It took the Spanish and their Indigenous allies only two years to capture the Mexica, or Aztec, capital of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, after entering the city in 1519. The Maya, however, presented a more resolute challenge. This was in part because the Maya had never been ruled by a single centralized state. Dozens of independent Maya kingdoms across southern Mexico and Central America mounted various forms of resistance to the Spaniards. While some declared allegiance to the colonizers without much of a fight, others pledged their loyalty and then broke their alliance. Still others fought fiercely against the colonizers from the outset and sustained their rebellion for decades.
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