Amatenango del Valle is a town

Settlement classification in Mexico

Mexico's states classify their settlements in a variety of fashions:-Aguascalientes:Under Article 106 of the Municipal Law of the State of Aguascalientes, the state defines its settlements as follows:...

 and one of the 119 municipalities of Chiapas

Municipalities of Chiapas

The Mexican state of Chiapas is divided into 118 municipalities :...

, in southern Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

.

As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 6,559, with 3,351 in the municipal seat.

It covers an area of 236 km².

History

The territory of the municipality was originally settled during the Classic Period of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica by a group of Tzeltal settlers. Their settlement, in 1486, was invaded by Aztec

Aztec

The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...

 troops under Tiltototl. In 1528, following the Spanish Conquest, an encomienda

Encomienda

The encomienda was a system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor....

was established in the area.