Purépecha

The Purépecha kingdom grew around Lake Pátzcuaro in the Michoacán highlands. According to the Relación de Michoacán, its founder Tariácuri began uniting its communities around 1300 under his Wakúsïcha lineage.

By his death around 1350 the lineage controlled the major lake centres. Later kings expanded toward the Pacific and repelled the Aztec ruler Axayacatl’s invasion in the 1470s. King Tangáxuan II submitted to Cristóbal de Olid in 1522, but Nuño de Guzmán had him executed in 1530; in 1543 the kingdom became the Spanish governorship of Michoacán.