The Mayans created an amazingly high level of civilization, but there is still no definite conclusion as to why the Mayan civilization of the Classic period suddenly disappeared. Scientists and archaeologists have put forward many hypotheses on the mystery of the annihilation of the Mayan civilization, such as foreign invasions, population explosion, infectious diseases, climate change, and peasant revolts.
In terms of the Maya's geographic environment, the most convincing is due to the excessive development of civilization, resulting in excessive resource consumption and environmental damage, coupled with a variety of disasters encountered, living in the fragile rainforests and the use of primitive nomadic farming techniques of the Maya people can hardly afford the huge population, and even the occurrence of a war for resources, which led to the Maya people far away from their homeland.
In addition, the Maya's profound knowledge and culture were only in the hands of a very small number of aristocrats and priests, and the civilians and slaves, who made up the vast majority of the Maya population, were completely illiterate. The pampered aristocratic intelligentsia had difficulty surviving, and even disappeared soon after prosperity ran out.
The Maya civilization of the Postclassic period, which was slightly different in the Chichen Itza period (and legend has it that it was affected by the Toltec invasions), was more dynamic, and its successors were not able to maintain Chichen Itza's dynamism, as evidenced by the fact that buildings were no longer being built and urban life was disappearing. By the time the Aztec Empire emerged in the 14th century, the Maya were already in decline.
Causes of Decline
How did the Maya decline so quickly after such a period of prosperity? The reasons for this are varied, and although the Maya declined abruptly in a very short period of time, the reasons for their formation have been longstanding. Factors that caused the decline of the Maya are the following:
1, population explosion
The Maya lived in a small area, creating a residential city is even smaller. In such a small area, the population reproduced uncontrollably and had reached millions of people during the boom period. Such a large group was a major social burden at the time.
When the capacity to bear it collapsed, its leaders were bound to make certain decisions that led to massive, lightning-fast emigration, and the thriving Mayan stone-built cities became isolated almost overnight.
2, insufficient food
The Mayans then chose to live in the region, ignoring the production conditions of agriculture. Located in the land is not fertile, not suitable for planting cereals, rice, can only plant sweet potatoes and other side food to feed the hungry, or to papaya, bananas, oranges and other fruits for food. And the harvest was far from enough to meet the needs of the growing population.
The long-term failure to solve the dietary problems of tens of thousands of people is bound to create a crisis for society. In the face of years and years of food shortages, it is inevitable to cause social instability. In order to fundamentally solve this problem, may policymakers to make a new choice - to the new world to open up new horizons. This led to the great migration of the Maya, which caused the decline of the areas inhabited by the Maya due to the disappearance of the people.
3. Natural Disasters
Central America is a place where strong earthquakes used to occur, and the region has a history of earthquakes with strong magnitudes. And parts of Central America suffer greatly from hurricanes. Areas historically inhabited by the Maya were inevitably hit by earthquakes and winds.
Frequent natural disasters, for the Maya, not only formed a threat, so that the thriving Maya people have undergone a severe test. Its chiefs naturally pondered ways out of their predicament. "Poverty is change", in the case of not being able to get out of the current predicament, it is natural to consider the road of retreat, after a sophisticated arrangement, there was a scene of the Mayan exodus.
4, foreign intrusion
According to the investigation of the Mayan people are very benevolent, for the human struggle is not in favor of, that people kill is incomprehensible. Even the slaughter of animals are prohibited, so in the interaction with neighboring humans, always in a weak position.
If there is an invasion by a foreign enemy, the Maya will inevitably end up in defeat, and this kind of outside intrusion is always inevitable. When this kind of intrusion occurs, the Maya people are unable to resist and cannot avoid the situation, which will inevitably lead to collective migration.
5, the spread of disease
According to evidence that the Maya flourished when living in the area is more civilized and health, and medical conditions higher than the surrounding human. However, through the neighboring human infestation and exchanges, the existence of a variety of infectious diseases, spread to the Mayan settlement, which led to the epidemic of infectious diseases.
This not only jeopardized the health of the adults, but also affected the growth of future generations. Under the circumstances, its chiefs resolutely decided to leave the place where they were living at the time in order to avoid the spread of the disease and migrate to a new world to start a new life.
EXTENDED INFORMATIONThe Maya civilization, is a modern jungle civilization spread across the countries of present-day southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize. Although in the Neolithic period, it was highly accomplished in astronomy, mathematics, agriculture, art and writing.
The Mayan civilization is one of the three major civilizations of the Americas, along with the Inca Empire and the Aztec Empire (the Aztec and Mayan civilizations were located in Central America; the Inca Empire was located in the Andes Mountains of South America).
Based on Mesoamerican chronology, Mayan history is divided into the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods.
The Preclassic Period (1500 B.C.-300 A.D.) is also known as the Formative Period, when calendars and writing were invented, monuments were erected, and buildings were built.
The Classical Period is the period of its fullness (c. 4th-9th centuries), when the use of writing, the erection of monuments, the construction of buildings, and artistic endeavors were at their height.
The Post-Classical Period (9th century - 16th century) saw the rise of city-states such as Chichen-Itza and Uzmaal in the north, and the decline of the culture.
The Maya never had a united empire like the Chinese and Egyptian civilizations, but in its heyday the Maya region was divided into hundreds of city-states, all of which belonged to the same cultural circle in terms of their language, writing, religion and customs, and in the 16th century the Aztec empire, the bearer of the Maya culture, was wiped out by the Spanish empire.
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