Why Do Ancient Societies Collapse

In his novel Collapse, Jarod Diamond explains the events leading up to the collapse of certain ancient societies. The four chapters I was required to read were very interesting as to what happened in these ancient societies and why they collapsed. The way of which Diamond explained each theory helped me to better understand why and how societies fall or succeed. The facts and way Diamond explained each collapse or succession. It was very eye-opening in the way of which he related many of the ancient societies mistakes to those we are still making today. Diamond’s different way of thinking makes me wonder about how long it will be before America, herself, collapses. Jarod Diamond’s thesis in his novel, Collapse, is that societies do not collapse

Many consider the ancient Maya territory a tropical rainforest, when indeed it isn’t. The Mayan territory has a wet season from April to October, which makes it eligible for the term “seasonal tropical rainforest.” However it also has a dry season which makes it eligible for the term “seasonal dessert.” When the dry season came around, it affected the wet south more so than it did the dry north; a possible explanation for this being that there was a source of freshwater underneath the Yucatan Peninsula. Diamond believes that the Maya Empire collapsed for many different reasons, the two most effective factors being warfare and drought. Jarod Diamond further explains how warfare affected the collapse of the Mayans in this excerpt, “We now know that Maya warfare was intense, chronic, and unresolvable, because limitations of food supply and transportation made it impossible for any Maya principality to unite the whole region in an empire, … The archaeological record shows that wars became more intense and frequent towards the time of the Classic collapse,” (pg.172). This is important in that it suggests an explanation for the immediate collapse of an empire with tons of people in it, people of whom just disappeared. This is a part of Diamond’s Five-Point Framework in the “hostile neighbors” category, for they were always at war with someone over food, trade,

The Rwandan Genocide first began in 1962, when both Rwanda and Burundi gained their independence. The clash between the Hutus and Tutsis grew more intense and became a series of killings between the two peoples. In Rwanda, the Hutus gained control under Hutu general, Habyarimana, who led Rwanda during a prosperous 15 years. According to Jarod Diamond, Habyarimana killed many Hutus and Tutsis all over Rwanda, in order to strengthen his reigns on Rwanda, after the attempted Tutsi invasion by Uganda in Rwanda. A peace agreement signed at Arusha in 1993 called for power-sharing and a multi-powered government; in that same year, Hutus fear was increased after extremist Tutsis killed Hutu president. In 1994, the Rwandan president, Habyarimana and Burundi’s president were flying back from a meeting in Tanzania when a missile shot the jet down killing everyone on board. After the president was taken out, the Hutus overthrew the government and sought out a plan to exterminate the Tutsis in Rwanda. Diamond states, “Within six weeks, an estimated 800,00 Tutsi, representing about three-quarters of the Tutsi then remaining in Rwanda, or 11% of