Etzatlan

Etzatlán was the centre of an indigenous lordship in the valleys west of Guadalajara. Its domain included nearby settlements and communities around the lake of Atitic. With the arrival of Spanish expeditions in the sixteenth century, the town became a base for both conquest and the establishment of Franciscan missions in western Mexico.

Franciscan friars began building the convent of the Purísima Concepción in 1534. The demands placed on indigenous communities helped provoke resistance, and Etzatlán was drawn into the Mixtón War of 1541. In the following decade its mineral resources attracted colonial miners: silver deposits were registered in 1550, and estates were established to process the ore. Mining later declined in the early seventeenth century, but the town remained a centre of the surrounding district.