The Itzá and the k'atun prophecy, Nojpetén

The Itzá Maya of Nojpetén (today Flores, Guatemala), the last independent Maya kingdom, fell to the Spanish on 13 March 1697; Spanish friars had been arguing that the Itzá's own calendar prophecies foretold the change.

1697 CE · 16.93, -89.89 · status: official

The account

Franciscan Andrés de Avendaño visited in 1696 and urged the king Kan Ek' to accept Christianity because the k'atun 8 Ajaw, a period linked in Maya books with upheaval, was at hand. The Itzá themselves seem to have been divided over the prophecy when the Spanish attacked across the lake.

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Spanish conquest of Petén