Mexican Inquisition

The Mexican Inquisition was the extension of the Spanish Inquisition into New Spain, the Spanish colonial territory centred on Mexico. It followed the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, which the Spanish treated as a religious as well as a political event, in the era of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Brought to the New World, it was used for much the same reasons and against much the same social groups as in Europe, except that Indigenous people were largely outside its reach. Almost all events associated with its official establishment took place in Mexico City, where the Holy Office had a major building, now the Museum of Medicine of the national university. The official period ran from 1571 to 1820, and the number of people prosecuted is unknown. One historian estimates that about 50 people were executed, among them 29 convicted as Judaizers between 1571 and 1700 out of 324 prosecuted.