Manche Chʼol
Postclassic Maya nation from the 10th cent to 1704 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Manche Chʼol (Ch'olti' menche) were a Maya people who constituted the former Manche Chʼol Territory, a Postclassic polity of the southern Maya Lowlands, within the extreme south of what is now Petén and the area around Lake Izabal (also known as the Golfo Dulce) in northern Guatemala, and southern Belize.[1] The Manche Chʼol took the name Manche from the name of their main settlement. They were the last of a set of Ch'olan-speaking groups in the eastern Maya Lowlands to remain independent and ethnically distinct.[2] It is likely that they were descended from the inhabitants of Classic period (c. 250-900 AD) Maya cities in the southeastern Maya Lowlands, such as Nim Li Punit, Copán and Quiriguá.[nb 1]
Territory of the Manche Chʼol | |
---|---|
10th cent–1704 | |
Status | Dissolved |
Capital | Manche |
Common languages | Ch'olti' Mayan |
Religion | Maya polytheism |
Demonym(s) | Manche Chʼol; Manche; Chʼol |
Government | Collection of sovereign settlements / possible |
Historical era | Postclassic to Precolonial / likely |
• Established | 10th cent |
• Disestablished | 1704 |
Population | |
• first half 17th cent | 10,000–30,000 |
Today part of | Belize; Guatemala |
Founding and dissolution dates per Wanyerka 2009, p. 182 and Becquey 2012, para 21. Map per Becquey 2012, maps 3, 6, 8, 10 and Jones 1998, p. xx. Capital per Palka 2014, pp. 27–28 and Becquey 2012, para 19. Common language per Englehardt & Carrasco 2019, p. 136, Becquey 2012, para 14, map 5, Wanyerka 2009, p. 181, and Hopkins 1985, p. 1. Demonyms per Wanyerka 2009, pp. 179–181 and Becquey 2012, para 19 fn 17. Government per Wanyerka 2009, p. 182. Population estimate per Englehardt & Carrasco 2019, p. 136. |
The first Spanish contact with the Manche Chʼol was in 1525, when an expedition led by Hernán Cortés crossed their territory. From the early 17th century onwards, Dominican friars attempted to concentrate the Manche into mission towns and convert them to Christianity. These attempts alarmed their warlike Itza neighbours to the northwest, who attacked the mission towns and fomented rebellion among the Manche. The Manche Chʼol in the mission towns were badly affected by disease, which also encouraged them to flee the towns.
In the late 17th century, Franciscan missionaries argued that further attempts at peaceful pacification of the Manche Chʼol were useless and argued for armed intervention against them and their Lakandon Chʼol neighbours. The Manche were forcibly relocated in the Guatemalan Highlands, where they did not prosper. By 1770, most of the Manche Chʼol were extinct. The few survivors were soon absorbed into the surrounding Qʼeqchiʼ Maya population.