Tabasco (former state)
former Chontal Maya Nation in the westernmost area of the Maya region
Tabasco or Tavasco was a Chontal Maya polity in the westernmost area of the Maya region.
History
Separation
Sometime, probably during the 12th century the Chontal Maya in the westernmost part of The League of Mayapan separated from the rest of the league. They did this because they objected to an alliance with Mayapan (the city, not the league). They adopted the same governmental system that existed when they were attached to the league and Mayapan, which included three existing classe: Nobility and priesthood, commoners and slaves.
It was in the west of their new country on the river Tabasco where they founded their capital city. Its name was Potonchán which means "smelly place." there were 25,000 homes there. Having their main city on a wide river near the ocean allowed them to have an extensive sea trade network.
Acalan
At some point the eastern part of Tabasco became independent. The new country's name was Acalan which had its capital at Itzamkanac. Acalan had constant disputes with Tabasco.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Tabasco (former state)” as former Chontal Maya Nation in the westernmost area of the Maya region. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18217294. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tabasco (former state)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.