and "whites". Obtained from mexicodesconocido.com.mx
2. Valverde Valdés, María del Carmen. The Caste War. Yucatan Peninsula (1847-1901). Obtained from arqueologiamexicana.mx
3. Avilez, Gilberto. The war that split the Yucatan peninsula in two. Retrieved from mayapolitikon.com
4. Yucatan Times. The Caste War of Yucatan. Retrieved from theyucatantimes.com
5. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Caste War Of Yucatan. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com
6. Naturalight Productions Ltd. Caste War. Retrieved from northernbelize.com