[8] Los Chimalapas is another highland region at the northern extreme of the Meseta Central and bordering with Oaxaca; it is considered the first upthrust of the Sierra Madre.

[14] A broad swathe of western Chiapas was held by the Zoques, covering the Depresión Central, the middle Grijalva basin, the Chimalapas and parts of the Pacific coastline.

[18] The Chiapanecas were militarily powerful before the Spanish conquest; they had forced a number of important Zoque settlements to pay them tribute, and had successfully resisted being incorporated into the Aztec Empire.

This was followed by messengers from the Aztec emperor, Moctezuma II, to the Kʼicheʼ Maya of the Guatemalan Highlands, warning them to prepare for war against the Spanish intruders.

[26] A mixed embassy that included Chiapanecas, Kʼicheʼs and Kaqchikel Maya visited Hernan Cortés in the recently conquered Aztec capital, and were well received.

[27] In December that year, Cuzcacuatl, who was lord of the Tzotzil Maya town of Zinacantan, travelled to the Spanish settlement at Villa del Espíritu Santo (modern Coatzacoalcos) to pledge an alliance with the newcomers.

[30] Crossbows had 0.61-metre (2 ft) arms stiffened with hardwoods, horn, bone and cane, and supplied with a stirrup to facilitate drawing the string with a crank and pulley.

[35] The Tzotzil Maya of highland Chiapas used spears, thrown rocks, bows and arrows, and large flexible cotton shields that protected the warrior from head to foot and could be rolled up for storage.

The Dominican Order was active in Soconusco during the early years of colonial rule, but withdrew in 1545 due to the low levels of indigenous population and the unhealthy climate.

Following this battle, Marín headed into the central highlands of Chiapas, and around Easter, he passed through the Tzotzil Maya town Zinacantan without opposition from the inhabitants.

[52] The expedition originally had high expectations of encountering a densely populated region that would quickly submit to Spanish rule, with the natives being parcelled out in encomienda to the conquistadores, effectively as slave labour.

His campaign is largely undocumented but in January 1528 he successfully established the settlement of San Cristóbal de los Llanos in the Comitán valley, in the territory of the Tojolabal Maya.

In some cases the conquistadores would round up the elders, chain them up, whip them and set their war dogs upon them, in order to force the natives to hand over tribute such as food and clothing.

[62] Mazariegos entered into protracted three-month negotiations with the Spanish settlers in Coatzacoalcos (Espíritu Santo) and San Cristóbal de los Llanos.

Eventually an agreement was reached, and the encomiendas of Villa del Espíritu Santo that lay in the highlands were removed from that jurisdiction and merged those of San Cristóbal to form the new province.

Mazariegos reallocated those encomiendas that had belonged to the inhabitants of Villa del Espíritu Santo, and gave Zinacantan to Pedro de Estrada, his brother.

[60] Mazariegos issued licences of encomienda covering still unconquered regions, such as Pochutla at the edge of the Ocosingo valley, in order to encourage colonists to conquer new territory.

[49] The Province of Chiapa had no coastal territory, and at the end of this process about 100 Spanish settlers were concentrated in the remote provincial capital at Villa Real, surrounded by hostile Indian settlements, and with deep internal divisions.

[63] Although Mazariegos had managed to establish his new provincial capital without armed conflict, excessive Spanish demands for labour and supplies soon provoked the locals into rebellion.

In August 1528, Mazariegos replaced the existing encomenderos with his friends and allies; the natives, seeing the Spanish isolated and witnessing the hostility between the original and newly arrived settlers, took this opportunity to rebel and refused to supply their new masters.

He occupied his post for a year, during which time he attempted to reestablish Spanish control over the province, especially the northern and eastern regions, but was unable to make much headway.

[49] The constant change of colonial administrators, and the corresponding reissue of encomienda licenses to relatives and friends of the incoming official, prolonged the instability in the province of Chiapa.

They also managed to acquire special privileges from the Crown in order to stabilise the colony, such as an edict that specified that the governor of Chiapa must govern in person and not through a delegated representative.

In an effort to enforce the New Laws, a fleet of 27 ships set out from Spain on 19 July 1544, carrying friar Bartolomé de las Casas and his religious followers.

[69] In 1547, while de las Casas was in Spain, Francisco Marroquín, bishop of Guatemala, placed the first stone for the new Dominican convent in Ciudad Real.

[70] The Dominicans dedicated themselves to destroying indigenous temples and idols, and preached sermons with destructive imagery, such as from the Book of Revelation, that were more familiar to the Mesoamerican worldview.

[71] By the mid-16th century, the Spanish frontier expanding outwards from Comitán and Ocosingo reached the Lacandon Forest, and further advancement was impeded by the region's fiercely independent inhabitants.

[76] Repeated expeditions into the Lacandon Forest succeeded in destroying some villages but did not manage to subdue the inhabitants of the region, nor bring it within the Spanish Empire.

[81] This was one part of a three-pronged attack against the independent inhabitants of Chiapas and neighbouring Petén; a second group joined up with Barrios Leal having marched from Huehuetenango, in the Guatemalan Highlands.

[84] Conquistador Diego Godoy accompanied Luis Marín on his reconnaissance of Chiapas, and wrote an account of the battle against the inhabitants of Chamula in a letter to Hernán Cortés a few days after the encounter.