Editing Amerindian Genocide (section)

==== [[Spanish Conquest of the Maya]] ====
Starting in 1524, Spanish conquistadors such as [[Pedro de Alvarado]] and [[Francisco de Montejo]] began a series of invasions against the Mayan civilization. Unlike the conquest of the Aztec Empire under Hernán Cortés, which took over two years to successfully conquer, the conquest of the Mayan civilization took over seven decades, due to the conquistadors' unfamiliarity with the environment and the fact that the Mayan civilization consisted of separate kingdoms and city-states instead of a single unified empire. As the conquistadors and their indigenous allies invaded and plundered the cities over time, many Mayan civilians were subjected to slavery under the ''encomienda'' system and were forced to convert to Christianity.