Caxitlán

Caxitlán stood beside the Armería River near the Pacific coast of western Mexico. It was an important Indigenous centre of Coliman before the Spanish conquest. Its riverside location brought the settlement close to the coast, in the warm lowlands below the mountains of Colima.

In 1523 Spanish conquerors founded the first Villa de Colima at Caxitlán and established a municipal council, with officers responsible for governing the new settlement in the name of the crown. The settlement was one of the earliest Spanish foundations in western New Spain. The hot and humid conditions at the low-lying site proved difficult, and in 1527 the villa was moved inland. Caxitlán nevertheless remained a landmark in the early history of Spanish expansion along the Pacific coast.