The Divine Caste (in Spanish: la casta divina) or Fifty Kings of Henequen are terms used to refer to the members of the Yucatecan oligarchy that dominated the economy and politics of the region between the mid-19th century and the first half of the 20th century. This small, close-knit group of about twenty families of European descent (criollos) controlled the henequen industry, which transformed Yucatán into the richest and most industrialized state in Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century.