Coliman

Coliman belongs to the lowland and valley core of Colima, the small coastal state whose name it shares with its capital and principal city. Mainland Colima lies between Jalisco and Michoacán, with a Pacific shoreline and four offshore Revillagigedo Islands. The state is compact, covering 5,455 square kilometres, and its main urban centres include Colima, Manzanillo, Villa de Álvarez and Tecomán. Within this narrow political territory, ports, valleys and high mountain country remain closely connected by short routes from the coast into the interior.

After the first Spanish incursion, Colima became a colonial province answerable to Mexico City; in 1796 it became a subdelegation of Guadalajara. Its boundaries changed as nearby territories passed to other jurisdictions. Estimates cited in one account put the Indigenous population at 150,000 in 1523 and 15,000 in 1554; enslaved Africans and Indigenous people from neighbouring regions were later brought in. Colima remained a subdelegation immediately after independence in 1821. Its valley setting thus connects a local history of conquest and demographic change with the wider Pacific region.