Pieces of Eight

Yucatan Peninsula

Spain’s first steps on the Yucatan actually happened by error when a ship was blown here by a storm. The natives captured the poor sailors, and sacrificed half of them to their gods. The others they released after the Spaniards learned their language. Sadly for the natives, however, the Spanish had brought smallpox to Mexico.

Over the next 200 years, Spain’s interest in Mexico grew to fever pitch as gold and silver were discovered. The Europeans destroyed (either by violence or disease) or converted every native tribe they came across, enslaved the survivors, tearing down their temples, destroying their works of literature, and transporting their gold and silver back to Spain.

Of all the regions of the Caribbean claimed by Spain, the Yucatan peninsula is the most important and no other European nation has come close to founding a colony on these gold-rich shores.