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29-700: Although other indigenous groups also fought against the Spanish in the Mixtón War, the Caxcanes were the "heart and soul" of the resistance. The Caxcanes lived in the northern part of the present-day Mexican state of Jalisco , in southern Zacatecas , and Aguascalientes . They are often considered part of the Chichimeca , a generic term used by the Spaniards and Aztecs for all the nomadic and semi-nomadic Native Americans living in

58-531: A Zacateco . The first attack of the Spanish was repulsed with 10 Spaniards and many indigenous allies killed. Subsequent attacks by Alvarado were also unsuccessful and on June 24 Alvarado was injured when a horse fell on him. He died on July 4. Emboldened, the natives attacked the city of Guadalajara in September but were repulsed. The indigenous army retired to Nochistlán and other strongpoints. The Spanish authorities were now thoroughly alarmed and feared that

87-491: A distinct people. They would later serve as auxiliaries to Spanish soldiers in their continued advance northward. Spanish expansion after the Mixtón War would lead to the longer and even more bloody Chichimeca War (1550–1590). The Spanish were forced to change their policy from one of forcibly subjugating the native population to accommodation and gradual absorption, a process taking centuries. The Caxcanes possibly survive into

116-508: A guerilla until 1550. In early 1542 the stronghold of Mixtón fell to the Spaniards and the rebellion was over. In the aftermath of the natives' defeat, "thousands were dragged off in chains to the mines, and many of the survivors (mostly women and children) were transported from their homelands to work on Spanish farms and haciendas.". By the viceroy's order, many of those captured after the fall of Mixtón were executed, some by cannon fire, some torn apart by dogs, and others stabbed. The reports of

145-678: A partly nomadic , partly sedentary people. Under their leader, Tenamaztle , the Caxcan were allied with the Zacatecos against the Spaniards during the Mixtón Rebellion in 1540-42. During the rebellion, they were described as "the heart and the center of the Indian Rebellion". After the rebellion, they were a constant target of the Zacatecos and Guachichiles due to their ceasefire agreement with

174-614: A red flag (the so-called bloody flag ). However, the use of a red flag to signal no quarter does not appear to have been universal among combatants. Black flags have been used to signify that quarter would be given if surrender was prompt; the best-known example is the Jolly Roger used by pirates to intimidate a target crew into surrender. By promising quarter, pirates avoided costly and dangerous sea battles which might leave both ships crippled and dozens of critical crew dead or incapacitated. Other "no quarter" incidents took place during

203-542: Is most often documented as an ancient variant of Nahuatl and is a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family. The last generation of natively fluent Caxcan language speakers came to an end in the 1890s. Despite this having long been conflated by anthropologists with an extinction of the Caxcan people themselves, much of Caxcan culture has persisted via oral tradition . There is currently an ongoing revitalization of Caxcan language, scholarship, and culture. The Caxcan were

232-686: The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ), is that quarter (n.17) can mean "Relations with, or conduct towards, another" as in Shakespeare's Othello , Act II, scene iii, line 180, "Friends all   [...] In quarter, and in termes, like bride and groome". So "no quarter" may also mean refusal to enter into an agreement (relations) with an enemy attempting to surrender. The OED mentions a third possible derivation but says "The assertion of De Brieux ( Origines   [...] de plusieurs façons de parler (1672) 16) that it arose in an agreement between

261-556: The Battle of the Alamo in 1836, the 1850 to 1864 Taiping Rebellion , and at Tippermuir in 1644, Scots Covenanters used the battle cry "Jesus, and no quarter", signifying they would not take prisoners. Under international humanitarian law , "it is especially forbidden   [...] to declare that no quarter will be given". This was established under Article 23(d) of the 1907 Hague Convention IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land . Since

290-663: The Hague Convention of 1899 , it is considered a war crime ; it is also prohibited in customary international law and by the Rome Statute . The Hague Convention of 1907 states that "it is especially forbidden   [...] to declare that no quarter will be given". The term no quarter may originate from an order by the commander of a victorious army that they will not quarter (house) captured enemy combatants. Therefore, none can be taken prisoner and all enemy combatants must be killed. A second derivation, given equal prominence in

319-474: The Spaniards . Their principal religious and population centers were at Teul , Tlaltenango , Juchipila , and Teocaltiche . Over time, the Caxcans lost their culture due to warfare, disease, and marriage to non-Caxcans. Also, most of the Caxcans were sent into slavery by the Spanish to work in silver mines. During the colonial period, many Spanish (and some Basque settlers) had intermarried, or had relations, with

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348-469: The Zacatecos from the state of the same name. The first contact of the Caxcanes and other indigenous peoples of the northwestern Mexico with the Spanish, was in 1529 when Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán set forth from Mexico City with 300-400 Spaniards and 5,000 to 8,000 Aztec and Tlaxcalan allies on a march through Nayarit , Jalisco , Durango , Sinaloa , and Zacatecas . Over a six-year period Guzmán, who

377-447: The chamade "; if accepted, they were generally allowed to retain their weapons, and received a safe conduct to the nearest friendly territory. If a garrison continued their defence beyond this point, the surrender was not accepted, hence "no quarter"; the besiegers were then "permitted" to sack the town, and the garrison was often killed. In some circumstances, the opposing forces would signal their intention to give no quarter by using

406-594: The 21st century, at least in folk festivals, as the Tastuane people. Annual fiestas of the Tastuanes in towns such as Moyahua de Estrada , and Apozol , Zacatecas , commemorate the Mixtón War. English Spanish Caxcan The Caxcan are an ethnic group who are Indigenous to western and north-central Mexico , particularly the regions corresponding to modern-day Zacatecas , southern Durango , Jalisco , Colima , Aguascalientes , Nayarit . The Caxcan language

435-538: The American southwest . The province was thus bereft of many of its most competent soldiers. The spark that set off the war was apparently the arrest of eighteen rebellious indigenous leaders and the hanging of nine of them in mid-1540. Later in the same year the natives rose up to kill, roast, and eat the encomendero Juan de Arze. Spanish authorities also became aware that the natives were participating in "devilish" dances. After killing two Catholic priests, many natives fled

464-520: The Caxcanes is unknown but the most prominent leader who emerged among them was Tenamaztle of Nochistlán , Zacatecas . Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza called upon the experienced conquistador Pedro de Alvarado to assist in putting down the revolt. Alvarado declined to await reinforcements and attacked Mixtón in June 1541 with 400 Spaniards and an unknown number of indigenous allies. He was met there by an estimated 15,000 natives under Tenamaztle and Don Diego,

493-473: The Caxcans making many Caxcan descendants Mestizos. The allied tribes and Mestizos settled the Caxcan lands in Zacatecas and Jalisco. Their elected rulers were called tlatoani. Caxcan society was divided up into several different city-states. The Chichimeca War (1550–1590) was a military conflict waged between Spanish colonizers and their Indian allies against a confederation of Chichimeca Indians. It

522-919: The Dutch and Spanish, by which the ransom of an officer or private was to be a quarter of his pay, is at variance with the sense of the phrases to give or receive quarter ." During the First English Civil War , the Long Parliament issued an ordinance of no quarter to the Irish on 24 October 1644 in response to Confederate Ireland electing to send troops in support of Charles I of England against them: An Ordinance Commanding that no Officer or Soldier either by Sea or Land, shall give any Quarter to any Irishman, or to any papist born in Ireland, which shall be taken in Arms against

551-684: The Parliament in England. By the 17th century, siege warfare was an exact art, the rules of which were so well understood that wagering on the outcome and duration of a siege became a popular craze; the then-enormous sum of £200,000 was alleged to have been bet on the outcome of the Second Siege of Limerick in 1691 . Professional honour demanded a defence, but if a garrison surrendered when "a practicable breach" had been made, they were given "quarter". The garrison signaled their intent to surrender by "beating

580-543: The Spanish. The war was fought in the Bajío region known as La Gran Chichimeca , specifically in the Mexican states of Zacatecas , Guanajuato , Aguascalientes , Jalisco , and San Luis Potosi . The Council of the Caxcan indigenous people was formed in the 1920s by Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza , a Caxcan from Durango. She also published Alto! , a book which stressed Mexican Nationalism through indigenous roots and, even after

609-512: The alleged extinction of the Caxcan people, is quoted as saying "We do not recognize the right of any race to impose its civilization upon us" as a way to promote indigeneity. Caxcan people continue to live in Zacatecas and in diaspora. They are currently attempting to regain legal access to their sacred mountain, Tlachialoyantepec (El Cerro de las Ventanas). No quarter No quarter , during military conflict or piracy, implies that combatants would not be taken prisoner , but killed. Since

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638-401: The complex hierarchical societies of Central Mexico and attempted to force natives into servitude through the encomienda system. In spring 1540, the Caxcanes and their allies struck back, emboldened perhaps by the fact that Governor Francisco Vásquez de Coronado had taken more than 1,600 Spaniards and indigenous allies from the region northward with him on his expedition to what would become

667-414: The deserts of northern Mexico. However, the Caxcanes seem to have been sedentary, depending upon agriculture for their livelihood and living in permanent towns and settlements. They were, perhaps, the most northerly of the agricultural, town-and-city dwelling peoples of interior Mexico. The Caxcanes are believed to have spoken a Uto-Aztecan language. Other Native Americans participating in the revolt were

696-440: The encomiendas and took refuge in the mountains, especially in the hill fortress of Mixtón. Acting Governor Cristóbal de Oñate led a Spanish and native force to quell the rebellion. The Caxcanes killed a delegation of one priest and ten Spanish soldiers. Oñate attempted to storm Mixtón, but the natives on the summit repelled his attack. Oñate then requested reinforcements from the capital, Mexico City . The command structure of

725-632: The excessive violence caused the Council of the Indies to undertake a secret investigation into the conduct of the viceroy. As one authority said, the success of Cortés in defeating the Aztecs in only two years "created an illusion of European superiority over the Indian as a warrior." However, the Spanish victories over the Aztecs and other complex societies "proved to be but a prelude to a far longer military struggle against

754-459: The peculiar and terrifying prowess of Indian America’s more primitive warriors." Victory in the Mixtón War enabled the Spanish to control the region in which Guadalajara, Jalisco , Mexico’s second largest city, was located. It also opened up Spanish access to the deserts of the north in which Spanish explorers would search for and find rich silver deposits. After their defeat the Caxcanes were absorbed into Spanish society and lost their identity as

783-452: The revolt would spread. They assembled a force of 450 Spaniards and 30,000-60,000 Aztec, Tlaxcalan, and other natives, and under Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza invaded the land of the Caxcanes. With his overwhelming force, Mendoza reduced the indigenous strongholds one-by-one in a war of no quarter . On November 9, 1541, he captured the city of Nochistlán and Tenamzaztle, but the indigenous leader later escaped. Tenamaztle would remain at large as

812-452: Was brutal even by the standards of the day, killed, tortured, and enslaved thousands of natives. Guzmán’s policy was to "terrorize the natives with often unprovoked killing, torture, and enslavement". Guzmán and his lieutenants founded towns and Spanish settlements in the region, called Nueva Galicia , including Guadalajara in or near the homeland of the Caxcanes. But the Spaniards encountered increased resistance as they moved further from

841-453: Was the longest and most expensive conflict between Spaniards and the indigenous peoples of New Spain in the history of the colony. The Chichimeca wars began eight years after the Mixtón Rebellion (1540–1542). It can be considered as a continuation of that rebellion as the fighting did not come to a halt in the intervening years. Unlike in the Mixtón rebellion, the Caxcanes were now allied with

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