[2] For strategically and political reasons, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico's immigration policy included the goal to colonize the Yucatán Peninsula with approximately 600 European families of farmers and artisans per year.
Another 219 colonizers arrived to that same port on July 15, 1866; most of them were sent to the tiny village of Pustunich, some to Santa Elena and a few others stayed in Mérida or went to work to other Yucatecan locations, such as Holbox, Laguna de Términos or Baca.
[6] Although in general these immigrants were well received by the hosting society,[7] and the Imperial government apparently honored to the extent of its capabilities the contract it offered to these farmers, the colonies collapsed in 1867.
Passive – and perhaps active- opposition from the Yucatecan elite to the project, the inappropriateness of the cultivation tracts for the purpose assigned to the settlement, organizational problems amongst the colonists themselves and the fall of the Second Empire were some of the most important factors leading to the collapse of the program.
[11] (3) Contrary to the settlement patterns found in other Latin-American countries,[12] the Villa Carlotans settled within existing Maya communities: this provided many opportunities for intercultural contact, miscegenation and acculturation.