KentuckySocial Studies Corner
★ Inquiry DBQ Series · #13

Conquest of the Aztec Empire DBQ

How did a few hundred Spaniards conquer the Aztec Empire?

How did a few hundred Spaniards bring down the Aztec Empire? Students rank weapons, allies, and disease, then test that ranking against Spanish and Nahua sources.

Grade 7World Civilizations 600–1600Google Slides3 class periods

License: one teacher and their own students.

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What's included

  • Teacher presentation (16 slides) with speaker notes
  • Full DBQ packet (31 pages): hook, background essay, documents with analysis questions, sourcing organizer, bucketing and outline, writing task, 4-point rubric, teacher guide with answer key and sample essay
  • Scaffolded version (10 pages): shorter excerpts, vocabulary support and sentence starters, with its own answer key

The documents

  • Cortés’s Third Letter (1522)
  • Bernal Díaz’s memoir
  • Nahua accounts, Florentine Codex
  • Lienzo de Tlaxcala
  • Smallpox in the Florentine Codex
  • Counting the armies (data)

Good to know

Class time
3 periods of 45–50 minutes
Pages
57 total
Format
Editable Google Slides
Answer key
Included

Standards: KAS Grade 7: 7.H.CO.2, 7.H.CE.2, 7.G.HI.1, 7.I.Q, 7.I.UE, 7.I.CC