The last independent Maya kingdom fell only in 1697, 176 years after Tenochtitlan, when Peter the Great was already ruling Russia.

1521 · 1697 · apart: 176 years

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The events

• Fall of Tenochtitlan1521 · Tenochtitlan. After a long siege, Hernán Cortés's Spaniards and their Tlaxcalan allies took the Aztec capital, already ravaged by smallpox. The Aztec Empire fell, and Mexico City, capital of New Spain, rose on its ruins.
• Fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya kingdom1697 · Flores island, Lake Petén Itzá, Guatemala. Nojpetén, capital of the Itza Maya, stood on an island in a lake deep in the Petén jungle, long out of Spanish reach. Only on 13 March 1697 did Martín de Ursúa's force, using a galley built on the shore, storm the city. So fell the last independent Maya kingdom, almost two centuries after first contact with Europeans. The town of Flores stands on the site today.

16th century · 17th century

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