The Conquest of Mexico
By Nancy Fitch
California State University, Fullerton
This photograph testifies to the catastrophic change that transformed ancient Mexico after 1521. A once great civilization, the Mexica Empire was left in ruins when the Spaniards razed Tenochtitlan to replace it with a Spanish capital, Mexico City. Historians still cannot agree on why this impressive civilization fell so quickly. This project is an experiment in using hypermedia to construct a virtual learning environment in which students can use primary sources to come to their own conclusions about why the Mexicas fell, while learning the process by which historians produce the history they find in their textbooks.