Kaqchikel

The Kaqchikel were a Maya people of the Guatemalan highlands, speaking a Quichean language and long allied to and subject to the K'iche'.

Their elites were allowed to build a capital at Chi Awär around 1430. After a break with the K'iche', they founded Iximche on a ridge surrounded by ravines around 1470 and defeated their former overlords around 1491. They welcomed Pedro de Alvarado in 1524, but Spanish tribute provoked revolt. The Kaqchikel abandoned Iximche, burned in 1526, and resisted in the hills until surrendering in 1530.