In Spanish colonial times, Yucatán (like most of New Spain) was under a legal caste system, with peninsulares (officials born in Spain) at the top, the criollos of Spanish descent in the next level, followed by the mestizo population, then the native hidalgos (descendants of the Pre-Columbian nobility who had collaborated with the Spanish conquest of Yucatán) and at the bottom were the other native indios.