Pánuco (province)

The Province of Pánuco was a province of the Spanish colony of New Spain. It was probably discovered by Amerigo Vespucci in 1498, and later by Juan de Grijalva. It was located on the Mexican gulf coast centered on Santiestebán de Pánuco, from the river of Tuxpan and extending into the current state of Tamaulipas. Originally inhabited by Huastecs, it was claimed both by conquistador Hernán Cortés who sent Francisco de Montejo to claim the area and by Francisco de Garay, governor of Jamaica, who sent Alonso Alvarez de Pineda. The province was the object of a power struggle between supporters of Cortés and his opponents, first divided into encomiendas and allotted to Cortés supporters.

A gobierno (governorate) of San Esteban de Pánuco was created in 1523. Its territory may have corresponded to the Huasteca, as far north as the Pánuco River. This gobierno was absorbed by New Spain in 1534.[1]

In 1525 Nuño de Guzmán of the Anti-Cortés faction was appointed governor of Pánuco and he stripped Cortés' supporters of their encomiendas and undertook a policy of violent slave raids against the local Indians.[2]

References
  1. Arreola, Daniel D. (2002). "3 • Territory Shaped". Tejano South Texas: A Mexican American Cultural Province. University of Texas Press. p. 25. doi:10.7560/705104. ISBN 9780292757189. Northeastern New Spain was first given formal administrative authority as the gobierno of San Esteban de Panuco in 1523. Its assumed boundaries were the Rio Tuxpan on the south and the Rio Panuco on the north [...] the Panuco was absorbed as a political unit by the gobierno of Nueva España in 1534 - Access date: 6 May 2022. Read online at DeGruyter.
  2. Chipman, Donald E. (1967). "2". Nuno de Guzman and the Province of Panuco in New Spain, 1518-1533. Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Co.
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