The collapse of Maya civilization: famine, warfare, and civil strife

Culture, Continuity and Change

The Mayan people

In 800 A.D there existed the Maya Empire that comprised of many powerful city-states that spread south to Mexico and North to Honduras. The Maya culture was at its peak with massive temples lined up However a hundred yeas later the cities were in remains, unrestricted and just left alone for the jungle to reign. It still remains a great mystery of how the Mayan civilization disappeared. This in fact remains as one of the greatest mysteries in history.one among the mighty civilizations in ancient America just fell within a short period of time. No one is certain about what happened to the Maya people. However there are many theories which include varied alternatives that try to give an explanation of this abrupt and mysterious disappearance. Some of these theories will be discussed below.

The famine theory

Preclassica Maya (1000B.C -300 AD) carried out basic subsistence agriculture; the slash and burn farming on the small plots for families. They mostly planted beans, corn and squash. On the coast and the lakes there was fish farming being carried out. However the Maya civilization advancement came together with a growth in the population which was so large that the local population was unable to feed. There were some improvements in the techniques which they used on farming such as terracing hills, draining wetlands for farming and improved trade helped the situation too some extent. However it appears that the large population of the cities was such a great strain to the production of food. There was a major occurrence of a mega drought within the Central America region ( Del Sol, 2010).

Civil strife theory

As the population in the cities grew there was a lot of strain on the working class for them to produce more food, clear forests, build temples, mine obsidian as well as do other labor intensive tasks.at the same time there was an increased scarcity of food. The idea that there existed a hungry overworked working class who would want to overthrow the ruling elite is therefore not far fetched especially if there was an endemic warfare existing between the city states is thought to be quite endemic by researchers.

These are just few of the theories that are used to explain the collapse of the Maya civilization. The theory I found to be most convincing was the famine theory. According to what I read the Maya population really depended on rain water for their agricultural practices. This is due to the fact that the areas where they were found there were no fresh water sources. Research shows that there was a drought that occurred for 200 years between 800 and 1000 ad. This is clearly the period when the disappearance of the Maya population took place.

Although there are many theories of the disappearance of the Maya population, there is no certainty that that any of these really happened and are what caused the disappearance. Evidence might point to the right direction but it might never tell the full story of what exactly happened to the Maya civilization.