Following their arrival in Mexico in 1519, the Spanish conquistadors established control over of much of Mexico. Their military success under Cortes was a prelude to the subsequent ‘spiritual conquest’ by Spanish Franciscan, Augustinian and Dominican friars in the largest mass conversion in Christian history. The Spanish continued to oversee the production of codices after the conquest to document Mexican history and culture. Old skills and techniques were put to new uses: most of the early contact period art is Christian in content but Aztec in execution.

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