During the invasion of Mexico, Hernán Cortés' key strategy to topple the Mexica Empire was to find allies willing to fight alongside the small Spanish force. Based on evidence from Laura Lewis' Hall of Mirrors and course lectures, did the Spanish bureaucrats who governed New Spain after the conquest employ a similar strategy? Do you think that exploiting race, ethnic, and class differences was the key to maintaining Spanish authority? What other factors allowed the Spanish to consolidate power in the first century after the fall of Tenochtitlán?