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Fall of the maya empire
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The fall of the mayan civilization
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The Mayans were known to be a calm civilization with their people. They extended from southeastern Mexico across modern-day Guatemala, Belize and the western parts of Honduras and El Salvador. But then one day they disappeared and nobody knows why. They could have moved to find better resources, or they could have all died. So i’m going to tell you all of my theories for how they might of disappeared or died. I picked all of the theories because they all had something either in common or they all just made sense. So first i’m going to talk about war, and in the text it said,“Mayans were obsessed with war.” (1) and this may have caused faime, besides the fact that whoever they were because if they were busy fighting in war and once the soldiers came home they would have to eat, and the Mayan civilization was very big, and if the Mayans were obsessed with war then they would …show more content…
always be coming back to have food, and if that would were to keep happening then the rest of the Mayans would have nothing to eat.
Also food doesn't just grow over night so they couldn't just whip up food like we do today, the text also said, “One of the reasons for this famine stems from the Mayan practice of what is known as “slash and burn” agriculture,” (2) and this wasn't always good because the slash and burn technique didn't always work. A drought was also going on so this probably caused even more trouble to be going on. My other theory is Deasise, because in the text it says, “The high humidity in tropical areas, especially in Central America, make conditions for this disease very suitable, which is one reason why this disease is common to this area. Also, this disease is only deadly in areas where maize is cultivated year-long. The Mayans relied so heavily on the maize crop that farmers grew it throughout the entire year. If the maize crop was infected, it would make sense that the Mayans would abandon their urban centers since they might have had to “fend for themselves” to find enough food to survive.” (3) So this
would be very solid evidence. Now for last theory it was Disaster or Environmental Change, now the main reason I choose this one is because in the text it states , “Mayan systems were founded on those [high] rainfall patterns," Kennett said. "They could not support themselves when patterns changed." (4) The following centuries, from about 660 to 1000, were characterized by repeated and, at times extreme, drought. Agriculture declined and—at the same time—social conflict rose, Kennett says.” (5) This supports my claim even more because one, Douglas Kennett is a professional anthropologist so he is very convincing and two, the environmental change is a drought and drought can be very devastating. The drought also backs up all of my theories because if their wasn’t a drought then all of my theories wouldn’t make sense. So these were all of my theories of how the Mayans somehow disappeared, or they could have just died, either way nobody knew what really happened. Hopefully someone will find out!
The Mayan empire was doing well until they started burning down trees. The reason why they fell was not because of other empires, but technically on themselves. In the article “Why Did the Mayan Civilization Collapse? A New Study Points to Deforestation and Climate Change” by Joseph Stromberg has many points on how they fell because of this. In the article it states that, “As a result, the rapid deforestation exacerbated an already severe drought—in the simulation, deforestation reduced precipitation by five to 15 percent and was responsible for 60 percent of the total drying that occurred over the course of a century as the Mayan civilization collapsed” (Stromberg). As the Mayan’s kept burning down the trees the Mayan empire started to get lower and lower. When the precipitation went down, that wasn’t what made the Mayan empire fall
Popular believe we want to believe that the Mayan culture collapsed because of disintegration of the political structure. Actual reasons of the collapse were much more complex than a breakdown of the political hierarchy, contrary to this belief evidence suggests a disorganization of system structures such as agriculture. Variables that caused the Mayan collapse started with the late classic Maya and their issues with reproduction and raising children due to a series of nutritional problems which cause the burden of disease. These depopulation factors coupled with the decrease of full production because of a lack of labor required to maintain the agricultural ecosystems which cause erosion of the systems economic base. The insight of this article suggests that the collapse of the Mayan civilization was caused primarily to environmental instability of their ecosystem. The author is evidence in this article allows the conclusion to be drawn that the Mayans religion was not the cause to the collapse of their civilization, but rather the inability to sustain population growth and ecosystem erosion lead to their
Imagine yourself as an Ixil Mayan at the local marketplace. You wander around the stalls, viewing the hand-crafted goods. As the midday sun beats down on you, the sound of footsteps coming towards you becomes audible among the chatter of your fellow Mayans. Suddenly, the voices stop, and a gunshot echoes in the air. For what seems like an eternity, the marketplace is drowned in the slight whimpers of children as their mothers’ skirts muffle their moaning. You are still frozen in your place in front a stall. Then, a quick moment of common sense drives you to hide behind a wall. Before you know what is happening, the space around the market is filled with screams. A man falls down beside you with his eyes rolled back and a gaping wound in his chest. Blood trickles through the wall. The pleading cries of the women have a chilling effect. As more bodies fall down beside you, you suddenly become aware of an officer standing above you. A gun is pointed at you. Up until now, you didn’t think of running, but once the trigger is pulled, you know you don’t have a chance. Moments later, you are gone. The genocide that occurred in Guatemala tragically cost thousands of Ixil Mayan lives and ruined many others.
The ancient Mayans were a very well developed society with a very accurate calendar, skilled architects, artisans, extensive traders and hunters. They are known to have developed medicine and astronomy as well. All of this was developed while the Europeans were still in the Dark Ages.
Mayan architectural achievements were remarkable, given the difficulties brought on by fragile soil, dense forest, and a harsh tropical climate. During the Classic period (250-900 A.D.), the largest Mayan cities had populations in excess of 50,000 people. These high populations required them to practice more intensive agriculture, instead of the typical slash-and-burn.
The Mayan population decreased between 1515 and 1516 there was a rapid wildly spread epidemic among the Mayan people in eastern Yucatan know as the “mayacimil (or “easy death”)”. This epidemic was caused by smallpox which was transmitted by a soldier arriving in Mexico (probably a Spanish soldier), who was carrying the epidemic. This plague spread through the native population of the Americans, modern estimation of the death rate varied from “75% to 90% mortality” among the natives.
The Maya were an advanced society, rich and full extraordinary architecture with great complexity of patterns and variety of expressions, that flourished in Mesoamerica long before the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. They were skilled architects, building prodigious cities of primarily of limestone that remain a thousand years after their civilization fell into decline. Greatness and Grandeur was the signature of all Mayan cities, from the terminal pre-classic period and continued until the abandonment of all the city states by the beginning of the ninth century. The Maya built pyramids, temples, palaces, walls, residences and more. The limestone structures, faced with lime stucco, were the hallmark of ancient Maya architecture.
The example of societal collapse in which I will be making reference to throughout this essay is the Maya civilization. The Maya civilization is, “probably the best known of all early American civilizations.” (Fagan, 1995) It was at its strongest point between AD 300 AND 900. Around AD 900 was the time of its collapse. This civilization was developed in a densely, tropical forest on either highlands or lowlands. Today to visit a Mayan site, people would go to the modern Mexican state, capital city of Merida. This site was once home to the “New World's most advanced Native American civilization before European arrival.” (Diamond, 2009) Over the years there has been many predictions on what had caused the Maya civilization to collapse. At the moment the most recent cause that geographers and scientists have come up with is that climate change may have had a major impact on this collapse. It is said that the rainfall received during the creation of the civilization was a key factor in the continuity of life for the Mayans. This and the addition of societal factors such as religious beliefs, ethnicity and education all had an affect on their way of life, an effect on their societal well-being. Art and architecture that was formed by the Mayans is the foundation for the archaeologists work today. They look at these features and the ruins of the buildings created to depict the kind of lifestyle they lived. Looking at the art and architecture of a specific civilization or community of the past is just one way that can help to inform future adaptations. Another way in which the Europeans received knowledge on the collapse was that they sent out geographers and researchers not long after the collapse to gather as much data and information ...
In the Central America, most notably the Yucatan Peninsula, are the Maya, a group of people whose polytheistic religion and advanced civilization once flourished (Houston, 43). The Maya reached their peak during the Classic Period from around CE 250 to the ninth century CE when the civilization fell and dispersed (Sharer, 1). Although much has been lost, the gods and goddesses and the religious practices of the Classic Maya give insight into their lives and reveal what was important to this society.
The Mayan culture can be traced back to 1500 BC, entering the Classic period about 300 AD and flourishing between 600 and 900 AD. The basis of the culture was farming. They cultivated food crops such as maize (corn), beans, squash, and chili peppers. They also cultivated cash crops such as cotton and cacao (Palfrey 1). Maize was the principal food of the Mayas and maize production was the central economic activity. The Mayas, forced to cultivate in a tropical rain forest, used slash and burn agriculture. The growth is so rapid in the rain forest that the nutrients provided by dead plants and animal feces get used very quickly. This causes the soil to be unfertile within a few years. The Mayans would then have to use new land. Because of this, the Mayans required huge amounts of land to feed their people. The population, throughout the Classic period, remained small. Slash and burn agriculture is also labor intensive. It required the people to spend an average of 190 days in agricultural work (Hooker 4). Despite the difficulty of this labor, the remainder of the year was used to build ...
One disease, called smallpox, spread across the empire quickly. The citizens died from smallpox and hunger wiping out the population. The civilization was in the midst of a downwards spiral. The Mayan Empire may have been ahead of its time but they did not have the medicine to treat the foreign diseases that these people were suffering from. Almost half of the people died within a year after the new diseases was brought to their lands. The people went into panic because now it was evident that their civilization was declining. As clear as it was that the civilization was falling, they still blamed these disasters on their leaders and their
The Dark Ages were a time of great loss in regards to the lack of any grand achievement being made in Europe. After the fall of Rome, it was as if European society paused, and resumed during the Renaissance. This was not true for the Mayans, however. While the Europeans were squandering trying to subsist through the fall of the Roman Empire, the Mayans were building great pyramids, making substantial discoveries in astronomy and mathematics, their culture was rich. The Maya stood out for its sophisticated culture and society, which is eventually overshadowed by Europe’s monumental resurgence during the Renaissance period. It’s salient that the Maya never had a time period in which their culture was lost, despite the mysterious abandonment of
Time was important to the Maya because it made it possible to create order in daily events, remember the past, and predict the future. The Maya believed history was repeated in cycles, so they maintained a detailed history which was based off of the specific calendars they developed. The detailed records and calendars the Maya kept proved to be beneficial in choosing the best seasons to plant crops, and determining ceremonial dates, especially for the ruling party.
On the Noah flood myth from Genesis and the Mayan flood myth from Popol-Vuh are similar because in both myths the creator in not happy how human kind trend out. On the story about Noah people were doing things that they were not supposed to be doing so god was not very happy on how things were going so out of all people he chooses Noah and he told now that he had to do and how he had to do the ark with had much room and he had seven days to make the ark and gather male and female of every living animal and put them in the ark a because after the seven days every living thing on earth would die. Now on the Mayans myth that was something different then the Noah myth. On the Mayans myth god would create people out of anything he first had created
.... The Maya may have worn down the land they used (Houston and Inomata 2009). There are, however, descendants of ancient Maya who are still occupying some areas today. Their way of life is almost the same as the ancient Maya but they lean more towards Christianity. They live in villages from two houses to 100 houses. The sites are nearly impossible to find because the Maya are dedicated to keeping it hidden (Gann and Thompson 1931). They Maya thrived for a long period of time before falling. They were strong in their religious beliefs, their love for agriculture, and their protection of territory.