Curated OER
Latin American Colonial Diary
Students examine the class systems of New Spain. In small groups, they create a five-day diary about the family life, food, occupation, and government involvement of an assigned personality from the time of Colonial Latin America.
PBS
Pbs: The Conquistadors
A huge website that provides a virtual field trip exploring the Spanish adventurers who quested for gold and land in the New World. The site has information on Pizarro, Orellana, Cabeza de Vaca, Cortes as well as extensive information...
Other
Pike Page: Maps of Pike's Overall Route and in Each State
Detailed maps of the routes of Zebulon Pike in his various expeditions in the 1800s. Click on each map for a PDF view. Hyperlinks to additional information on the site.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Harcourt: Biographies: Hernando Cortes 1485 1547
Furnished is a brief summary of the life and explorations of Spanish explorer, Hernando Cortes. Take a look at the photos and maps of his journey of what today is called Mexico.
Digital History
Digital History: Spanish Colonization
Spanish culture had a great impact on the economy, politics, and even geography of the Southwest, California, and Mexico. Read about the Spanish settlements and the structure of the social classes that left an impact the continues even...
Texas A&M University
Sons of De Witt Colony Texas: Nueva Espana Nuevas Philipinas Provincia De Tejas
Read some first-person excerpts taken from Texas letters accounting events from the Mexican War for Independence from Spain.
Other
Historical Text Archive: Mexico: Stages of Independence, 1808 21
Read about the Mexican War of Independence, an armed conflict which was the culmination of a political and social process which ended the rule of Spain in the territory of New Spain.
Other
Texas Bob: Spain's First Occupation of East Texas 1690
Father Damian Massanet's first-hand account of Spain's first occupation of East Texas in the year 1690.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: The Convento of San Nicolas De Tolentino, Actopan, Hidalgo
After the Conquest, Spanish colonizers' first task was to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity and eliminate their religious beliefs. Painted murals within their missions demonstrate the great fear and urgency of the...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Biombo With the Conquest of Mexico and View of Mexico City
The influence of Asian art on colonial Latin America is particularly evident in viceregal textiles, ceramics, and furniture. Some examples are the resplendent biombos, or folding screens, made in Mexico beginning in the seventeenth...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Atrial Cross at Acolman
The Atrial Cross at Acolman offers a fascinating look into the interactions between Spanish friars and Nahua converts in the years directly following the conquest of Mexico. View pictures and descriptions of the cross and the Augustinian...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Bernardino De Sahagun and Collaborators, Florentine Codex
The Florentine Codex contains an unparalleled wealth of information regarding the people and culture of central Mexico immediately preceding the Conquest and its discussion of the Conquest itself. View pictures and descriptions of the...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Miguel Cabrera, Virgin of the Apocalypse
Miguel Cabrera was one of the most celebrated and prolific artists of viceregal Mexico in the eighteenth century. View pictures of "The Virgin of the Apocalypse" and read about the iconography in this essay.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Featherworks: The Mass of St. Gregory
View pictures and read descriptions of the oldest surviving featherwork from colonial Mexico in this essay.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Mission Churches as Theaters of Conversion in New Spain
Mission churches, which followed a similar architectural plan but varied in terms of decoration, are among the earliest examples of colonial architecture. View pictures and read the history of these mission churches, or conventos, in New...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: St. Michael the Archangel in Huejotzingo
The Franciscan monastery of Huejotzingo is a landmark in the development of sixteenth-century art in central Mexico. View pictures of this mission and read details about the architectural elements in this essay.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: The Medici Collect the Americas
Across Europe, many powerful individuals sought to acquire objects taken from the Americas, as a way to know the unknown, to exert some control over the colonial processes underway, and to possess exotic and rare things. The Medici...
Mex Connect
Mexconnect: Mexico's Colonial Era
The situation in Mexico in the 16th century, after the conquest. This brief site discusses Hernan Cortes, and the territorial expansion that characterized this time in Mexico's history.