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REPARTIMIENTO When slavery was abolished, the Crown still had to support the need for labor. The unethical system of encomienda was replaced by a system called repartimiento (meaning to divide up) which required all Indigenous men between the ages of 16 and 60 to labor for one week of each month for private individuals, religious…

Legendary ferocity The Spanish conquest of the Maya in Guatemala was entrusted to Pedro de Alvarado. He achieved it with a ferocity that became legendary. In 1523, he and some 800 men defeated the main army of the K’iche’ and slew their leader, Tecún Umán. Alvarado then advanced on the K’iche’ capital, K’umarkaaj, and burned…

INSIGHT: TIKAL Possibly the most visually impressive of all the Maya cities, Tikal stands majestically in the Petén jungle, occupied now only by monkeys, toucans, and other exotica. As the first sunlight filtered through the early morning mist, the high priest, Iahca Na, emerged from the inner sanctum of Temple I. Yik’in Chan K’awiil, waiting…

THE MAYAN CALENDAR The observation of the heavens, and the calculation of time based on the movement of the stars, the sun, and the moon, was of the utmost importance to the Maya. Many great Maya sites, such as Chichén Itzá, had observatories from where the experts could calculate the calendar, and they proved to…

EARLY HISTORY More than 12,000 years of history has riddled the Central American isthmus with mysteries that are only just being solved. Human settlement of Central America dates back thousands of years. Hunter-gatherers are first thought to have arrived in the region around 10,000 BC, and spears and tools dating from 9000 BC have been…

Decisive dates An engraving of washerwomen on the river Chagres at Matachin, Panama, from 1879. The pre-Hispanic era c.10,000 BC Earliest animal remains: mammoth bones found at Loltún in Yucatán. c.6000–2000 BC Early settlers farm maize and beans, make pottery, and probably speak a Proto-Maya language. c.2000 BC First evidence of fixed Maya settlements at…

Volcanoes With more than 100 large volcanoes, Central America is one of the most active volcanic zones in the western hemisphere. The Sierra Madre in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas marks the beginning of a long volcanic chain that stretches down along the Pacific coast. Forming the backbone of the Central American isthmus, this…

A REGION OF FIRE AND FOREST From lush rainforests to coffee plantations, smoking volcanoes and tropical beaches, Central America is a place you won’t forget in a hurry. When American explorer John Lloyd Stephens was traveling through Central America in 1840, he couldn’t believe his eyes when he stumbled upon Copán in Honduras. He thought…