Teco

The Tecos were a Nahuatl-speaking Nahua people of the Pacific lowlands of western Mexico, centered on the valley that became Colima and the neighboring coasts of Jalisco and Michoacán.

A Nahua group settled the Colima valley around the sixth century and built it into the Postclassic kingdom of Colimán, ruled by a tlatoani. The kingdom's name survives in that of the state.

Around 1480 the Purépecha Empire invaded to seize the region's saltpeter workings, but the Tecos and their huey tlatoani Colimotl defeated the invaders near Zacoalco in the Saltpeter War and made Sayula, Zapotlán and Amula their tributaries. After the fall of Tenochtitlan they beat two Spanish columns, until Gonzalo de Sandoval's expedition killed Colimotl at the battle of Alima and founded the Spanish town of Colima at Caxitlán in 1523.