Chiapas
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Chiapas has an area of 73,887 km² (28,528 square miles). The 2003 population estimate was 4,224,800 people.
The state capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez; other cities and towns in Chiapas include San Cristobal de las Casas, Comitan, and Tapachula. Chiapas is also home to the ancient Maya ruins of Palenque, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, Chinkultic, and Tonina.
Many of the people in Chiapas are poor, rural small farmers. About one third of the population are of full or predominantly Maya descent, and in rural areas many do not speak Spanish. The state suffers from the highest rate of malnutrition in Mexico, estimated to affect over 40% of the population.
History of Chiapas
In Pre-Columbian times Chiapas was part of the heartland of the Maya civilization.
Chiapas was conquered by Spain in the early 16th century, and became part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, administered as part of the "Kingdom of Guatemala" (what is now Central America), administered from Antigua Guatemala.
When Central America achieved its independence from Mexico in 1823, western Chiapas was annexed to Mexico. More of current day Chiapas was sized after the disintegration of the Central American Federation in 1842, and the remainder of the current state taken from Guatemala in the early 1880s by President Porfirio Diaz.
Chiapas remained one of the parts of Mexico least affected by change, with the descendants of the Spanish continuing to exercise much control over the native indians through such institutions as debt peonage, despite attempts by the central Mexican government to abolish such practices.
In 1868 there was an armed native rebellion, led by the Tzotil Maya, that almost succeeded in taking San Cristobal, then the state capital, before it was suppressed by the Mexican army.
Some people in Chiapas felt that their poor and largely agricultural area had been largely ignored by the Mexican government for a long time. One of the chief complaints was that many Indian farmers were required to pay absentee landlords, despite the fact that since the 1920s the Mexican government had been promising the peasants ownership of the land they had farmed and lived on for generations. Such dissatisfaction led to the rise of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Zapatistas, or EZLN), which began an armed rebellion against the Mexican government in 1994. The Zapatistas were only marginally successful militarily, but they and their appointed spokesperson, Subcomandante Marcos, succeeded in attracting sympathy both in Mexico and overseas.
List of Municipalities in Chiapas, followed by municipal seat
- Acacoyagua : Acacoyagua
- Acala : Acala
- Acapetahua : Acapetahua
- Aldama : Aldama
- Altamirano : Altamirano
- Amatan : Amatan
- Amatenango de la Frontera : Amatenango de la Frontera
- Amatenango del Valle : Amatenango del Valle
- Angel Albino Corzo : Jaltenango de la Paz
- Arriaga : Arriaga
- Bejucal de Ocampo: Bejucal de Ocampo
- Bella Vista : Bella Vista
- Benemerito de las Americas : Benemerito de las Americas
- Berriozabal : Berriozabal
- Bochil : Bochil
- El Bosque : El Bosque
- Cacahoatan : Cacahoatan
- Catazaja : Catazaja
- Cintalapa : Cintalapa de Figueroa
- Coapilla : Coapilla
- Comitan de Dominguez : Comitan de Dominguez
- La Concordia : La Concordia
- Copainala : Copainala
- Chalchihuitan : Chalchihuitan
- Chamula : Chamula
- Chanal : Chanal
- Chapultenango : Chapultenango
- Chenalho : Chenalho
- Chiapa de Corzo : Chiapa de Corzo
- Chiapilla : Chiapilla
- Chicoasen : Chicoasen
- Chicomuselo : Chicomuselo
- Chilon : Chilon
- Escuintla : Escuintla
- Francisco Leon Rivera : El Viejo Carmen
- Frontera Comalapa : Frontera Comalapa
- Frontera Hidalgo : Frontera Hidalgo
- La Grandeza : La Grandeza
- Huehuetan : Huehuetan
- Huixtan : Huixtan
- Huitiupan : Huitiupan
- Huixtla : Huixtla
- La Independencia : La Independencia
- Ixhuatan : Ixhuatan
- Ixtacomitan : Ixtacomitan
- Ixtapa : Ixtapa
- Ixtapangajoya : Ixtapangajoya
- Jiquipilas : Jiquipilas
- Jitotol: Jitotol
- Juarez : Juarez
- Larrainzar : Larrainzar
- La Libertad : La Libertad
- Mapastepec : Mapastepec
- Maravilla Tenejapa : Maravilla Tenejapa
- Las Margaritas : Las Margaritas
- Marques de Comillas Zamora : Pico de Oro
- Mazapa de Madero : Mazapa de Madero
- Mazatan : Mazatan
- Metapa : Metapa de Dominguez
- Mitontic : Mitontic
- Montecristo de Guerrero : Montecristo de Guerrero
- Motozintla : Motozintla de Mendoza
- Nicolas Ruiz : Nicolas Ruiz
- Ocosingo : Ocosingo
- Ocotepec : Ocotepec
- Ocozocoautla de Espinosa : Ocozocoautla de Espinosa
- Ostuacan : Ostuacan
- Osumacinta : Osumacinta
- Oxchuc : Oxchuc
- Palenque : Palenque
- Pantelho : Pantelho
- Pantepec : Pantepec
- Pichucalco : Pichucalco
- Pijijiapan : Pijijiapan
- El Porvenir : El Porvenir de Velasco Suarez
- Villa Comaltitlan : Villa Comaltitlan
- Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacan : Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacan
- Rayon : Rayon
- Reforma : Reforma
- Las Rosas : Las Rosas
- Sabanilla : Sabanilla
- Salto de Agua : Salto de Agua
- San Andres Duraznal: San Andres Duraznal
- San Cristobal de las Casas : San Cristobal de las Casas
- San Fernando : San Fernando
- San Juan Cancuc : San Juan Cancuc
- San Lucas : San Lucas
- Santiago el Pinal : Santiago el Pinal
- Siltepec : Siltepec
- Simojovel : Simojovel de Allende
- Sitala : Sitala
- Socoltenango : Socoltenango
- Solosuchiapa : Solosuchiapa
- Soyalo : Soyalo
- Suchiapa : Suchiapa
- Suchiate : Ciudad Hidalgo
- Sunuapa : Sunuapa
- Tapachula : Tapachula de Cordova y Ordonez
- Tapalapa : Tapalapa
- Tapilula : Tapilula
- Tecpatan : Tecpatan
- Tenejapa : Tenejapa
- Teopisca : Teopisca
- Tila : Tila
- Tonala : Tonala
- Totolapa : Totolapa
- La Trinitaria : La Trinitaria
- Tumbala : Tumbala
- Tuxtla Gutierrez : Tuxtla Gutierrez
- Tuxtla Chico : Tuxtla Chico
- Tuzantan : Tuzantan
- Tzimol : Tzimol
- Union Juarez : Union Juarez
- Venustiano Carranza : Venustiano Carranza
- Villa Corzo : Villa Corzo
- Villaflores : Villaflores
- Yajalon : Yajalon
- Zinacantan : Zinacantan
| States of Mexico | |
|---|---|
| Aguascalientes | Baja California | Baja California Sur | Campeche | Chiapas | Chihuahua | Coahuila | Colima | Durango | Guanajuato | Guerrero | Hidalgo | Jalisco | Mexico | Michoacan | Morelos | Nayarit | Nuevo Leon | Oaxaca | Puebla | Queretaro | Quintana Roo | San Luis Potosi | Sinaloa | Sonora | Tabasco | Tamaulipas | Tlaxcala | Veracruz | Yucatan | Zacatecas | |
| Federal District: Mexican Federal District | |