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Concept
Purépecha Empire
Summary
The Purépecha Empire, also known by the term Iréchikwa, was a polity in pre-Columbian Mexico. Its territory roughly covered the geographic area of the present-day Mexican state of Michoacán, as well as parts of Guanajuato, Guerrero, and Jalisco. At the time of the Spanish conquest, it was the second-largest state in Mesoamerica. The state is also known as the Tarascan Empire, an exonym often considered pejorative by the Purépecha people.
The empire was founded in the early 14th century and lost its independence to the Spanish in 1530. In 1543 it officially became the governorship of Michoacán, from the Nahuatl exonym for the Purépecha Empire, Michhuahcān from michin ("fish"), -huah ("possessor of"), and -cān ("place of") and means "place of fishers." Thus, Michoacan is not a native name but a name given by Purépecha's dreaded enemy.
The Purépecha Empire was constituted of a network of tributary systems and gradually became increasingly centralized, under the control of the ruler of the empire called the Irecha or Cazonci. The Purépecha capital was located at Tzintzuntzan on the banks of Lake Pátzcuaro and, according to Purépecha oral tradition, was founded by the first Cazonci Tariácuri and dominated by his lineage, the "Wakúsïecha" ("Eagles" in Purépecha language). The largest city before the inception of the empire may have been Angamuco, extensive ruins of which were discovered in 2012 using LiDAR technology.
The Purépecha Empire, better described as a confederacy or mandala system (cooperative collectivity) of independent and separate ethnic units not only paying tribute but fighting together in common security, was contemporary with and an enemy of the Aztec Empire, against which it fought many wars. The Purépecha Confederation blocked Aztec expansion to the northwest, fortifying and patrolling their frontiers with the Aztecs, possibly developing the first truly territorial state of Mesoamerica.
Due to its relative isolation within Mesoamerica, the Purépecha Confederacy had many cultural traits completely distinct from those of the Mesoamerican cultural group.
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