Mixtón Rebellion
Encyclopedia
The Mixtón War was fought from 1540 until 1542 between Spanish invaders and their Aztec
and Tlaxcala
n allies against the Caxcan
es and other semi-nomadic Indians of the area of north western Mexico. The war was named after Mixtón, a hill in the southern part of Zacatecas
state in Mexico
which served as an Indian stronghold.
es were the “heart and soul” of the resistance.
The Caxcanes lived in the northern part of the present-day Mexican state of Jalisco
, in southern Zacatecas
, and Aquascalientes. They are often considered part of the Chichimeca
, a generic term used by the Spaniards and Aztec
s for all the nomadic and semi-nomadic Native Americans living in the deserts of northern Mexico. However, the Caxcanes seem to have been sedentary, depending upon agriculture for their livelihood and living in permanent towns and settlements. They were, perhaps, the most northerly of the agricultural, town-and-city dwelling peoples of interior Mexico. The Caxcanes are believed to have spoken a Uto-Aztecan language.
Other Native Americans participating in the revolt were the Zacatecos from the state of the same name.
, including Guadalajara
in or near the homeland of the Caxcanes. But the Spaniards encountered increased resistance as they moved further from the complex hierarchical societies of Central Mexico and attempted to force Indians into servitude through the encomienda
system.
had taken more than 1,600 Spaniards and Indian allies from the region northward with him on his expedition to what would become the United States’ Southwest. The province was thus denuded of many of its most competent soldiers.
The spark which set off the war was apparently the arrest of 18 rebellious Indian leaders and the hanging of nine of them in mid 1540. Later in the same year the Indians rose up to kill, roast, and eat the encomendero Juan de Arze. Spanish authorities also became aware that the Indians were participating in “devilish” dances. After killing two Catholic priests, many Indians fled the encomiendas and took refuge in the mountains, especially on the hill fortress of Mixton. Acting Governor Cristobal de Oñate
led a Spanish and Indian force to quell the rebellion. The Caxcanes killed a peace delegation of one priest and ten Spanish soldiers. Onate attempted to storm Mixtón, but the Indians on the summit repelled his attack. Oñate then requested reinforcements from the capital, Mexico City.
The command structure of the Caxcanes is unknown but the most prominent leader from among them who emerged was Tenamaztle of Nochistlan, Zacatecas.
The Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza
called upon the experienced conquistador Pedro de Alvarado
to assist in putting down the revolt. Alvarado declined to await reinforcements and attacked Mixton in June 1541 with four hundred Spaniards and an unknown number of Indian allies. He was met there by an estimated 15,000 Indians under Tenamaztle and Don Diego, a Zacateco Indian. The first attack of the Spanish was repulsed with ten Spaniards and many Indian allies killed. Subsequent attacks by Alvarado were also unsuccessful and on June 24 he was crushed when a horse fell on him. He subsequently died on July 4.
Emboldened, the Indians attacked the city of Guadalajara in September but were repulsed. The Indian army retired to Nochistlan and other strongpoints. The Spanish authorities were now thoroughly alarmed and feared that the revolt would spread. They assembled a force of 450 Spaniards and 30 to 60 thousand Aztec, Tlaxcalan and other Indians and under Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza invaded the land of the Caxcanes.
With his overwhelming force, Mendoza reduced the Indian strongholds one-by-one in a war of no quarter. On November 9, 1541, he captured the city of Nochistlan and Tenamaztle, but the Indian leader later escaped. Tenamaztle would remain at large as a guerilla until 1550. In early 1542 the stronghold of Mixton fell to the Spaniards and the rebellion was over. The aftermath of the Indian’s defeat was that “thousands were dragged off in chains to the mines, and many of the survivors (mostly women and children) were transported from their homelands to work on Spanish farms and haciendas.” By the viceroy's order men, women and children were seized and executed, some by cannon fire, some torn apart by dogs, and others stabbed. The reports of the excessive violence against civilian Indians caused the Council of the Indies to undertake a secret investigation into the conduct of the viceroy.
Victory in the Mixton War enabled the Spaniard to control the region in which Guadalajara, Jalisco
, Mexico’s second largest city, was located. It also opened up Spanish access to the deserts of the north in which Spanish explorers would search for and find rich silver deposits.
After their defeat the Caxcanes were absorbed into Spanish society and lost their identity as a distinct people. They would later serve as auxiliaries to Spanish soldiers in their continued advance northward.
Spanish expansion after the Mixton War would lead to the longer and even more bloody Chichimeca war
(1550–1590). The Spanish were forced to change their policy from one of forcibly subjugating the Indians to accommodation and gradual absorption, a process taking centuries.
The Caxcan possibly survive today, at least in folk festivals, as the Tastuane Indians. Annual fiestas of the Tastuane in towns such as Moyabua, Zacatecas commemorate the Mixtón War.
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...
and Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala is one of the 31 states which along with the Federal District comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipalities and its capital city is Tlaxcala....
n allies against the Caxcan
Caxcan
The Caxcan were a partly nomadic indigenous people of Mexico. Under their leader, Francisco Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion. During the rebellion, they were described as "the heart and the center of the Indian Rebellion". They...
es and other semi-nomadic Indians of the area of north western Mexico. The war was named after Mixtón, a hill in the southern part of Zacatecas
Zacatecas
Zacatecas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Zacatecas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas....
state in 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...
which served as an Indian stronghold.
The Caxcan
Although other indigenous groups also fought against the Spanish in the Mixton War, the CaxcanCaxcan
The Caxcan were a partly nomadic indigenous people of Mexico. Under their leader, Francisco Tenamaztle, the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion. During the rebellion, they were described as "the heart and the center of the Indian Rebellion". They...
es were the “heart and soul” of the resistance.
The Caxcanes lived in the northern part of the present-day Mexican state of Jalisco
Jalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
, in southern Zacatecas
Zacatecas
Zacatecas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Zacatecas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 58 municipalities and its capital city is Zacatecas....
, and Aquascalientes. They are often considered part of the Chichimeca
Chichimeca
Chichimeca was the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico and southwestern United States, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian"...
, a generic term used by the Spaniards and 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...
s for all the nomadic and semi-nomadic Native Americans living in the deserts of northern Mexico. However, the Caxcanes seem to have been sedentary, depending upon agriculture for their livelihood and living in permanent towns and settlements. They were, perhaps, the most northerly of the agricultural, town-and-city dwelling peoples of interior Mexico. The Caxcanes are believed to have spoken a Uto-Aztecan language.
Other Native Americans participating in the revolt were the Zacatecos from the state of the same name.
Background
The first contact of the Caxcan and other indigenous peoples of the northwestern Mexico with the Spanish, was in 1529 when Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán set forth from Mexico City with 300-400 Spaniards and 5,000 to 8,000 Azteca and Tlaxcalan allies on a march through Nayarit, Jalisco, Durango, Sinaloa and Zacatecas Over a six-year period Guzman, brutal even by the standards of the day, killed, tortured, and enslaved thousands of Indians. Guzman’s policy was to ‘terrorize the natives with often unprovoked killing, torture, and enslavement”. Guzman and his lieutenants founded towns and Spanish settlements in the region, called Nueva GaliciaNueva Galicia
El Nuevo Reino de Galicia or Nueva Galicia was an autonomous kingdom of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was named after Galicia in Spain...
, including Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of Jalisco in the western-pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,564,514 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...
in or near the homeland of the Caxcanes. But the Spaniards encountered increased resistance as they moved further from the complex hierarchical societies of Central Mexico and attempted to force Indians into servitude through the 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....
system.
The War
In Spring 1540, the Caxcanes and their allies struck back, emboldened perhaps by the fact that Governor Francisco Vasquez de CoronadoFrancisco Vásquez de Coronado
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado y Luján was a Spanish conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542...
had taken more than 1,600 Spaniards and Indian allies from the region northward with him on his expedition to what would become the United States’ Southwest. The province was thus denuded of many of its most competent soldiers.
The spark which set off the war was apparently the arrest of 18 rebellious Indian leaders and the hanging of nine of them in mid 1540. Later in the same year the Indians rose up to kill, roast, and eat the encomendero Juan de Arze. Spanish authorities also became aware that the Indians were participating in “devilish” dances. After killing two Catholic priests, many Indians fled the encomiendas and took refuge in the mountains, especially on the hill fortress of Mixton. Acting Governor Cristobal de Oñate
Cristóbal de Oñate
Cristóbal de Oñate was a Spanish Basque explorer, conquistador and colonial official in New Spain. He is considered the founder of the contemporary city of Guadalajara in 1531, as well as other places in Nueva Galicia .-Background:Oñate was born in 1552 in Vitoria or Oñate, in the Basque country...
led a Spanish and Indian force to quell the rebellion. The Caxcanes killed a peace delegation of one priest and ten Spanish soldiers. Onate attempted to storm Mixtón, but the Indians on the summit repelled his attack. Oñate then requested reinforcements from the capital, Mexico City.
The command structure of the Caxcanes is unknown but the most prominent leader from among them who emerged was Tenamaztle of Nochistlan, Zacatecas.
The Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza
Antonio de Mendoza y Pacheco, Marquis of Mondéjar, Count of Tendilla , was the first viceroy of New Spain, serving from April 17, 1535 to November 25, 1550, and the second viceroy of Peru, from September 23, 1551 to July 21, 1552...
called upon the experienced conquistador Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of Mexico led by Hernan Cortes...
to assist in putting down the revolt. Alvarado declined to await reinforcements and attacked Mixton in June 1541 with four hundred Spaniards and an unknown number of Indian allies. He was met there by an estimated 15,000 Indians under Tenamaztle and Don Diego, a Zacateco Indian. The first attack of the Spanish was repulsed with ten Spaniards and many Indian allies killed. Subsequent attacks by Alvarado were also unsuccessful and on June 24 he was crushed when a horse fell on him. He subsequently died on July 4.
Emboldened, the Indians attacked the city of Guadalajara in September but were repulsed. The Indian army retired to Nochistlan and other strongpoints. The Spanish authorities were now thoroughly alarmed and feared that the revolt would spread. They assembled a force of 450 Spaniards and 30 to 60 thousand Aztec, Tlaxcalan and other Indians and under Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza invaded the land of the Caxcanes.
With his overwhelming force, Mendoza reduced the Indian strongholds one-by-one in a war of no quarter. On November 9, 1541, he captured the city of Nochistlan and Tenamaztle, but the Indian leader later escaped. Tenamaztle would remain at large as a guerilla until 1550. In early 1542 the stronghold of Mixton fell to the Spaniards and the rebellion was over. The aftermath of the Indian’s defeat was that “thousands were dragged off in chains to the mines, and many of the survivors (mostly women and children) were transported from their homelands to work on Spanish farms and haciendas.” By the viceroy's order men, women and children were seized and executed, some by cannon fire, some torn apart by dogs, and others stabbed. The reports of the excessive violence against civilian Indians caused the Council of the Indies to undertake a secret investigation into the conduct of the viceroy.
Aftermath
As one authority said, the success of Cortés in defeating the Aztecs in only two years “created an illusion of European superiority over the Indian as a warrior.” However, the Spanish victories over the Aztecs and other complex societies “proved to be but a prelude to a far longer military struggle against the peculiar and terrifying prowess of Indian America’s more primitive warriors.”Victory in the Mixton War enabled the Spaniard to control the region in which Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of Jalisco in the western-pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,564,514 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...
, Mexico’s second largest city, was located. It also opened up Spanish access to the deserts of the north in which Spanish explorers would search for and find rich silver deposits.
After their defeat the Caxcanes were absorbed into Spanish society and lost their identity as a distinct people. They would later serve as auxiliaries to Spanish soldiers in their continued advance northward.
Spanish expansion after the Mixton War would lead to the longer and even more bloody Chichimeca war
Chichimeca War
The Chichimeca War was a military conflict waged between Spanish colonizers and their Indian allies against a confederation of Chichimeca Indians. It was the longest and most expensive conflict between Spaniards and the indigenous peoples of New Spain in the history of the colony.The Chichimeca...
(1550–1590). The Spanish were forced to change their policy from one of forcibly subjugating the Indians to accommodation and gradual absorption, a process taking centuries.
The Caxcan possibly survive today, at least in folk festivals, as the Tastuane Indians. Annual fiestas of the Tastuane in towns such as Moyabua, Zacatecas commemorate the Mixtón War.