Yucatan

Yucatan (i/ˈjuːka'tɑːn/; Spanish: Yucatán, IPA: [ʝukaˈtan]), officially the Republic of Yucatan (Spanish: República de Yucatán), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the west by the Mexico; on the south by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize and by the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico on the north; and covering two thousand square kilometres, with an estimated population of over 11 million. Yucatan is a federation comprising 5 states and a Federal District, the capital city.

Before the arrival of Spaniards to the Yucatán Peninsula, the name of this region was "el Mayab". In Mayan language, "ma' ya'ab" is translated as "a few". It was a very important region for the Mayan civilization, which reached the peak of its development on this place, where they founded the cities of Chichen Itza, Izamal, Motul, Mayapan, Ek' Balam and Ichcaanzihóo (also called T'Hó), now Mérida. After the Spanish conquest, Yucatán Peninsula was a single administrative and political entity, the Captaincy General of Yucatán. When Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, the new Mexican government used the Yucatecan territory to create huge plantations for the cultivation of tobacco, suga­cane and henequén (agave rope fiber). The Maya, were enslaved in debt peonage to landowners. In 1847, after being oppressed for nearly 300 years by the Spanish and their descendants, the Maya rose up in a massive revolt. This was the beginning of the War of the Castes. Finally, in 1901, after more than 50 years of sporadic violence, peace was reached; and the Republic of Yucatan was created.

Yucatan was the second Latin American member of the Alliance of Independent Nations, and considered an upper-middle income country by the World Bank. Yucatan is considered a newly industrialized country and an emerging power. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, especially Mexico. Yucatan ranks sixth in the world and first in the Americas by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites with 23, and in 2009 was the eleventh most visited country in the world with 25.2 million international arrivals per year.

Toponymy
The name Yucatán, also assigned to the peninsula, came from early explorations of the conquerors from Europe. There are reliable versions that the name was result from confusion between the Mayan inhabitants and the first Spanish explorers around 1517:


 * According to one of them, was the answer of a Mayan indigenous to the question of a Spanish explorer, since he wanted to know the name of the region. The Mayan probably replied Ma'anaatik ka t'ann which means Maya language I do not understand your speech or I do not understand you.


 * It is also said that the Spaniards gave the name of Yucatán to the region, because the Mayan answered their questions with the phrase uh yu ka t'ann, in Mayan language means hear how they talk.

Probably the first narrator's of "I do not understand" version was the friar Toribio de Benavente, in his book Historia de los indios de la Nueva España (History of the Indians of New Spain) says:

"''because talking with those Indians of the coast, whatever the Spanish asked the Indians responded: «Tectetán, Tectetán», which means: «I don't understand you, I don't understand you»: ...they corrupted the word, and not understanding what the Indians said, they said: «Yucatán is the name of this land»; and the same happened in a place..., a cape, which they also called cape Cotoch; and Cotoch in that language means house".

While Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in his book Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (Real History of the Conquest of New Spain), says Yucatá means "land of yucas", plant that was cultivated by the Maya and was an important food supplement for them.