Itza

The Itza are a Maya people descended from the Chanes of the Chontal coast in Tabasco. In the Postclassic they dominated northern Yucatán from their capital Chichén Itzá, whose name means at the mouth of the well of the Itza, with a trade network reaching south to Naco in Honduras.

Rivalry with the Cocom and Xiu ended in the fall of Chichén Itzá around 1331, and after the Xiu drove them from Mayapan they fled south around 1441–1446 to the Petén lakes, where they built the island capital Nojpetén, called Tayasal by the Spanish.

Hernán Cortés crossed their territory in 1525 and an expedition under Mirones was massacred in 1622, but the Itza kingdom held out behind lake defenses until 1697, when Martín de Ursúa stormed Nojpetén and captured king Kan Ek', extinguishing the Americas' last independent native kingdom.