On this day, 30 July 1847, one of the early battles in the Yucatan Caste War occurred when Maya fighters attacked the town of Tepich. The town had been sacked the previous month by troops of the Yucatecans of European descent, who massacred Indigenous Maya residents. The following year, realising they were losing the battle, white Yucatán authorities agreed for the province to be officially reabsorbed into Mexico in order to receive military assistance from the Mexican state. Despite their superior military power, Mexican troops were unable to defeat the Maya, who had been joined by some white fighters. After Mexico made a treaty with the United Kingdom, troops from British Honduras (now Belize) joined the fight against the Maya, but they were still unable to defeat them, and some areas like Chan Santa Cruz remained essentially independent for decades. While the war was officially over by 1901, the last armed clash with Mexican troops into Maya territory in the area took place in 1933.
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Pictured: Mural depicting the conflict by Manuel Lizama, 2015 https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1487936751391470/?type=3