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The Maya emerge in the Yucatán perhaps as early as 2000 BC. But it is not until 300 BC–AD 100 that the distinctive characteristics of their culture appear – such as a writing system, calendar, and city states. For these attributes, the Maya owe much to the first great culture of Ancient Mexico, the Olmecs, who thrived between 1500 and 300 BC.

For over 500 years in the Classic era, Mayan civilization flourishes throughout the Yucatán, Chiapas, northern Guatemala, and Belize. And, from about 650, the culture expands vigorously in the northern Yucatán, reaching its peak at Chichén Itzá and Uxmal.

In the relatively short span of about 150 years, Mayan civilization almost disappears, most likely due to a series of catastrophes – overpopulation, over-use of exhausted land, intensification of inter-Mayan wars, and drought. The southern city states are left deserted, and the Mayan writing system virtually disappears. In the north, the decline is later, and the cities are never entirely abandoned.

After a 200-year gap, Mayan culture is revived on a modest scale in the northern Yucatán, with the city of Mayapán. Smaller cities, such as Tulum, Cozumel, and El Rey (Cancún), develop near the Yucatán coast and become important links in a trade route running between the Aztecs of Central Mexico and South America.

An expedition led by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba sails from Cuba and makes the first Spanish landfall in Mexico on Isla Mujeres. It continues to Campeche and Champotón, then is attacked by the Maya and forced to turn back.

The Yucatán is conquered on the third attempt by conquistadores led by three members of the Montejo family. Having been besieged for months in the ruins of ancient Ti’ho, they make this the site of their new city of Mérida.

As Spain’s American Empire collapses, the Yucatán, which has had its own administration under Spanish rule, grudgingly agrees to become part of an independent Mexico, but declares independence a few years later. In 1842 a Mexican attempt to reincorporate the Yucatán by force is beaten back.

Mayans across the Yucatán rise against their white and mestizo (mixed-race) rulers in the best-organized Native American revolt anywhere in the Americas since the Conquest – and they almost succeed. The main Caste War is over by 1850, but rebels continue to defy Mexican authority until 1902 – some carry on until 1930.

The Yucatán’s economy is transformed as global demand soars for sisal rope, made from the henequen cactus. This “green gold” is the best rope in the world until the arrival of synthetics in the 1950s. Vast new wealth is reflected in Mérida’s extravagant mansions, theaters, and other attractions for henequen magnates and hacienda-owners. The boom even partly survives the Mexican Revolution, which begins in 1910.

Another economic transformation begins as the first hotel opens in Cancún, the dawn of the tourism era.