The Last Maya Kingdom

Features May/June 2026

On the shores of a lake in Guatemala, the Itzá people defied the Spanish for nearly 200 years
Flores Island, Guatemala
Courtesy Timothy Pugh/Itzá Archaeological Project
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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 witho

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