Why go
Petén lies in present-day Guatemala, beyond the Riviera Maya, but its history completes the peninsula's conquest story. Refugees from Spanish-held lands reached independent southern Maya communities. The Itza capital on an island in Lake Petén Itzá resisted Spanish contact and invasion for generations after Mérida was founded.
The full story
Hernán Cortés passed through the Itza kingdom in 1525, but sustained Spanish attempts to bring the region under control came much later. Franciscan friars traveled from Mérida to Nojpetén in 1618 and returned in 1619. The Itza ruler received them, yet conversion did not follow; the second visit ended amid opposition from Maya religious leaders. A 1622 mission and military approach ended violently, and Spanish contact largely ceased for decades. In the 1690s, expeditions advanced from Yucatán and Guatemala toward Lake Petén Itzá. Itza parties resisted, and difficult routes slowed the attackers. In March 1697, Martín de Urzúa y Arizmendi led an assault that captured Nojpetén. The lake's distance from northern colonial centers and the Itza kingdom's continued political independence explain the long gap between Spanish settlement at Mérida and the final attack. Petén's story also preserves the role of southern Maya communities as destinations for people fleeing colonial control.