Tarascan State
This article is about the specific polity Tarascan State and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.
If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics
Was a pre-Columbian empire whose territory roughly covered the geographic area of the present-day Mexican state of Michoacán.
Establishment
January 1301: According to the Relación de Michoacán a visionary leader of the Purépecha named Tariácuri decided to gather the communities around Lake Pátzcuaro into one strong state. Around 1300 he undertook the first conquests and installed his sons Hiripan and Tangáxoan as lords of Ihuatzio and Tzintzuntzan respectively, himself ruling from Pátzcuari city. By the death of Taríacuri (around 1350), his lineage was in control of all the major centers around Lake Pátzcuaro. His son Hiripan continued the expansion into the area surrounding Lake Cuitzeo.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
Expansion during the rule of Axayacatl in the Aztec Empire.
January 1471: In the 1470s Aztecs under Axayacatl captured a series of Tarascan frontier towns and closed in on the Tarascan heartland.
January 1473: Axayacatl re-conquered the region of Toluca Valley and successfully defended it from Purépecha attempts to take it back.
Was a 1480-1510 military conflict between the Tarascan state of Purépecha people and peoples settled in Colima, Sayula, Zapotlán, Tapalpa, and Autlán.
January 1481: King of the Purépechawho intended to seize the salt discovered in the territories of Zacoalco, Zapotlán and Sayula by the Caltzontzin Tangaxoán II, and so invaded them.
January 1511: Along with Copatzin, and assisted by Cuantoma, who wins a victory in Zacoalco, Colimán recovers Sayula.
January 1351: Hiripan and later his brother Tangáxuan I began to institutionalize the tributary system and consolidate the political unity of the Aztec Empire. They created an administrative bureaucracy and divided responsibilities of and tributes from the conquered territories between lords and nobles. In the following years first the Tarascan Sierra and then the Balsas River was incorporated into the increasingly centralized state.
January 1456: The Purépecha under their king Tzitzipandaquare had invaded the Toluca Valley, claiming lands previously conquered by Motecuzoma and Itzcoatl.
January 1461: In 1460 the Tarascan state reached the Pacific coast at Zacatula, advanced into the Toluca Valley, and also, on the northern rim, reached into the present day state of Guanajuato.
February 1471: The Aztecs were defeated by Tarascan forces and had to leave the southern Tarascan territories.
Disestablishment
January 1521: The Tarascans, led by the cazonci Zuangua, repelled the attacks but further Tarascan expansion was halted until the arrival of the Spaniards two years into the rule of the last cazonci of an independent Tarascan state, Tangáxuan II.
