A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”
-W. Durant
Maya civilization was the longest lived and one of the most widely spread of all the great cultures of ancient America. Monumental architecture and vivid imagery are testament to the complexity and sophistication of a sometimes ferocious people whose history has been-and is continuing to be- revealed to us through the translation of their intricate hieroglyphic texts. The tremendous artistic legacy of the Maya continues to inspire awe and fascination-it is most spectacularly seen at the great temple complexes but is equally magnificent to behold on a lesser scale in works of art in paint and pottery. The world depicted was one in which Maya kings ruled with absolute authority over their people, seeking guidance from the heavens to enable them to plan for the future. Their fascination with the stars enabled the Maya priests to chart the movements of the stars and planets, to accurately measure and record time, and to formulate a sophisticated calendar system. The more macabre practices of sacrifice and bloodletting reflected belief in a cosmic cycle of time, which the continuation of which and the need to appease the deities in order for the world to continue. Between the 8th and 9th century all Mayan cities were abandoned and the civilization had declined. How could such a thriving and powerful civilization collapse? What caused them to decline so quickly and what were the factors? These are only some of the questions the many have searched to be answered for years.
Non-Environmental Collapse
This is a type of “collapse” that revolves around non-environmental factors that lead to societal collapse such as invasion from other tribes and/or civilizations, peasant revolt and social turmoil due to the revolution that occurred in technology and building structures, trade routes connecting cities getting abandoned, internal warfare between the Mayan people and how the belief systems helped the decline occur slowly and steadily.
Foreign Invasion
The Maya didn’t have many enemies at all, the main society that they had hostile relations with were the Toltec. There archaeological evidence of a Toltec intrusion into Yucatan causing frequent battles between the two societies for resources. During the decline of the Maya the Spanish discovered them, and the people that had survived died due to disease and Spanish massacres. Many believe that the Spanish caused a the Maya to decline but that is not true, sure the Spanish killed a lot of the people off but even then there would have been no military defeat that would have caused such a complex societal structure to collapse. Although the Mayans were not strangers to warfare there is still not enough evidence to prove that their collapse occurred due to foreign invasion.
Social Turmoil & Revolution
As the Mayans reached the peak so did their ability to build and construct. With the most brilliant architects they were off to build structures that were unique and a gift for their gods. What they didn't realise was that the resources and the labour was the same. More labourers meant more uproar against the authority due to the dreadful conditions they lived in. This resulted in violent strikes that cost many lives. A revolution began between the peasant classes against the much richer and well off classes in the society. The increased burden of work may have caused people to abandon their values and revolt against the elite of society. This might help make clear the sudden collapse of elite functions, as well as unfinished buildings and ceremonial centres. It also explains the proof of the burning of temples and destroying of thrones. It is thought that once the elite lost these places, they no longer had the power to bend people with religion through revelations and sacrifices. Peasant revolts throughout the empire would have happened gradually and at different times, which explain for some the continuing decay of Maya culture and power.
Collapse of Trade Routes
The Maya had a very complex trade system and many historians agree to the fact the collapse of trade routes was a major factor that cause the decline. In the 7th century once of the major Mayan trading cities called Teotihuacan collapsed, the fall of this city is believed to have contributed to the sudden change in Maya economic and trade functions in the highlands, which may have resulted in a ripple effect of decline across the entire Maya world. All cities heavily depended and relied on trade as they needed to split resources evenly amongst them. Much of the Classic Maya trade was in obsidian, feathers, cacao, and other luxury items. The Maya had intricate trade techniques and routes but did not use wheel or beast to carry the burdens around, this would be rather difficult as heavy loads would be extremely hard to transport from city to city. The Maya didn’t ever find out about the wheel till when the Spanish invaded and religiously it was wrong to use beasts to carry your burden over long distances. This was the minus in their “trade system” as without wheel or beast trading would not be an easy job to do.
Internal Warfare
At the height of their power the Maya thought that nothing could stop them now as foreign invasion didn’t affect them but there was something even far worse than being invaded, internal warfare. Excessive proof suggests that great internal war took place between the kingdoms of Mutal and Kaan. The Maya only fought during the dry season which tells us the internal wars that they suffered were due to the battle of resources, mainly water. The Greeks and Romans also went through numerous internal wars but none ever resulted in abandonment of cities. Many archaeologists support this theory to be possibly the main factor to their collapse but it does not explain the desertion of cities like Copan. Maybe kingdoms could have allied with others and possibly have begun a civil war but there is no suggested evidence of a war of that sort in the Mayan kingdoms yet.
Belief Systems
The Mayans believed that their ruler had a divine status and his power to influence the gods by bloodletting rituals made him a critical component to keep order in society. In some way or the other these rulers brought affluence and contentment to the society so the belief system sustained and the civilization grew. Mayan leaders didn’t have any good decision making skills, if for example a drought struck they would order to sacrifice more trees and crops to the gods thus increasing damage to the land instead of actually solving the problem, they believed that if the gods were pleased peace and prosperity would come over this land but they were certainly wrong. Archaeologists believe that the power that these rulers held over the people slowly deteriorate maybe due to bad decision making but the supported theory is natural disasters. As the people thought the rulers had godlike powers they also thought that these disasters would not happen. These problems instigated and fuelled internal warfare. Rulers thought that the gods were angry so increased bloodletting ceremonies. Some rulers were also sacrificed to the gods, in this process a lot of resources like wood and stone were used and wasted. Many of the royals were captured and bled to death for about 10 years. There was a rule that only if the previous ruler has died a new ruler can take over the throne. With these 10 year bleeding ceremonies the ruler could not be taken over by an heir until the previous ruler died, which would sometime be as long as 15-20 years. In those years the people would be without a ruler. Many heirs fled in fear of being captured by warriors from other kingdoms for sacrifice. The belief system couldn't hold up under a drastic change in circumstances. It was like adding oil to fire. If there was a problem they wouldn’t stop it from occurring but instead worsen it and escalate the problem.
Environmental Collapse
This type of collapse focuses on the environmental factors that contributed to the decline of this civilization like disease which was deadly as the Mayans had no immunity to it, drought which ruined crops and landed a big blow to the Mayan economy, systemic ecological collapse and catastrophic events.
Disease
In the history of mankind no disease has wiped out 100% of the human population in that area. It has only lessened the numbers drastically. This theory is probably one of the least popular theories as there is not enough proof that the Maya were killed by disease. However there is a convincing theory that supports this. There is a lot of evidence that the Mayans suffered a lot of droughts which lead to lack of water, which led to famine, which lead to disease.
Drought
The Maya faced drought for over 200 years, many argue that this could not have been how there reign ended as they were experienced in droughts and foresaw them coming. Many factors influenced drought and here they are:
-Thin tropical soils, which decline in fertility and become unworkable when deprived of forest cover;
-Regular seasonal drought, drying up surface water;
-The absence of ground water;
-The rarity of lakes, especially in the Yucatán Peninsula;
-The absence of river systems, such as in the Petén Basin;
-Tropical vegetation which requires regular monsoon rain; and
-Heavy dependence upon water-based intensive agricultural techniques, particularly in the Classic period. (Referred from Wikipedia)
This drought was one of the most devastating and one of the longest droughts ever to hit earth. All the other non-environmental factors that resulted in the decline were influenced by drought like extreme warfare, foreign invasion, peasant revolt, less trade, etc. The battle that the Maya fought was not for land but a battle for resources like water and crops. Extreme drought in some regions resulted in abandonment of cities which resulted in overpopulation of some major cities.
Systemic Ecological Collapse
The Mayans built majestic pyramids to honour the gods and the rulers. But these structures came at a heavy cost, a cost of depletion of resources like timber, wood and water. They deforested a lot of lush forests which caused erosion and that led to the failure of crops and new life growing in those areas. The Mayan pattern of farming was to cut the forest, burn the trees and undergrowth, then plant crops. After a time the soil becomes worn out and produces less and less. But even with a regular rest period the soil cannot overcome the damage, and the crops fail. Cutting the forests also causes soil erosion and limits the wood supply. The Mayans exploited the forests that surrounded them which at the end lead to less resources and a bigger population which left many, who couldn’t afford food, water and shelter to, to die with disease. The Mayans triggered their collapse to by adding fuel to fire as their land was not a lush tropical rainforest but actually a seasonal desert. Instead on wisely using resources and not exploiting them they chose the opposite option which played a huge part in their collapse.
Catastrophic Event
These events are natural disasters like earthquakes, cyclones, tornadoes and volcanic eruptions. Many believe that these events might have occurred during the reign of the Maya as the Mesoamerican area is no stranger to these kinds of disasters. There is no geological proof of such an event occurring but that still does not rule it out from the list.
Jared Diamond’s Framework
- Environmental damage The Mayans damaged a lot of their environment by their weird farming methods, rituals and prayers, and building huge structures which all lead to depletion of resources.
- Climate change Deforesting land and damaging the environment lead to climate change and more frequent droughts.
- Hostile neighbors The Mayans didn’t have any hostile neighbours but had huge amounts of internal warfare between kingdoms
- Friendly trade partners They didn’t have any major trade partners from other societies because of their isolation, instead they traded between kingdoms.
- The society’s responses to its problems The Mayans had bad responses to problems, the rulers generally made the wrong decision that ended in turmoil.
Joseph Tainter’s Framework
Runaway Train
· Portrays a catastrophic course from which society cannot depart and concentration of wealth and power are our society’s “linked runaway trains.” For example the Mayans had a lot of resources, they used those resources to feed the population soon the population started sky-rocketing but the amount of the resources and the time it takes to produce is the same so that means. If the population increases the rate of production of resources still stays the same.
The Dinosaur
· Describes a government or rulers that cannot evolve to meet changing needs and conditions; in our world. For the Maya it was because the rulers had a very strong belief system about gods that they never thought that maybe bad weather is not a punishment from the gods for fewer sacrifices.
The House of Cards
· denotes the society’s weak infrastructure, contributing to its rapid and complete demise like climate change. In the Maya’s case frequent droughts occurred that lead to a lot of crop failures.
Comparison of Frameworks
I personally think that both frameworks are amazing and right on the point. If I would choose the best framework out of the two it will have to be Joseph Tainter’s 3 point framework. I personally think that his framework is to the point and very straightforward. His framework explores the 3 major problems to how a society collapses: Social which covers ‘belief’ etc., Political which talks about how if the authority make wrong decisions it can lead to devastation and finally Environmental which focuses on what we as people do to influence climate and therefore lead ourselves to death.
Comparison to Past Society: The Maya & Easter Island
If you read maps you might have already noticed that both these civilizations are no where close to each other, both are on different sides of the world. The distance doesn’t matter as both societies had a lot they shared in common like similar trading routes, belief systems, population, decision making and environment damage. One of the most common and major factor between both civilizations was an enormous population occupying a small place. This resulted in more depletion of natural resources as there were more mouths to feed. Isolation of both societies is also common. Many civilizations like the Romans and Greeks conquered land and invaded territories but these 2 societies weren’t invaders as they were isolated from the rest of the world. Trading was also very similar and unstable; both societies had a weakness in trading as they did not use wheel or beast to travel. Both societies contributed a lot to environment damage. Easter Islanders depleted most of their resources by constructing large heads to honour their gods and ancestors while the Maya used big amounts of timber and other resources for prayer rituals and the pyramids. Belief Systems were similar too as both societies thought that the more resources they use to pray to the gods the more prosperity it will bring to them. Decision making was also a similar factor as both had bad decision making skills and didn’t realise the mistakes they were making and if the others didn’t agree they would bring in gods to enforce what they have said. The major difference between both the societies will have to be the way of the decline, Easter Island declined due to mainly environmental causes like resource depletion while The Maya declined due to a combination of social and environmental factors.
Comparison to Present Society: The Maya & the Present World
We can learn a lot from the past societies that have collapsed so that we don’t make the same mistake again. We can learn to conserve natural resources as they are extremely precious to us, not to let internal warfare occur; the meaning of internal warfare is just warfare between humans all around the world as we are one big civilization, that’s what I think it means, to fight climate change using natural energy and recycling waste products as it is a potential threat towards the future. Something out of our control is probably population as we cannot control breeding habits of humans. Previous societies that have collapsed have wasted a lot of resources and we should not make the same mistake in the future too. We must also make the right decisions in the future so it may no effect future societies negatively. To achieve this we must elect smart and genuine people as our leaders who can plan ideas to overcome problems. We, humans must be careful as our every single move writes the destiny of our future.
Conclusion
The Maya were a great civilization with a strong economy and spectacular technology. They accomplished so much in their time of power, lived in a seasonal desert which was a challenge on its own and still managed to reach up to incredible populations like 200,000 in a city alone. They were at the height of power and suddenly from there things came spiralling down. They started to slowly die out due to social, political and environmental factors. Much of their own weakness was their own greatness. Perhaps that will be how we end too if we do not do something about the crisis we have on our hands.
Thousand years from now, will people dig up Sydney and wonder what caused our civilization to collapse……………?
THE END
Bibliography
Books
Collapse by Jared Diamond
Published by Penguin Group, 2005
The Ancient World- From the Ice Age to the fall of Rome
Published by Kingfisher, 2006
Oxford’s Children Encyclopaedia
Published by Oxford’s University Press
Internet
www.en.wikipedia.org
http://www.authenticmaya.com/maya_warfare.htm
www.google.com
www.encarta.com‘
