The exhibit continues with the defining characteristics of early colonial life after the military conquest. This period was marked by profound and lasting changes for the future of Mexico. The gallery includes a colonial-era setting and a model of a 16th-century convent, illustrating the establishment of new civil and religious institutions over indigenous communities. Tools, silverware, and ceramics reflect the exploitation of natural resources and indigenous labor, as well as the introduction of new crops, mining, livestock, and sugarcane. Missionary portraits, liturgical objects, and catechism facsimiles show the process of spiritual conquest led first by religious orders, then by the secular church. The gallery emphasizes the emergence of cultural mestizaje, a blend of enduring indigenous practices and European thought.