Chetumal was a Postclassic Maya polity (kuchkabal) in the Maya Lowlands, in what is now northern Belize and southern Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is thought to have been established in or prior to 1514, possibly during the Postclassic period, and to have been annexed by Spanish Yucatan in 1544, upon the successful Pachecos entrada. Its last known governor (halach winik) was Nachan Kan (), who notably led his province during the Spanish conquest of Yucatan, alongside his slave and later son-in-law, Gonzalo Guerrero, a stranded Spanish sailor. The former province has been the subject of Mayanist study since the late 19th century, and is notable in popular culture as one of the last coastal kuchkabals conquered by the Spanish, and for the Guerrero–Kan family, who are thought to number amongst the earliest Mestizo families in the New World.

History

The first settlements in what would become Chetumal were established by Palaeoindians before 8000 BC, during the Lithic period. The first settlements in the area, though, are credited to Maya farmers newly arrived from the Maya Highlands by 2000 BC, during the Archaic to Preclassic period transition. The first complex polity encompassing said settlements is presumed to have been formed by AD 100, during the Preclassic.

The completion of the Classic collapse in the Maya Lowlands saw both the reformation of Classic polities and the rise of Chichen Itza to regional power. The collapse does not seem to have been catastrophic in the (future) territory of Chetumal. At least twenty-five settlements in the area are known to have survived, most likely by reorienting economic activity towards the Chichen Itza-driven coasting trade. There is, nonetheless, evidence of limited social upheaval.

Chichen Itza, established by Itza settlers in circa 750–800, was the most influential city-state in the northern lowlands until circa 1050–1100. It appears to have started a sustained, and successful, programme of conquest in circa 900, resulting in the formation or reformation of various polities, possibly or likely including Chetumal.

Mayapan succeeded Chichen Itza as the regional power in the northern lowlands during , equivalent either to 1080–1104 or to 1185–1204. Their rule lasted thirteen , thereby ending either during 1392–1416 or 1441–1461.

During circa 1450 to 1500, Pachimalahix I, fifth ruler of the Acalan, led a military force to the eponymous port and capital of Chetumal, and exacted tribute. Further details on this event remain obscure, though given the reputed commercial pre-eminence of said port at the time, it has been suggested that Pachimalahix I raided the city to settle trade-related damages, rather than actually having exacted tribute.

Columbian

The first non-Amerindian person known to have arrived in Chetumal was Gonzalo Guerrero, a Spanish sailor stranded off of Yucatan in 1511 or 1512. In 1514, Guerrero entered the civil or military service in Chetumal. He was likely gifted to Kan as a slave by a () from the neighbouring Ekab province, a presumed ally of Chetumal. By 1519, Guerrero had fully assimilated to Maya culture, having married Kan's daughter and fathered three children with her. Guerrero would thereafter devise or at least contribute to the military strategy of Chetumal and allied states against at least three Spanish entradas.

Three events predating Guerrero's 1514 arrival have been proposed as marking first contact by Chetumal residents and non-Amerindian people: the said 1511 or 1512 stranding to Cozumel, the 1508 voyage by Pinzón and Solís to Lake Izabal, and the 1502 voyage by Columbus to Guanaxa. Maya settlements near Cozumel, Lake Izabal, and Guanaxa are known to have been part of the riverine and coastal trading networks of merchants in Chetumal. Any news of newcomers obtained by the former is thus presumed to have been passed on to the latter.

Spanish conquest

Hispano-Maya hostilities commenced on 5 March 1517 in Cape Catoche, when an expeditionary force led by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba was ambushed by Ekab's forces near that province's eponymous capital. Hernández and his men were similarly received by neighbouring Maya polities, thereby foiling the Spaniards' pecuniary aims.

The expeditionaries' reports of grand Maya cities would nonetheless spur further Cuban expeditions to Yucatan, including a 1518 trading and reconnoitering voyage by Juan de Grijalva and another in 1519 by Hernán Cortés, the latter of which quickly morphed into the 1519–1521 conquest of the Aztec Empire and a contemporaneous smallpox epidemic in the lowlands. The latter is presumed to have affected Chetumal severely. The reports likewise prompted Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, the Cuban governor who had commissioned the Hernández expedition, to petition and be granted letters patent authorising his conquest of the Maya Lowlands on behalf of the Charles I of Spain. The newly minted adelantado, however, did not proceed with the conquest of Yucatan.

On 8 December 1526, the Salamancan conquistador Francisco de Montejo, who had participated in the aforementioned Grijalva and Cortés expeditions, was granted letters patent for the conquest of Yucatan and Cozumel by Charles I. Unlike Velázquez, former holder of the patent, the new adelantado did promptly undertake the called-for conquest.

His first expedition towards this end, with Alonso Dávila as his principal lieutenant, saw them land in Cozumel in late September 1527 with four ships and over 250 men from Seville. They were pretty successful in the northern lowlands (in Ekab and Chik'in Che'el), and so next proceeded via land and sea south to Chetumal in the summer of 1528. Their efforts here proved less successful though, as a ruse by the province soon convinced the men to retreat that same summer.

Montejo's second attempt came three summers later, led by his lieutenant, Dávila. With some fifty men, Dávila marched across the lowlands from the provincial capital of Kanpech east to Chetumal in mid-1531. They reached the now-deserted port capital that summer, where they were vigorously besieged by the province and neighbouring allies. The men thus made their retreat by sea in the autumn of 1532, reaching Puerto Caballos in spring 1533, after an arduous journey of seven months.

The next and final entrada came a decade later. Gaspar Pacheco, with some 25 to 30 conquistadors, marched south from Mérida in late 1543 or early 1544. This last expedition, notably one of the bloodiest of the Spanish conquest to date, proved successful, resulting in the dissolution of the province and incorporation of its (vastly depopulated) territory to Spanish Yucatan in 1544.

Society

Chichen Itza is known to have (coercively) sponsored the pre-eminent worship of K'uk'ulkan. The cult of K'uk'ulkan is thought to have been the first state religion to transcend linguistic and ethnic differences in Mesoamerica. The cult is believed to have strengthened or been strengthened by the Postclassic coasting trade.

It has been suggested that Chetumal, in particular, was home to a cult of Itzamna which focussed on the god's association with large ocean creatures. He has featured prominently in material finds from former Chetumal which, unusually, frequently depict him emerging from the jaws of said creatures.

Government

Chichen Itza is believed to have been governed either by a (), or by a king and a privy council. It has been suggested that the city-state's realm was administered as a confederacy of provinces.

Mayapan is commonly held to have been ruled by a (), composed of members from the Canul, Chel, Cocom, Cupul, and Xiu (). Its realm is believed to have been organised as a confederation of provinces, called the League of Mayapan, each of which was overseen by a ().

Columbian

Chetumal's form of government in and towards the Columbian era is presumed to have remained mostly the same as that during its infancy in the Postclassic, and to not have differed significantly from that of nearby unitary kuchkabals, like Kehpech, Mani, and Sotuta.

Chetumal's head of state and government was the halach winik (), who would also have been the batab () of the province's eponymous capital. His office and title, Ahaw (), were hereditary, and his rule considered a divine right. The office's powers and duties included: exacting tribute from the province's cities, towns or hamlets; conscripting men for military service in times of war; conducting war; sitting as the highest tribunal for inter-municipal conflicts; officiating religious ceremonies of state.

At least one of Chetumal's later governors is known to have held authority over some part or much of Waymil, the province's neighbour to the north. This was likely effected through the threat of force, rather than diplomacy, as said authority was only reluctantly acceded to.

Immediately subject to the governor were the () of the cities, towns and hamlets of the province. This office was likewise hereditary. The office's powers and duties included: having a town farm kept for his pecuniary benefit, keeping houses and farms in order, sitting as a tribunal of original civil and criminal jurisdiction, and maintaining the municipal forces in times of peace.

The constitution of local government has not been fully elucidated. The following offices were nonetheless known to have been involved in at least some cities, towns or hamlets: (), who exercised municipal military authority in the mayor's stead in times of war, (), who severally exercised at least executive authority over (), and who jointly, in court or council assembled, exercised veto power over at least some of the mayor's executive, judicial, or military decisions, (), who carried out the mayor's orders.

Local government were also responsible for administering the commons, which included all municipal land, as private land ownership either did not exist or was forbidden. It is not clear whether non-municipal land within the province was likewise held in common.

Economy

At least since circa 1450, the provincial capital was a major port of call for the peninsular coasting trade from the Ulua River or Bay Islands up to the Ekab. It was, at least towards the Columbian era, a large town of circa 2,000 households, abutted by sapodilla and cacao orchards, maize fields, and apiaries of stingless honey bees. Its merchant class fully occupied one-fourths of Nito, an out-of-province port of call on the Dulce River. It traded the province's cacao, honey, wax, and marine products for obsidian, jade, turquoise, copper, and gold. Chetumal also had commercial links to the Ulua Valley of Honduras, and even sent a military expedition there when the Spanish began to jeopardize their business interests.

The province was the only significant cacao-producer in Yucatan. It provided the capital's merchants with cacao, honey, wax, and marine products. Articles for local consumption are thought to have included pottery from Lamanai and settlements on Honey Camp Lagoon, and salt and salted fish from coastal settlements on the Northern River Lagoon.

Legacy

None of Chetumal's records are extant. Consequently, all scholarship on the province has relied on later Hispanic or Maya records and modern archaeology.