Author’s note: No one can say for sure what the causes were or how the causes were connected. A newer view of the collapse says that each site has to be looked at on its own to see why it collapsed. Theories may be changed as new tests get better results, and archaeologists are able to ask better questions using these better results.
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| This is zoomorph P/the Great Turtle. It's at the site of Quirigua, and dates to around 795 AD, during the time called the collapse. |
For a chunk of time that lasted 200 plus years -- around the late 700s AD to around the early 900s AD -- the Maya area went through hardships and changes – a time that you may see called a collapse. Currently, it looks like more than one cause created this collapse. What were the causes? There are lots of theories and studies about what they might have been: drought, war, over-population, bad farming, changes in how trading happened, disease, and pollution. This post focuses on the first five, which you might commonly come across.
Drought
Evidence has been found that there may have been a bunch of really bad droughts that helped make the collapse happen. (Droughts were just part of ancient Maya life, but these possible droughts were a lot worse than usual.) The droughts may have been a very large cause of the collapse. When did they happen and how long were they?
As happens when dating ancient times, the dates of these droughts depend on the source. One book you can find dates for these droughts in is Why Did Ancient Civilizations Collapse?. This book says the droughts happened from 760 AD to 910 AD. It also says there were four droughts and that each of these droughts went on for three to nine years.
As for whether or not the droughts encouraged another possible cause -- war --, there is evidence that wars were going on before the droughts.
Over-Population
The population grew in the Maya area in the Classic Period. (More than one possible reason for the large population exists.) Because there were so many people, it may be that there wasn’t enough food to go around. And that might not have been the only kind of over population.
This other kind of over-population that may have happened involved immigration. Too many people may have moved to places that were doing better, which made it harder for everyone in those places to get what they needed.
Bad Farming
This is related to the cause of over-population. Farmers may have started farming in ways that were bad for the environment, because there were so many people to feed. For example, they may have cut down too many trees to make room for fields. They may have also farmed so that they caused soil erosion.
War
With this possible cause, elite families getting bigger and bigger meant that it was getting harder to have “enough” of things that elites thought they had to have. From this tension, they may have started wars with each other more often, in order to get “enough” of these things.
Speaking of fighting, there are other theories about war – that is, it wasn’t just elites going to war against other elites. There’s a theory that commoners actually rose up against the elites – and that there may have been “Mexican” invaders (invaders from north of the Maya area).
Change in Trade
Another thing that may have helped make the collapse happen is a change in trade. It may be that the ancient Maya traders began to use sea routes way more than land routes. (There are a number of theories about how the ancient Maya did their trading.)
References
(Takes you to the abstract, which also has a link to the full paper.)
PNAS: "Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America" Volume 109, Issue 45;Maya Collapse Cycles; Marilyn A. Masson; November 2012
Google Books: "Mesoamerica's Ancient Cities"; William M. Ferguson, Richard E.W. Adams; 2001
Google Books: "Mesoamerica's Ancient Cities"; William M. Ferguson, Richard E.W. Adams; 2001
