| The causes of the decline of Maya classic civilization | | | | have been the case, because such rivers as the |
| is remain a mystery. Various theories about the Maya | | | | Usumacinta and the Belize did not dry up and Maya |
| decline have been suggested. Epidemic diseases, such | | | | centers along the banks were deserted as well as |
| as yellow fever and malaria are probably | | | | the more centrally located Peten sites. |
| post-Colombian imports to America. There is also no | | | | Social and political factors offer a most reasonable |
| convincing evidence that the decline of Maya | | | | explanation of the Maya collapse: |
| civilization was caused by natural disaster such as | | | | - From a count of ceremonial centers and house |
| earthquakes or devastating droughts. | | | | mound studies, known that the Maya population |
| Gradually worsening crop failures and food shortages | | | | increased during the classic period. A large and |
| seem more possible to explain the cause of Maya | | | | growing population was bound to have placed a |
| decline. The ancient Maya keep on cutting and burning | | | | burden on the productive capacities of both man and |
| of forest cover as their method of land clearing | | | | land. |
| (slash and burn farming). This method of land clearing | | | | - While the population was growing, wars and tribal |
| produced man-made savannas covered with tough | | | | dislocations were brewing all over Mesoamerica. The |
| grass that could not be tilled by their digging stick | | | | wars and tribal dislocations had started with the fall |
| methods. | | | | of Teotihuacan at the end of the sixth century. The |
| But the slash and burn farming method have been | | | | adoption of Mexican militaristic and beliefs, and the |
| used in Central America for several centuries and | | | | infiltration of such things as the alien cult of human |
| have not produced savanna lands. The latter, as they | | | | sacrifice into Maya religion, produce internal conflict |
| interspersed through the forests of the Peten, | | | | between Maya priest leaders and the farmers. |
| appear to be Natural rather than man-made. | | | | All these factors are enough to have brought about |
| Another theory says that Classic Period population | | | | a crisis. If peasant trust in the old aristocratic |
| pressure made intensive farming, which denuded the | | | | leadership was lost, it is not surprising that the old life |
| land of its finest top soils, but intensive cultivation in | | | | in the centers religion, ceremony, arts and intellectual |
| Peten or Yucatan is impossible today without | | | | life disappeared for lack of support. |
| fertilizers and probably was impossible in the past. | | | | During this disintegration, peasant populations could |
| Third theory assumes that the tropical soils of Maya | | | | have continued to life for a time in the localities of |
| lowland were inadequate to support the populations | | | | the abandoned centers. But the complex structure of |
| that Maya civilization developed elsewhere and was | | | | Maya society was broken up. And the old patterns of |
| brought to the lowlands. | | | | Maya theocratic civilization were significantly modified |
| Fourth theory sees the river and lakes of the Peten | | | | or destroyed. |
| gradually drying up and a general water shortage | | | | Whatever the causes, the Maya decline remains a |
| causing the abandonment. But this theory could hardly | | | | mystery. |