In his TED Talk titled, “Why do societies fail?”, historian Jared Diamond posed his hypothesis that there are five reasons to explain the collapse of empires. What are these reasons as they pertain to Mayan Civilization? Do you agree with them?
Jared Diamond hypothesized that there are five reasons to explain the detrimental factors that lead to an empire’s downfall which include: human impacts on the environment, climate change, relations with friendly trade partners, relations with hostile neighbors, and the political, social and cultural factors in society that enable or disable a response to its environmental problems. In analyzing the fall of the Mayan Civilization, Diamond’s five reasons are entirely relevant in understanding their
…show more content…
From 640 CE and peaking around 1020 CE, a number of events occurred in result to the climate change. From 200-300 C.E., a drying trend matches the demise of El Mirador, a pre-Mayan settlement located in northern Guatemala. Then the Early Classic expansion occurred during high levels of rainfall between 400 and 500 C.E. The heavy rainfall continually recharged the urban water storage systems and would explain the growing influences of Tikal and other Mayan centers. This period also had the best recorded ruling Maya lineages. However, the 820-870 C.E. drought period was also the Terminal Classic period. From 640-1020 C.E, war related events increased during the early stages of a drying period. From 750-775, C.E. rulers commissioned monuments at astronomical rates. These monuments possessed text that pointed to status rivalry, war, and strategic alliances. A sudden drop in the number of texts at key Maya centers that followed provides evidence for the failure of Mayan political systems. Thus, the Maya collapsed in two stages. The first stage starts with the 660 C.E. drying trend that increased warfare and political destabilization, which ultimately led to a reduction of agricultural activity and political disintegration. The second stage starts out as a more gradual population decline led by spurts of more drastic population reductions during the driest interval between 1020-1100 …show more content…
The Mayans had established trade partners and routes to support their economy. The most important cities usually controlled access to vital trade goods or trade routes. Cities such as Kaminaljuyu and Q'umarkaj in the Guatemalan Highlands, and Chalchuapa in El Salvador, variously controlled access to the sources of obsidian at different points in Maya history. The most important cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula controlled access to the sources of salt. Trends have shown that the shifts in trade routes occurred with the rise and fall of important cities in this region, and have been identified in every major reorganization of the Maya civilization, such as the rise of Preclassic Maya civilization, the transition to the Classic, and the Terminal Classic collapse. Archeologists have noticed a shift from central, inland trading hubs to primarily coastal centers, which ultimately affected their line of communication and social, economic networks. Despite the utilization of the canoe and coastal waterways, the Mayan civilization was compromised as the inland hubs were no longer in line of trade and lost access to obsidian. Thus, the changes in their trade routes ultimately affected their control of trade and its efficiency with their loyal trade
A few examples of the Mayan’s achievements were their trade routes, understanding of numbers and their architecture. In the article it was said the, “ Everything was carried by hand or boat.” (Document A, Box 1) The Manyan trade routes were remarkable because they were so genius. They had
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
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 Preclassic period begins where the first signs that the Maya can be recognized as a distinct people. The two time periods overlap each other as a result from different groups in the region gradually shifting from being a separate archaically developed people into adopting local culture and technology that was distinctly
This decided what they could grow if they could even grow anything. It also determined whether or not they had water, also whether or not it would be safe to travel for trade. In the Roman empire the cities were overflowing with people. So full that, poor people couldn’t have their own home and only rich people could. Where they were they could grow olives and grapes, they also ate vegetables, bread, and cheese. Where the Maya lived farmers lived in wood houses and rich people lived in stone houses. In the Maya civilization, they had corn, beans, and yams if they were poor; if they were rich they ate meats and crops that servants grew. Both had a fine line between the rich and the poor. The two civilizations both had the ability to grow things to keep themselves
The very roots of Maya civilization are obscure at best. However as our understanding of new and old discoveries increases, we're more able to paint a vague picture of their early beginnings. By around 2000 BC, the southern Maya area had already been occupied by early speakers of Mayan languages. We know that this area was occupied by archaic Maya groups prior
Diamond, Jared M. (2005) "The Maya Collapses.” Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 157-77.
As you can see trade was very important because without it, it would have been hard to keep the empire running. Now for Mayan farming and trading. Farming was the foundation of the civilization. Farming is what got the empire started in the first place. Farming was so import that they held special ceremonies in honor of the specialized workers, like farmers.
By 1200 B.C., they had dominated trade routes. The trade routes extended from the modern Mexico state of Guerrero to Costa Rica (Miller "Maya" Grolier). The Mayans had constant cultural and commercial contact from other tribes such as the Aztecs. They were with the central and coastal Mexican civilization that had influenced them and influenced other cultures (Harrison "History of Latin America" Grolier).
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 civilization was located in southeastern Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. One of the first American civilizations, it lasted from about 1000 B.C.-1542 A.D. Their civilization flourished during the Sixth Century. They built many temples and over forty cities. The Mayan population consisted of almost fifteen million people who were all living in one of the many cities. The Mayan people were extremely religious and believed in multiple gods which meant they were polytheistic. Their most commonly worshiped god was the Maize God, or god of corn, as corn was the most grown and most relied on crop. The Mayans grew all of their own food so they needed to have useful farming methods. The one they used most often was the slash and burn method, which involved cutting down trees and burning them to make the soil fertil which was necessary to grow crops. This method worked for many years, but soon started to backfire. The Mayans were ahead of their time, but that did not prevent their mysterious decline which occurred between the years 800 A.D.-900 A.D. Although it is not known exactly why the powerful empire fell, but there are various probable theories. The mysterious decline of the Mayans may have been caused by
Jared Diamond author of “The Ends of the World as We Know Them” highlights the reasons for the disappearance of early civilizations. Civilizations like the Mayans, Incas and Aztecs once inhabited the earth for hundreds of years, However; when these advanced civilizations reached the pinnacle of their capability, they faced tragedies such as war, unusual weather, environmental deprivation, terminated trade markets and unscrupulous leaders who contributed to the destruction of their civilization. One significant idea portrayed from Diamond’s article is that there are many factors that threaten American civilization.
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
These three civilizations all had a decline that can not be totally explained. Each unique yet similar in different ways. Both the Egyptian and Mayan civilization seemed to have declined because of agricultural and ideological reasons, and all three had to do with a loss of power and trust in rulers. There are many factors that create a civilization or empire and make it powerful. The corruption and loss of these same factors is what leads to the decline of an otherwise successful civilization.
The Maya culture has a long history that started in about 1000 BC. The history of the Maya is divided up into four different time periods: The Middle Preclassic Period, Late Preclassic Period, Classic Period, and Postclassic Period. The Middle Preclassic Period was when the small areas started to become city-like in the way that they started to build larger temples. The Late Preclassic Period was when the cities began to expand with paved roads and massive pyramids. The Classic Period was the time the Maya civilization hit it’s peak. Populations were growing rapidly and the structure of politics was formed. The Postclassic Period was when warfare was on the rise and cities were being abandoned(Coe 2005). This paper will focus on the Classic Period due to the fact that that is the greatest time period in Maya history.