Tangaxuan II

Tzimtzincha-Tangaxuan II (d. 1530) was the last monarch of the Tarascan state, the kingdom of the P'urhépecha from 1520–1530. He was baptized Francisco when his realm made a peace treaty with Hernán Cortés. He was executed by burning by Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán.

After hearing about the fall of the Aztec Empire, the Tarascan Caconzi Tangáxuan II sent emissaries to the Spanish victors. A few Spaniards went with them to Tzintzuntzan where they were presented to the ruler and gifts were exchanged. They returned with samples of gold and Cortés' interest in the Tarascan state was awakened. In 1522 a Spanish force under the leadership of Cristobal de Olid was sent into Tarascan territory and arrived at Tzintzuntzan within days. The Tarascan army numbered many thousands, perhaps as many as 100,000, but at the crucial moment they chose not to fight. [Gorenstein (1993, xiv).] Tangáxuan submitted to the Spanish administration, but for his cooperation was allowed a large degree of autonomy. This resulted in a strange arrangement where both Cortés and Tangáxuan considered themselves rulers of Michoacán for the following years: the population of the area paid tribute to them both. When the Spanish found out that Tangáxuan was still "de facto" ruler of his empire but only supplied the Spanish with a small part of the resources extracted from the population they sent the ruthless conquistador Nuño de Guzmán, who allied himself with a Tarascan noble Don Pedro Panza "Cuinierángari", and the Caconzi was executed. [Gorenstein (1993, xv). According to some other sources Tangaxuan II was dragged behind a horse and then burned.] A period of violence and turbulence began. During the next decades Tarascan puppet rulers were installed by the Spanish government

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: cite book |author=aut|Gorenstein, Shirley |year=1993 |chapter=Introduction |editor=Helen Perlstein Pollard |title=Taríacuri’s Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State |series=The Civilization of the American Indian series, vol. 209|pages=pp. xiii–xx |location=Norman |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=0-8061-2497-0 |oclc=26801144: cite book |author=aut|Pollard, Helen Perlstein |year=1993 |title=Taríacuri’s Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State |series=The Civilization of the American Indian series, vol. 209 |location=Norman |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=0-8061-2497-0 |oclc=26801144