Spanish conquest of Chiapas
| Spanish conquest of Chiapas | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Spanish conquest of Mexico | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Spanish Empire |
Zoque people |
||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Pedro de Alvarado | Jacinto de Barrios Leal | ||||||||
Zoque people
Chiapaneca people Independent Maya, including:
The Spanish conquest of Chiapas was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Mesoamerican polities in the territory that is now incorporated into the modern Mexican state of Chiapas. The region is physically diverse, featuring a number of highland areas, including the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and the Montañas Centrales (Central Highlands), a southern littoral plain known as Soconusco and a central depression formed by the drainage of the Grijalva River.
Before the Spanish conquest, Chiapas was inhabited by a variety of indigenous peoples, including the Zoques, various Maya peoples, such as the Lakandon Ch'ol and the Tzotzil, and an unidentified group referred to as the Chiapanecas. Soconusco had been incorporated into the Aztec Empire, centred in Valley of Mexico, and paid the Aztecs tribute. News of strangers first arrived in the region as the Spanish penetrated and overthrew the Aztec Empire. In the early 1520s, several Spanish expeditions crossed Chiapas by land, and Spanish ships scouted the Pacific coast. The first highland colonial town in Chiapas, San Cristóbal de los Llanos, was established by in 1527. Within a year, Spanish dominion extended over the upper drainage basin of the Grijalva River, Comitán, and the Ocosingo valley. Encomienda rights were established, although in the earlier stages of conquest these amounted to little more than slave-raiding rights.
...
Wikipedia