t
aside.[6]

VI. The Period of the Toltec Mercenaries (1200-1450 A.D.). However much
in the dark we may be as to the details of the events which brought
about the downfall of the League of Mayapan, we are in no doubt as to
the main causes of its disruption. Speaking in very general terms, the
situation was as follows. The ruler of Mayapan seems to have been the
trouble maker. Becoming ambitious to extend his power over the other
Halach Uinicil, he called in a number of mercenaries from Mexico. With
the aid of these allies the Halach Uinic of Mayapan made himself master
of the whole northern part of Yucatan, but he had to pay a heavy price
in the shape of giving Chichen Itza to his allies.

During all these troubles the Xius at Uxmal seem to have preserved a
certain amount of independence; certainly as time went on and as the
power of Mayapan became more and more tyrannically oppressive, the Xius
gradually became the champions of the oppressed. It was but natural
that those of the Itza _batabs_ who still remained at Chichen should
resent the alien dominion placed over them. If we may believe Chronicle
I, they made at least one attempt to get back their old power. The
discontent of the Itza element of the population, a discontent always
shared in by the Xius at Uxmal, continued to increase during two
hundred and fifty years. In that period Chichen Itza, under the
influence of its Toltec rulers, witnessed its final period of
architectural development. The Ball Court, the Castillo, the Group of
the Columns, and other buildings were erected under Toltec influence.
It is easy to recognize and identify the structures of this period
because they are usually distinguished by such features as serpent
columns, _tlaxtli_ or ball courts, Atlantean supports, feathered
monsters, and speech scrolls.

About 1450 the inevitable revolution against the tyranny of the Toltecs
took place, and with it civilization of the highest type came to an
end.

VII. Disintegration (1450-1541 A.D.). Centralized feudalistic
government destroyed, Yucatan fell into a sad plight. Where one or two
strong states had been before there were now a score of weak ones. In
the wars of this period the once great cities of the League were
destroyed and abandoned; new and far less advanced cities were founded
to take their place. The remnant of the Xiu family retired to Mani; the
Cocom became lords of Zotuta. Itzamal seems to have become a sacerdotal
state un