This paper explores information gather from several articles that report on the Mayan Civilization throughout the years of their rise, their conquering, and their fall, as well as their interactions with other civilizations, specifically the Spanish. The Mayan civilization dates back before the 16th century, before they were conquered by the Spanish Conquistadors and the civilization diminished. During their reign, the Maya civilization thrived in what is now parts of Southern Mexico and Central America. However, their supremacy was struck down when the Spanish and their beliefs
A rich and diverse culture is what Guatemala is known for. It’s a mixture of the Spanish that conquered it and the indigenous people. Before it was conquered in the 16th century, it had a thriving people called the Mayans. The Mayan civilization is split into three different time periods called the Preclassic period, the Classic period, and the Postclassic period. The Preclassic period consisted mostly of small villages of farmers. The Classic period is when the Mayans were at the height of their civilization. Many sites in Guatemala show just how thriving these people were. It lasted until 900 AD when it all of the sudden collapsed. Many of the cities were abandoned and many were killed off by a drought. The Postclassic period brought on many new cities, but none had the greatness of those of the Classic period. This period lasted until the Spanish conquered them beginning in 1915.
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 ...
In the early centuries A.D., the Mayan peoples began building their civilization in the center of Mesoamerica. This location allowed the Maya to conduct trade and exchange their local products. They also participated in the slash and burn method, however, evidence shows that they may have developed other methods such as planting on raised beds above swamps and on hillside terraces. Not only did location have an influence on agricultural life, it also had an influence on all other aspects of life. The Maya drew influence from a neighboring society, the Olmec. The Maya blended their customs with the Olmec to create a culturally diverse society. These Olmec customs had quite an influence on other aspects of the Maya society. The Maya had a polytheistic religion with gods of corn, death, rain, and war. These religious beliefs led to the development of calendars, astronomy, and mathematics. The Maya developed two types of calendars: religious and solar. The religious calendar was based on the belief that “time was a burden carried on the back of a God.” The solar calendar was based on the observations of the sun, planets, and moon. Unlike our calendar today, it was consisted of twenty-five da...
Global warming and climate change have been frequent topics of discussion over the past several years. Although people tend to focus on the politics, it is time to look past the media aspects of it and into the cold hard facts of what our Earth is currently experiencing, and what caused it in the first place. The cause of climate change includes natural causes, but human causes are what is generating such a rapid global change. It’s time that the ways in which humanity affects the Earth’s climate, how scientists record and measure the climate change, and what can be done in everyday life to slow it down and/or stop global warming, are recognized.
The earliest heirs to the Olmec were the Maya people. The Maya can be analyzed in terms of their culture. This civilization came about in Mesoamerica around 250 AD with a great influence coming from that of the Olmec. The first 650 years of the Maya civilization’s existence was known as the Classic Period. They created a remarkable society of more than 40 cities in the region which is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, and northern Belize. The cities contained mostly ceremonial centers and majority of the Maya lived a rural agricultural life around the cities. The Maya civilization has come to be known as a “lost” civilization.
The earth is a complex system, which continues to evolve and change. Climate change and global warming are currently popular in the political agenda. But what does “climate” really mean? The difference between weather and climate can be conveyed in a single sentence: “Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.” Based on research of the geologic record, we know that climate change has happened throughout Earth's history and at present, ever-increasing evidence points to the roles that humans play in altering Earth systems. The Earth and its atmosphere receive heat energy from the sun; the atmospheric heat budget of the Earth depends on the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing radiation from the planet; which has been constant over the last few thousand years. However present evidence seems to suggest that the recent increase in temperature has been brought about by pollution of the atmosphere, in particular the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide, mostly through Anthropogenic Forcing (human activity) and other various internal and external factors. I...
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
The Maya and Meroe shared the characteristic of erecting large pyramids in their empire. As von Sivers, Desnoyers, and Stow infer, that the Kings of the empire had the farmers construct their cities and large pyramids during the time of year with bleak agricultural output (163). The demise of the Maya occurred in the late 500’s CE and revolved around tensions between the commoners and the elite ruling class, and the decline of natural resources. There is evidence to suggest that the commoners were beginning to rebel against the Mayan rulers. von Sivers, Desnoyers and Stow infer, that there is the possibility that farmers were unwilling to grow crops and construct temples and pyramids in defiance against the elite (168). Similar to the Meroe culture, the Maya suffered as a result of the mismanagement of resources. As von Sivers, Desnoyers, and Stow infer, the over use of soil, a loss of topsoil on terraces, and increased salt levels in field due to negligent drainage all culminated in the crisis among the Mayan kingdoms
The Mayan civilization had many adaptations and in this paragraph I will be telling you a few of their different adaptations. One of the adaptations they did was called the slash and burn. The first step to doing this was clearing out the land. They did this by cutting and burning plants and trees. This technique “helped them to grow more food without having to increase the amount of land they used” (pg.168). Then as the population increased “the Mayans had trouble raising enough food to feed everyone.” (pg.268.So the Mayans needed more land. IN order to do this they drained many swamps and this process was called drain swamps. Another adaptation
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
Mott, N. (2012) Why the Maya Fell: Climate Change, Conflict—And a Trip to the Beach? [online]
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.
In 5000 B.C.E Agriculture emerged in Mesoamerica and it was a key part of the establishment of cities, but it was also what sustained these cities over time. Unlike Mediterranean agriculture the landscape and altitude in Mesoamerica were not ideal for farmers, but that didn’t stop them from establishing an agriculture system that could have rivaled any other during that time period. The Olmecs were the oldest and most important part of early Mesoamerica, they helped to establish common religious beliefs and a strong trade network these practices spread and were later developed and reused by some of Mesoamerica’s most powerful societies. The Incas, Mayas and Aztecs were all influenced by the Olmec principles which played a major role in the establishment of these three high quality societies and their individual success. The Incas were the most successful of the three empires in that they were the largest reaching a population of 16 million people but, they also lasted the longest in spite of their many troubles. The Mayas weren’t far behind, they had upwards of 14 million inhabitants and they also developed the most complex writing system in the Americas
Agriculture was fundamental to prehistoric societies and an addictively trend that eventually replaced hunter-gathers societies. It has become debatable if agriculture produced Jordon Childe’s ‘Neolithic Revolution’ or that it served ulterior purposes in religious and social agendas but it is certain that it spread across the world possibly through natural cause or the direct influence of human activity. In the case of Mesoamerica these debates tend to favour agriculture as a revolution to improve sustenance and result from both the intentional actions of humans and the natural environment that endorsed productivity.