The Maya first established themselves in Guatemala fifteen centuries before the birth of Christ. Their culture and influence then spread throughout southern Mexico, Belize, parts of Honduras and El Salvador. By 200 A. D., they were building cities on the Yucatan Peninsula, such as nearby Tulum, pictured above. The highly advanced Maya culture was at its peak from the 7th to the 9th century. 
The Maya considered Cozumel a sacred shrine and referred to it as Ah
Cuzamil Peten' or island of the swallows. At the height of the Maya
influence, women would make the twelve mile journey by boat to worship
Ixchel, the goddess of fertility. Ixchel was the spouse
of Itzamna, the supreme lord and sun god. Each woman was
expected to make the pilgrimage at least once in her lifetime. Today
archeologists still uncover, in some forty sites around the island,
small dolls that were offered in sacrifice during the fertility ritual.
In the 10th century, the Maya began to decline. Experts speculate that the decline was due to famine, pestilence and civil insurrection within the culture but the primary influence was the aggressive Toltecs who encroached from Campeche to the West. They were warlike in nature, as opposed to their peaceful predecessors. Many Maya were killed in battle or sacrificed, while some assimilated into the conquering tribe. By 12th century the Toltec cult of Quetzalcoatl (Plumed Serpent) dominated the Maya culture. Three centuries of fighting between the two cultures ended in 1540, with the Spanish invasion of the Yucatan peninsula. The last Maya city near Lake Peten fell to the Spanish in 1567, thus ending the independence of an extraordinary people. The Spanish first arrived in Cozumel in 1518, early in their conquest of the New World. That year Juan de Grijalba landed with four vessels bound from Cuba. His peaceful and uneventful visit was followed a year later by that of the infamous Hernan Cortez. With Cortez' arrival, many of the Maya temples were destroyed. Near where the Cozumel International Airport now stands the conqueror had a small church built. When Cortez left the island, not only did the native civilization lie in ruins, but an outbreak of smallpox swept through the island, killing thousands. From a population of 40,000 reported by Cortez in 1519, the number dwindled to a mere 300 by 1570. Thirty years later, the island was completely abandoned. Several pirates, including the infamous Henry Morgan and Jean Lafitte, used Cozumel as a base of operations in the 17th century. The island was not resettled until 1848, when people sought refuge from the "War of the Castes" on the Mexican mainland. Important land reforms and freedom for the Indians resulted from the revolution of 1910, and by 1970 the population had reached 10,000. Today more than 50,000 people inhabit this 9 mile by 27 mile island paradise. 
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