The Collapse Of The Maya Civilization

Janette Perez
Anthropology
November 18, 2014

The Collapse of the Maya Civilizations

Many believe that the cause for civilizations to collapse throughout the human history of society is due to environmental degradation, but there other reasons aside from the environment that also plays an important factor of why civilizations collapses. The collapse of civilizations is more complicated than just believing that is caused by the impact of human careless treatment of the environment. There are many places in which there are thousands of temples, and statues of cities that once were magnificent, but that have collapsed because of many factors for which the degradation of the environment is not the only cause. In an interesting article from "Science Features (ABC Science), stated that "environmental factors plays an important role in the collapse of many civilizations but to understand the reason why many ancient civilizations had collapsed, one has to look at other factors than just at the impact that humans have had on the environment" (Diamond). One of the best examples to use to discuss the causes that led for a civilization to collapse or to fall apart would be the Mayan Civilization because there were known to have a remarkable and sophisticated civilization before it collapsed for many different reasons. We have seen in many places the ruins of temples and statues of civilizations that were once robust with resources, but that had fallen apart and leaving behind indications of their once magnificent cities. One good example is the Maya Civilization. The Mayan Civilization was an ancient Native American civilization that grew to be one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americans. The people that were called the Maya were from the eastern and southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras. They were considered to be an advanced civilization because they built immense and impressive stone pyramids, temples, and sculptures, but one of the qualities that really set them apart as an advanced civilization was their accomplishments and achievements in mathematics and astronomy, which were recorded in hieroglyphs. After 900 AD, the Maya mysteriously disappeared from the southern lowlands of Guatemala and later reappeared in the north on the Yucatan Peninsula which they continue to dominate the area until the Spanish conquest, but many of the great stone cities of the Maya were abandoned and many scholars from the 19th century up to now are still debating as to the reasons that have caused this dramatic decline. To understand the reasons why the Mayan Civilization had collapsed, one has to first understand the events and process that took place before the collapse of their cities. One good explanation would be to discuss the Classic Period, which began around A.D. 250, and was considered to be the "golden age" of the Maya Empire. For example, in the web page for the Maya history, it was stated that the "Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Tikal, Uaxactun, Copan, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Clakmul, Palenque and Rio Bec; each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population may have reached 2,000,000 (History.com.staff). This provides information that the Maya had become so advanced that they were able to build impressive cities and to form such sophisticated organizations that their population was able to grow significantly which is an indication that a region or city is prosperous for being able to accommodate the growth of population without any problems. The question now is what happened to the once prosperous Maya Civilization? There are various studies conducted as to the reasons why the Maya Civilization collapsed. In one study from the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" that was brought up in an article from the website by the smithsonia.com it was stated that for the environmental conditions that brought the downfall of the Maya Civilizations, "researches found that severe reductions in rainfall were coupled with an rapid rate of deforestation, as the Mayans burned and chopped down more and more forest to clear land for agriculture. They also required massive amounts of wood to fuel the fires that cooked the lime plaster for their elaborate constructions that experts estimate it would have taken 20 trees to produce a single square meter of cityscape" (Stromberg). One of problems of clearing land for agriculture or chopping trees for construction is that as more land is cleared the less it absorbs solar radiation which means less water evaporates from its surface to produce the clouds needed for rainfall. This problem was worsened because it was during a time in which the population density was at its peak, which forced many of the Maya society to abandon the cities that were in the lowlands resulting in the ruins that one sees today. This example shows that the environmental factors had a lot to do with the collapse of the Maya Civilization, but why did the Maya people let it get this bad when they were known to be no fools since they were considered an advanced civilization? As the article from the Smithsonian mentions, "they had a very sophisticated understanding of their environment, built and sustained intensive production and water systems and withstood at least two long-term episodes of aridity, in other words, they were no fools" (Stromberg). This realization that the Mayas were no fools in knowing their environment have made many scientists and researches very perplexed as to the reasons why the Mayas kept on with deforestation until the environment was no longer able to sustain their society. One of the reasons that the Mayas kept on with deforestation even when they knew that it was probably hurting the environment a great deal was because they believe that the gods controlled whether or not they would have rainfall or better weather for food and construction, therefore, they also believe in offerings and sacrifices to please their gods so they can have rainfall and for the Mayas to destroy their own cities which at first did not have a big impact in the population of the city as a whole until late in the Classic period in which the lowland civilization had begun to disintegrate. Another reason was that the Rulers and nobles directed the commoners in building major settlements such as Pyramid-shaped mounds of rubble topped with altars and temples for priests to perform sacrifices to the gods and many extended family compounds made of stone. Therefore, this explains that there were other factors that contributed to the collapse of the Maya Civilization besides the environmental factors. These factors had to do with internal warfare, peasant revolts, and foreign invasions, and disease. All these factors led to the weakening of the Maya social, economic, and political systems to the point where they could no longer sustain large populations. In summary, the Maya Civilization collapsed for various reasons aside from the environmental factors. Even though the environmental factors were one of the main reasons for their collapse, researches and Scientists believe that since the Mayas were an advanced civilization that knew about the environment then it had to be other factors that also led to their downfall such as internal warfare and beliefs in human sacrifices among their own people or neighboring cities. These factors were mostly directed to their cultural responses to the environment. In other words, as the environment grew scarcer and degraded, more internal warfare attacks and human sacrifices were performed which debilitated the Maya cities even more. This is situation happens in many parts of the world where there is scarce resources to provide to an entire population. When this happens, many outbreaks of civil wars takes place as well as political corruptions.

Works Cited

Diamond, Jared. Why Societies Collapse. <www.abc.net.au/science/articles>.

History.com.staff. "The Maya." 2009. History.com. <www.history.com/topics/maya>.

Stromberg, Joseph. "Why Did the Mayan Civilization Collapse? A New Study Points to Deforestation and Climate Change." 23 August 2012. Smithsonian.com. <www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-did-the-mayan-civilization-collapse>.

Cited: Diamond, Jared. Why Societies Collapse. <www.abc.net.au/science/articles>. History.com.staff. "The Maya." 2009. History.com. <www.history.com/topics/maya>. Stromberg, Joseph. "Why Did the Mayan Civilization Collapse? A New Study Points to Deforestation and Climate Change." 23 August 2012. Smithsonian.com. <www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-did-the-mayan-civilization-collapse>.