Sort of silly to say the Spainards “conquered” the Mayan “Empire” since the great Mayan cities like Tikal have been abandoned for several centuries before the Spanish arrived not whithstanding Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. What was left of the Mayans the Spanish “conquered” were scattered communities in the highlands.
In terms of 700 glyphs. From that I understand the glyphs represented both a symbol, like Chinese, and a phoenetic sound. The Mayans would form words by putting glyphs together. That was probably one of the reasons it was so difficult to decipher.
I went to Tikal in Guatemala. An amazing place. I even climbed the top of the pyramid used in Star Wars. LOL!!!
Yes, the Spaniards did not “conquer” the Mayan “Empire”.
They did, however, subdue the powerful Aztec empire which had only been in power for a few centuries. An Aztec “prime minister” in the previous century convinced the ruler that ritual cannibalism would be good state policy. [Middle America had no large animals to use as a protein source.] As a result, “flowery wars” were fought with many captives brought home, sacrified by the thousands and even tens of thousands, and their parts distributed to the population. The Spaniards had little trouble convincing the neighboring Tlaxcallan people that an alliance with the Spanish would be good for them. Thus from 100,000 to 200,000 Tlaxcallan and other Indian allies marched with the Spaniards to overthrow the Aztecs. It’s not nice to eat your neighbors. This is not what is meant by a “good neighbor policy.”