The Fall of the Mayan Empire

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The fall of the Mayan Empire

The collapse of the Mayan Empire is one of history’s greatest mysteries. It was one of the most advanced and developed civilizations of its time period, reining during the Pre-Classic period and into the Classic and Post-Classic Periods (2000 B.C. – 900 A.D.). The territory stretched from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, down to modern day El Salvador in Central America. Its achievements were monumental for the era, being the first empire communicating with the use of a written language having over 800 symbols and producing the first 365 day calendar. They maintained an in-depth understanding of astrological cycles that would assist in planning harvesting cycles and predicting solar eclipses. The Mayan’s also developed a system of mathematics that was more advanced than the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans , discovering the concept of the number zero. They had a developed comprehension of proper agricultural techniques, architecture, and an appreciation for the arts. The Mayan population numbered in the millions as they maintained effective urbanization and participated in long distance trade and correspondence with surrounding areas. With all of these imperial advantages, these factors beg to question, “How did the Mayan Empire Fall?” Analyzing differing scientific theories surrounding the collapse of the Mayan Empire, we can begin to interpret the components leading to its ultimate demise.

The first theory we will analyze is the “Foreign Invasion Theory”. In Mikael Hannikainen’s paper “Demise of Classic Maya civilization” he summarized this theory to be, “... the Mayan civilization experienced an external military pressure by outside forces thus generating a negative pattern of destructive cons...

... middle of paper ...

... Antiquity 86.

Hannikainen, Mikael. "Demise of Classic Maya civilization." Demise of Classic Maya civilization: 20. (accessed January 1, 2014).

Kracht, Dr. Benjamin. "The Mayan Civilization.". http://arapaho.nsuok.edu/~kracht/mayancourse/home.html (accessed January 1, 2014).

Merriam-Webster. "slash-and-burn." Merriam-Webster. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slash-and-burn (accessed May 4, 2014).

Mott, Nicholas . "Why the Maya Fell: Climate Change, Conflict—And a Trip to the Beach?." National Geographic News. (accessed January 1, 2014).

Sabloff, Jeremy . "Classic Period collapse of the Central Maya Lowlands: Insights about human–environment relationships for sustainability." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2. (accessed January 1, 2014).

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