Postclassic Maya city-state landscape (1470s)

Timeline

1. 1471–1475Mayapan · Yucatán PeninsulaThe Mayapan alliance disintegrated after internal strife in the mid-15th century, and by the 1470s the Yucatán had no single hegemonic capital. Traditional centers such as Chichén Itzá and Uxmal coexisted with emerging chiefdoms; the various regions maintained a sense of shared Maya identity through the Chilam Balam chronicle tradition, but actual power was dispersed among local hereditary chiefs.
2. 1472–1478Maní · Yucatán PeninsulaThe Cau family of Maní gradually integrated several towns in the eastern Yucatán during this decade, forming a loose alliance. The alliance coordinated member polities through tribute, judicial arbitration, and religious rituals, becoming one of the peninsula's most organized political entities, though it had not yet restored the all-peninsula hegemony of the Mayapan era.
3. 1475–1480Petén lowlands · PeténCity-states such as the Itza around the Petén lakes maintained independent polities, dealing with Yucatán states through long-distance trade in salt, jade, and cocoa. Territorial conflicts occasionally broke out among city-states during this decade, but overall they maintained the limited warfare pattern typical of the Postclassic, forming the most complete inland cultural region of the Maya world before the Spanish conquest.