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Chiapas

Maya and Zoque cities, three centuries ruled from Guatemala, its own choice to join Mexico in 1824, then coffee, great dams and the uprising of 1994.

Capital: Tuxtla Gutiérrez · Checked 3 Nov 2026

Interactive maptap or click a state to open its page

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasChiapas
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The cathedral of San Cristóbal de las Casas
The cathedral of San Cristóbal de las Casas Photo: GameOfLight, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Then and now

Chiapas in figures from its history

People, 1900 census360,799Against 5,543,828 in 2020 15
People, 2020 census5,543,828Census of Mar 2020 16
Joined Mexico1824By popular vote, 14 Sep 1824; the Soconusco in 1842 1
Capital's first church1560Zoque Coyatoc; no official founding date; capital since 1892 3
Indigenous-language speakers, 20201,459,64828.2% of people aged 3+ 16
CoffeeMexico's No. 1Soconusco, top coffee producer and exporter, 1890-1910 12
Oldest Long Count date36 BCECarved at Chiapa de Corzo, Dec 36 BCE 7
Chicoasén Dam2,430 MWBuilt 1974-80 on the Grijalva 14
The first peoples

Mokaya, Zoque and Maya, from the Soconusco to Palenque

Hunter-gatherers lived in the central valley of Chiapas from about 7000 BCE. On the Pacific plain of the Soconusco, the Mokaya were growing maize and living in houses by about 1500 BCE; they may be ancestors of the Olmec, and their descendants are the Mixe-Zoque peoples. Izapa, near the foot of the Tacaná volcano, was among the great centres of carved monuments of its time, and it reached its height between about 850 and 100 BCE. Chiapa de Corzo, occupied from about 1200 BCE, was a Zoque centre by 700 BCE and holds the oldest Long Count date yet found, from Dec 36 BCE.

Indigenous languages spoken today

Speakers aged 3 and over, census of 2020 17

Tseltal562,120
Tsotsil531,662
Ch'ol210,771
Tojolabal66,092
Zoque59,735

In all, 1,459,648 people aged 3 and over spoke an Indigenous language in 2020, 28.2% of that age group. Mam, Q'anjob'al, Lacandón and other Maya languages are spoken by smaller communities.

The archaeological zone of Palenque
The archaeological zone of Palenque Photo: ProtoplasmaKid, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Maya cities of the Classic period (300-900 CE) rose near the Tabasco and Guatemala borders. Palenque flourished under K'inich Janaab' Pakal (615-683), and Yaxchilán, on the Usumacinta, reached its greatest power in the 8th century. Nearly all of them fell silent around 900. Later the Chiapan people settled around Chiapa de Corzo, and in 1486 the Aztec ruler Ahuitzotl conquered the Soconusco for its cacao. Tseltal, Tsotsil, Ch'ol, Tojolabal and Zoque are still spoken by more than 1.4 million people.

Sources: 1267591217

The colonial centuries

Ciudad Real, cacao and the Kingdom of Guatemala

Cortés sent tax collectors in 1522, and Luis Marín led the first armed expedition in 1523. Diego de Mazariegos followed, broke Chiapan resistance and in 1528 founded the Spanish town that became Ciudad Real, today San Cristóbal de las Casas, while the old Chiapan seat became Chiapa de los Indios. At the battle of Tepetchia many Chiapanecs leapt into the Sumidero Canyon rather than surrender. By 1530 most peoples were subdued; the Lacandons held out until 1695. Dominican friars, following the ideals of Bartolomé de las Casas, built churches and the brick fountain of La Pila at Chiapa in 1562.

Interactive maptap or click a state to open its page

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasChiapasCampecheTabascoVeracruzTapachula7Comitán6Chiapa de Corzo5Yaxchilán4Palenque3San Cristóbal de las Casas2Tuxtla Gutiérrez1
Archaeological siteCitynumbers match the cards
Click a neighbour to open its history.Tap a neighbour to open its history.

Chiapas was governed from Guatemala, not Mexico City, as part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala. The encomienda, a royal grant of Indigenous tribute and labour to a Spanish settler, gave way to haciendas by the end of the 16th century. The Spanish brought sugar cane, wheat, indigo and cattle beside native maize, cotton and cacao, and enslaved Africans arrived in the mid-16th century. The Soconusco, a Spanish province from 1526, was prized for its cacao. Tribute weighed on the highland villages, and in 1712 32 Tzeltal, Tsotsil and Ch'ol towns rose around Cancuc, a revolt crushed in 1713. Chiapas became an intendancy, one of the new Bourbon provinces, in 1790.

Sources: 12481213

Places in its history

1

Tuxtla Gutiérrez

City · 1892

Zoque town that became the state capital in 1892. 3

2

San Cristóbal de las Casas

City · 1528

Spanish Ciudad Real, capital of Chiapas until 1892. 4

3

Palenque

Archaeological site · c. 226 BCE-799 CE

Maya city of Pakal, World Heritage since 1987. 5

4

Yaxchilán

Archaeological site · c. 300-900

Maya city on the Usumacinta, famed for its carved lintels. 9

5

Chiapa de Corzo

City · c. 1200 BCE; 1528

Zoque and Chiapan centre, later Chiapa de los Indios, with the fountain of La Pila. 8

6

Comitán

City · 1528; 1821

Tzeltal Balún Canán, where independence from Spain was declared in 1821. 10

7

Tapachula

City · 1794

Capital of the Soconusco from 1794 and heart of the coffee fincas. 11

Independence to the Revolution

Choosing Mexico, then the coffee fincas

In 1821 Comitán, led by friar Matías de Córdova, declared independence from Spain, and in 1822 Iturbide's empire claimed Chiapas. When the empire fell, Chiapas weighed its choices, and on 14 Sep 1824 it joined Mexico by popular vote. The Soconusco stayed apart until Santa Anna's troops occupied it in 1842, and the border with Guatemala was fixed by treaty in 1882. In 1848 San Marcos Tuxtla was renamed Tuxtla Gutiérrez, for the governor Joaquín Miguel Gutiérrez, who had championed union with Mexico, and San Cristóbal gained "de las Casas".

1810 to 1920 in Chiapas

From the timeline below, coloured by era

  1. 1821Comitán declares independence from Spain under friar Matías de Córdova. 2
  2. 1824Chiapas joins Mexico by popular vote on 14 Sep 1824. 1
  3. 1842The Soconusco is joined to Mexico after Santa Anna's troops occupy it. 12
  4. 1890450 German families are sent to the Tapachula area as coffee takes hold. 12
  5. 1892The capital moves from San Cristóbal to Tuxtla on 11 Aug 1892. 3

The people, then and now

Census counts, from the figures above

People, 1900 census360,799
People, 2020 census5,543,828

Sources: 1516

Governor Emilio Rabasa, from 1891, moved the capital from San Cristóbal to Tuxtla on 11 Aug 1892. The Porfiriato opened Chiapas to foreign capital. In 1890, 450 German families were sent to the Tapachula area, coffee fincas took names like Hamburgo and Bremen, and between 1890 and 1910 the Soconusco became Mexico's main coffee producer and exporter. Labour was often bound by debt through the enganche, contracts paid in advance that trapped highland workers in debt to the fincas. The Revolution reached Chiapas late: Tuxtla and San Cristóbal fought in 1911, Carranza's troops arrived in 1914, and the landowners' Mapache guerrillas, raised to defend their estates against Carranza's reforms, resisted until 1920. The state constitution dates from 1921, and land reform under Cárdenas turned some estates into ejidos, communal farmland granted to villages.

Sources: 123412

How its economy turned

Jungle frontier, Grijalva dams and 1994

From the 1930s, landless families moved into the Lacandon Jungle, whose population grew from about 11,000 in 1920 to more than 376,000 in 2000. Coffee, cattle and maize remained the base of the economy, and Tapachula, capital of the Soconusco since 1794, filled with Art Deco buildings paid for by coffee in the early 20th century. Tuxtla grew as the seat of government, and its diocese was created in 1965.

The region, c. 1600 and today

What each state turned on, by the era table below; Chiapas outlined in gold.

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c. 1600

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasChiapas

Chiapas: Indigenous south: cochineal, maize, tribute

  • Ports, sugar and cacao
  • Indigenous south: cochineal, maize, tribute
  • Maya lands under encomienda or beyond Spanish rule

Today

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasChiapas

Chiapas: Farming and agro-exports

  • Oil and gas
  • Tourism
  • Farming and agro-exports

Its places in the modern era

Numbered as on the map above

  • 1Tuxtla Gutiérrez · 1892
    Zoque town that became the state capital in 1892. 3

The Grijalva River was harnessed by four great dams: Malpaso, La Angostura, Chicoasén, built from 1974 to 1980 with 2,430 MW installed, and Peñitas. Chiapas came to produce about 55% of Mexico's hydroelectric power, and PEMEX drilled and refined oil in the state. Many highland and jungle communities stayed poor all the same, held back by rugged terrain, poor access to markets and a long history of debt labour. On 1 Jan 1994, the day NAFTA took effect, the EZLN, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, an Indigenous rebel army, occupied San Cristóbal de las Casas and other towns, and the demands of Indigenous Chiapas reached the whole nation.

Roads through the state and out of it shaped what came next. Hurricane Stan in 2005 wrecked the rail line to Guatemala and much of the flood defences around Tapachula, and that border city remained the main gateway between Mexico and Central America, home to many migrants waiting to travel north. More Chiapans leave the state than arrive, most for Tabasco, Oaxaca, Veracruz and central Mexico. Tourism grew in San Cristóbal de las Casas and Palenque, and on 31 Dec 2023 the Tren Maya opened its station at Palenque, tying the Maya city to the Caribbean coast. The state that chose Mexico in 1824 remains its southern door.

Sources: 1211314418

Timeline

Chiapas, date by date

Before the Spanish before 1519

  1. c. 7000 BCE

    Hunter-gatherers occupy the central valley of Chiapas. 1

  2. c. 1500 BCE

    The Mokaya of the Soconusco grow maize and live in houses. 1

  3. c. 850-100 BCE

    Izapa reaches its height and raises its carved stelae. 6

  4. 36 BCE

    Chiapa de Corzo records the oldest Long Count date yet found. 7

  5. 615-683

    K'inich Janaab' Pakal rules Palenque, which flourishes as never before. 5

  6. c. 900

    Nearly all the Classic Maya cities are abandoned. 1

  7. 1486

    The Aztec ruler Ahuitzotl conquers the cacao-rich Soconusco. 12

The colonial centuries 1519 to 1809

  1. 1528

    Diego de Mazariegos founds the town that becomes Ciudad Real, today San Cristóbal. 4

  2. 1562

    Dominicans build the fountain of La Pila at Chiapa de Corzo. 8

  3. 1712-13

    32 Tzeltal, Tsotsil and Ch'ol towns rise around Cancuc. 13

Independence and the Reform 1810 to 1875

  1. 1821

    Comitán declares independence from Spain under friar Matías de Córdova. 2

  2. 1824

    Chiapas joins Mexico by popular vote on 14 Sep 1824. 1

  3. 1842

    The Soconusco is joined to Mexico after Santa Anna's troops occupy it. 12

The Porfiriato 1876 to 1910

  1. 1890

    450 German families are sent to the Tapachula area as coffee takes hold. 12

  2. 1892

    The capital moves from San Cristóbal to Tuxtla on 11 Aug 1892. 3

Modern Mexico after 1920

  1. 1952

    Alberto Ruz Lhuillier finds Pakal's tomb in the Temple of the Inscriptions. 5

  2. 1974-80

    The Chicoasén Dam is built on the Grijalva. 14

  3. 1994

    On 1 Jan 1994 the EZLN occupies San Cristóbal and other towns. 4

  4. 2023

    The Tren Maya opens its Palenque station on 31 Dec. 18

The country in three moments

Where Chiapas stood: c. 1600, 1910 and today

Interactive maptap or click a state to open its page

c. 1600

Silver, the heartland and the frontier

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasChiapas

Chiapas: Indigenous south: cochineal, maize, tribute

  • Silver mining districts
  • Towns, farms and workshops of the old heartland
  • Ports, sugar and cacao
  • Indigenous south: cochineal, maize, tribute
  • Maya lands under encomienda or beyond Spanish rule
  • Frontier: missions, presidios, independent peoples

1910

The Porfiriato at its height

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasChiapas

Chiapas: Export crops: coffee, tobacco, cacao, chicle, timber

  • Mining
  • Oil
  • Henequén
  • Sugar and textile mills
  • Haciendas: grain, pulque, cattle
  • Export crops: coffee, tobacco, cacao, chicle, timber
  • Steel, cotton and the railway north
  • Ranching frontier
  • The national capital

Today

What each state turns on now

AguascalientesBaja CaliforniaBaja California SurCampecheChihuahuaCoahuilaColimaDurangoGuanajuatoGuerreroHidalgoJaliscoMexico CityMichoacánMorelosNayaritNuevo LeónOaxacaPueblaQuerétaroQuintana RooSan Luis PotosíSinaloaSonoraState of MexicoTabascoTamaulipasTlaxcalaVeracruzYucatánZacatecasChiapas

Chiapas: Farming and agro-exports

  • Export manufacturing
  • Oil and gas
  • Tourism
  • Farming and agro-exports
  • Mining
  • Ports and logistics
  • Services and government

Why Mexico's own reading of what each state's economy turned on in that period, drawn from the sources listed in each state's room; a classification, not a measurement.

Keep going
Rutanamex

Today's numbers for Chiapas

Output, exports, jobs, wages and investment now, each with its source and date.

The book

Book 6, Where to Go in Mexico, chapter 20

Where to Go in Mexico: The Deep South: Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas, the corridor this state belongs to.

Why Mexico

The national timeline

The turning points of the whole country, each dated, each with its source.

Sources, each with its date

  1. Wikipedia (English), Chiapas, History section, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  2. Wikipedia (Spanish), Chiapas, history section, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  3. Wikipedia (English), Tuxtla Gutiérrez, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  4. Wikipedia (English), San Cristóbal de las Casas, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  5. Wikipedia (English), Palenque, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  6. Wikipedia (English), Izapa, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  7. Wikipedia (English), Chiapa de Corzo (Mesoamerican site), 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  8. Wikipedia (English), Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  9. Wikipedia (English), Yaxchilan, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  10. Wikipedia (English), Comitán, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  11. Wikipedia (English), Tapachula, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  12. Wikipedia (English), Soconusco, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  13. Wikipedia (English), Tzeltal Rebellion of 1712, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  14. Wikipedia (English), Chicoasén Dam, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  15. The Statesman's Year-Book 1913, Mexico, table of states with 1900 and 1910 census populations (Wikisource transcription), 1913 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  16. INEGI, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020, results for Chiapas, press release 37/21, 26 Jan 2021 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  17. CEIEG Chiapas, Población, speakers aged 3+ by language, Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link
  18. Wikipedia (English), Tren Maya, 3 Nov 2026 · read 3 Nov 2026 · link

Pictures

Where the sources disagree

  • Luis Marín's first armed expedition: Wikipedia (English) gives 1523; Wikipedia (Spanish) gives early 1524. This page uses 1523.
  • Renaming of San Cristóbal: Wikipedia (English, Chiapas) gives San Cristóbal de las Casas in 1828; the city's own article gives Ciudad de San Cristóbal in 1829 and "de las Casas" in 1848. This page mentions only 1848.
  • Classic Maya peak: Wikipedia (English) gives 300-900 CE; Wikipedia (Spanish) gives 600-900 CE. This page uses 300-900 CE.
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