Nueva Galicia

Nuevo Reino de Galicia (New Kingdom of Galicia; Galician: Reino de Nova Galicia) or simply Nueva Galicia (New Galicia, Nova Galicia), known in Nahuatl as Chimalhuacán (‘the land of shield bearers’), was an autonomous kingdom of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was named after Galicia in Spain. Nueva Galicia's territory consisted of the present-day Mexican states of Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit and Zacatecas.

History

Spanish exploration of the area began in 1531 with Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán's expedition. He named the main city founded in the area Villa de Guadalajara after his birthplace and called the area he conquered "la Conquista del Espíritu Santo de la Mayor España" ("the Conquest of the Holy Spirit of Greater Spain"). The name was not approved. Instead, Queen Joanna — at the moment the acting regent of Spain — named the area "Reino de Nueva Galicia."

Guzmán's violent conquest left Spanish control of the area unstable, and within a decade full war had reemerged between the settlers and the Native peoples of the area. The Mixtón War, which lasted from 1540–1541, pitted an alliance of Coras, Guachichils and Caxcans against the settlers. Nine years later the Chichimeca War broke out, this time pitting mostly Zacatecos against their former allies, the Caxcan, who had now allied with the Spanish. Nahuas from the Valley of Mexico moved into the region along with the Spanish as the area was settled. In the last decades of the sixteenth century Huichols also arrived.