Yucatan Caste War Analysis

The subject of the Yucatan caste war is a subject that is not particularly studied and there is not an abundant amount of written material pertaining to this topic out there. Nelson Reed’s The Caste War of Yucatan is a monography that gave a detailed overview of the Yucatan caste war in its entirety. Nelson looked at not only the physical confrontation of the war, but also the factors contributing, such as the landscape, social structure of Yucatan society, and the impact of the conflict had on the religion and economy of Yucatan. The Yucatan Caste War is a complex confrontation of ethnic tensions between the indigenous peoples and the Dzuls, white peoples, of Yucatan, which all is steaming from Spanish influence and oppression after conquest.
After them in status cames Creoles, people of supposedly pure white blood who had be in the New World. Next stood the Mestizos, far down the laddered, of mixed white and Indian blood; a few Mulattoes of white and Negro blood; and the Pardos, of Negro and Indian blood. […] At the bottom of the ladder were the Indios. Independence discredited or expelled the Spaniards, and their position was inherited by that part of the white population known as the gente decente, or upper
The Cruzob can be easily defined as a religious group or cult of the “Speaking Cross.” Much of the Cruzob forms, ranks, and organizations stemmed from the Spanish. There is a chart in The Caste War of Yucatan that lays out side by side the governmental and religious hierarchy of Pre-Columbian, Colonial, and Cruzob societies. As Reed stated, “The Spanish culture had proved superior to the Maya culture by the fact of conquest, and the defeat people had accepted what was taught them. It was only in the area of agriculture, where the foreigners couldn’t improve on local techniques, and in matters of village and family structure that the older practices continued, along with the associated gods and rites.” The Cruzob was almost an abstraction of the priestly and political hierarchy of the Pre-Columbian times, but it still compared to the Spanish with the exclusion of the Maya of the centers if the towns. This hybrid culture proved to be the strongest and largest threat against the Dzul forces. The Cruzob played a key role in prolonging the fighting, but also provides an example on how parts of the Spanish ethnic background was integrated in the native culture and its overall impact. Not only did the Spanish impact the religious customs of the native population, but they also impacted the economy of Yucatan. The economy of Yucatan was generally centered on agriculture. There were hacendias and Eijdos. Ownership of land or