Autlan

Autlán was the seat of a lordship in the southern highlands of what is now Jalisco. Its Nahuatl name meant beside the ditch, and chiefdoms such as Tenamaxtlán recognized its authority.

The surrounding region was divided among more than thirty small states, which Spanish forces overran in 1523 and 1524. In 1534 the crown established the corregimiento of Autlán, extending from the interior around Ameca to the Pacific harbor of Puerto de la Navidad. Ameca and Tenamaxtlán were reunited with the district after several years as a joint jurisdiction from 1601.