Not any civilization’s downfall has ever been a mystery in the history of the world, but Maya civilization’s. The ancient Maya civilization situated in the tropical lowlands of Yucatan Peninsula. The peninsula itself is on the southwest part of the Gulf of Mexico which was at that time regarded as a part of Mesoamerica. Evolution of the Mayans passed several periods: it started in the Middle Pre-Classic period, continued in Lithic, Archaic, they disappeared in Classic, Terminal Classic, reappeared in Post-Classic period (Mayan Civilization), and the last one was the Post-Conquest period. The civilization reached the peak of its power and influence around the 6th century A.D.
Incredibly, the Mayans were able to build a society in a tropical
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By A.D. 900 already a society of some 15 million people of the Maya's great cities and great pyramids were abandoned in ruin, that's the timeline where the downfall of such a great civilization started (History.com). Then what caused the decline of the great Mayan civilization?
Mysterious disappearance of the Mayans has several answers to relate with the decline of the civilization which can be considered as overpopulation, warfare, famine and climate change. These intertwined factors will be discussed and analyzed in the latter parts of this essay.
As mentioned before the classic period was quite unfortunate times for the Mayans, hundreds of thousands of people were living in the cities. While the number of people were increasing in the cities, living conditions and especially, the space for each people were decreasing. Obviously, not only living patterns affected, but also the economy and culture. More people means more demand for the food, thus, the need for agricultural growth also increased. Nonetheless, such demands could not have fulfilled at that time because overpopulation happened not only in a city, but a whole Yucatan peninsula. For that time fulfilling such a task was futile and preposterous. Not enough space to inhabit and grow crops, not enough food supply to feed the people. I would say overpopulation was just a beginning that led to further disasters to make this civilization to