In Yucatán, then an independent republic north of Guatemala, a war started between the natives and the mestizo and criollo populations; this war seemed rooted in the defense of communal lands against the expansion of private ownership, which was accentuated by the boom in the production of henequén, which was an important industrial fiber used to make rope. After discovering the value of the plant, the wealthier Yucateco criollos (local-born Spaniards) started plantations, beginning in 1833, to cultivate it on a large scale; not long after the henequen boom, a boom in sugar production led to more wealth. The sugar and henequén plantations encroached on native communal land, and native workers recruited to work on the plantations were mistreated and underpaid.