1430-1521 CE
From 1430 to 1521 CE, the Tarascans built Mesoamerica's unconquered empire — their metalworkers forging copper tools and ornaments unknown elsewhere in the region, their Cazonci ruling from Tzintzuntzan over a state that the Aztecs could raid but never subdue. The lake country of Michoacán remained independent when all their neighbors had submitted, and even Cortés found it easier to negotiate than to fight warriors who had never bent to Tenochtitlan.