Activity instructions
You and your small group will continue to gather information to answer: What are the most important factors explaining the conquest/how the Spanish were able to defeat the Aztecs?
Your group should look at one article from Encyclopedia Britannica and one article from the Oxford Research Encyclopedias. If your group has more than two people in it, you should also search in EITHER Gale eBooks or Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures.
Once you have looked at your article for more evidence, discuss with your group:
- What were the differences between the sources you looked at?
- What source(s) did you find most useful and why?
Conquest of Mexico
Encyclopedia Britannica & Gale Encyclopedias
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Encyclopedia Britannica This link opens in a new window
In Encyclopedia Britannica try searching for these terms. You may find complete articles or parts of articles that pertain to the factors explaining the conquest. Choose an article and skim through it thinking about how it answers the research question.
- Battle of Tenochtitlán
- Hernán Cortés
- Montezuma II (Moctezuma)
- Aztecs
- Conquest of Mexico
- The Spanish Conquest
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Gale eBooks: Latin American CollectionThese encyclopedias are specific to Latin America and include good information about the history of Mexico.
Oxford Research Encyclopedias
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Oxford Research Encyclopedias (ORE) This link opens in a new windowIn-depth encyclopedia entries on a wide variety of topics from politics to public health, climate science to linguistics.
These articles are more specific and in-depth. You are free to search using the same terms suggested for Encyclopedia Britannica (on the left) or look directly for these articles that have useful information. You may have to dig a little in these articles, so skim and use the find function.
- "Aztec Apocalypse, 1519-1521" by Ross Hassig
- "The Mexico that Spain Encountered" by Susan Schroeder
- "Epidemics in Indian Country" by David S. Jones
- "The Lienzo de Tlaxcala and the Indian Conquistadors" by Federico Navarette Linares et al.
- "Nahuas of Colonial Mexico" by Richard Conway
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Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican CulturesThis encyclopedia is all about Mesoamerican cutures, you will find articles about most of the cities you are studying and all of the civilizations associated with those cities. Once you have the basics from Encyclopedia Britannica, search here.
The Encyclopedia of MesoAmerican Cultures has articles that pertain to this topic. You can search in here using the suggested search terms for Encyclopedia Britannica.