Chichimeca War

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The Chichimeca War
Date 1546 Location Northern Mexico "La Gran Chichimeca" Result decisive
Combatants
Chichimeca(Zacateco, Guachichil)	Spaniards, Indian Allies

Nine years after the Mixtón Rebellion, the Chichimeca War officially began. The conflict, however, was just a continuation of the rebellion, because the attacks never came to a halt. By this year though, the Chichimeca attacked more fiercely and constantly that the Spaniards had to declare it a war. Unlike the Mixtón rebellion, the Caxcanes were now allied with the Spanish, and it was primarily fought by the Zacatecos and Guachichiles against the Spanish and their Indian allies. The war took place in the current Mexican states of Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, and Jalisco. This war is also known to have been the first frontier war.

[edit] Prelude

In 1546 news spread like wildfire that great deposits of silver had been found around 'El Cerro de la Bufa' (the hill of the Bufa) in Zacatecas. The discoverer, Juan de Tolosa, was brought to the foot of the hill after a group of natives gave him a couple of pieces of ore. In September 8, of that same year the city of Zacatecas was founded. The dream of quick wealth triggered multitudes of people to migrate from southern Mexico into the heartland of La Gran Chichimeca. Pretty soon the mines of San Martín, Chalchihuites, Avino, Sombrerete, Fresnillo, Mazapil, and Nieves were established. The Chichimeca nations saw how the lands inherited to them by their ancestors, were being settled by the Spanish and their Indian laborers. Disobeying the Vicerroy of Mexico, Spanish soldiers soon began raiding native settlements to acquire slaves for the mines. After the fall of Tenochtitlan and the Mexica (Aztecs), the Spanish came to believe that the Chichimeca could easily be crushed due to the derogatory term the Aztecs had for them and the nomadic way of living. Unfortunately for the Spanish, they were about to face their most catastrophic conflict with the natives. A conflict that would last until the turn of the century and that had to be solved by "peace and purchase", by their side.

[edit] References

• Powell, Philip Wayne. Soldiers, Indians, & Silver: The Northward Advance of New Spain, 1550-1600.Berkely, California: University of California Press, 1969.
• Schmal, John P. The History of Zacatecas. Houston Institute for Culture.2004.[1]
• Schmal, John P. Sixteenth Century Indigenous Jalisco.2004.[2]