How Did The Mayan Empire Collapse

Roman empire fell under the influence of plague, barbarians, and natural disasters. The last roman emperor was overthrown by barbarians. No soldiers were left to defend because they would’ve been killed by plague or to lazy to fight back. Natural disasters destroyed the farmland causing the romans to starve or even die. These are the causes of the fall of rome.

The Roman Empire took over after the Greeks fell and it thrived over the years. But when the Pax Romana came along, the empire was developing a “soft belly” which was becuase of the upper class becoming lazy and losing their edge. At this point is where they fall. The reasons for the great empire fell because of their government, military, and the natural disaster problems.

One of the reasons that the Roman empire fell because the population is decreasing. The Roman empire fell by the population decreasing because according to document number 1 states that plague is one of the reasons that there was a rapid decreasing rate. Another reason is their interest of producing kids wasn’t very good because people were living their luxurious lifestyle so people did not want to have kids. The final reason why the population decreased involved the Roman empire to fall was because the Roman empire kept having constant wars and warfare's that a ton of people that were in the military died which means less people, population decreasing rapidly.

Even the most powerful fall, and there are many outside factors that contribute to the fall. The Roman Empire lasted from 50 BCE, through 200 CE. Throughout Rome’s course, it led the Ancient Mediterranean World as one of the most powerful empires. Though it was a very strong and wealthy empire, it slowly began to lose control. The downfall of one of the world’s most powerful empires, Rome, came into full effect due to disorderly social influence, political downfall, and negative geographic influence. This fall not only destroyed the people of Rome, but Rome’s culture, borders, and structure, power, and all that Rome was known for.

From 250 A.D. to the late 1500’s A.D., three civilizations, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and the Incas controlled Central and South America. Their decline happened for many different reasons. The Spanish conquistadors was one of the most common and deadliest, due to their advanced weapons and diseases they brought. It seems that wherever the Spanish went, bad things always happened. Innocent people were killed for no reason, cities were massacred and civilizations were destroyed.

The Mayans were a unique civilization with the most sophistication in mesoamerica (1800 BC-250 AD). In this civilization, the major cities include Tikal and Chichen Itza, however independent city-states are run by, kings. Mayans had a polytheistic religion where they believed in afterlife. In addition, Mayans built temples, pyramids for sacrifices, and bloodletting. Yet, they were excellent astronomers. Here priests charted movements of planets, moon, and sun. Also, these distinctive people created calendars, developed a number system, and glyphic writing. Withal their economy was based on agriculture and trade. Nevertheless, what caused this great civilization to collapse? While analyzing the theories, I believe this civilization collapsed, due to: warfare, disease, famine, and disaster/ environmental change.

The grand Roman Empire collapsed In AD 476, Odoacer, leader of the barbarian mercenaries in the Roman army, overthrew Emperor Romulus Augustulus. This was inevitable. For decades, barbarians had been abandoning the Roman army and turning on their empire. Instead of focusing on enemy countries, they had to spend countless resources suppressing their own citizens. This, coupled with the plague that wreaked havoc on Europe ended the Western part of the republic in 476 although the eastern part went on until 1453 when when Mehmed II captured Constantinople, that the Byzantine Empire, as it became known, ceased to exist. In 1532, the Inca Empire fell to a Spanish force of only 168 men and 62 horses. Francisco Pizarro and his conquistadors crushed one of the world’s mightiest empires without a single Spanish casualty. Pizarro had cannons, gunpowder and armor, but the Incas vastly outnumbered his small army. Pizarro’s good fortune was to arrive in the Andes at the exact moment when the Incas were wracked by a great sickness and divided leadership. With the power of guns, germs and steel, Pizarro conquered the Inca, enslaved the majority of them, shipped their precious metals back to Europe and brought about the end to one of the world's largest

Although it was believed that the Roman Empire would never come to an end, inevitably it fell. The Roman Empire is an extremely historic empire that left a massive legacy behind. It collapsed during the fifth century. The empire was having serious military struggles. They received threats from other European tribes along with diminished military funding. A military who does not have proper funding will slowly fall apart. Other than the military, the Roman Empire had a few key social and cultural problems that helped with the fall of the empire in the west. The fall of the Roman Empire in the west occurred due to a rise in Christianity, contrast between rich and poor, and a decline in population.

The mystery concerning the fundamental explanation for the collapse of the Mayan Civilization has been a major focus for researchers in the fields of anthropology and archeology for a considerable period of time. At the very core of this mystery of the Mayan collapse was the question of how could such a strong, stable civilization that had flourished for approximately twenty-seven hundred years disappear without a clear, rational explanation. As a result, researchers have put forth a large number of theories for the explanation of the collapse and subsequent decimation of the Mayan empire.

The early Mayan civilization had lowly beginnings. They rose to remarkable heights in a seemingly inhospitable land. As Maya scholar Arthur Demarest said “Such a civilization, had no business there.” The Mayans had to battle with torrential rain in the rainy season, and when the weather turned hot, it scorched the land and their water supplies would plummet. They were always faced with floods or drought. They were probably forced here due to overcrowding from other tribes. But nonetheless they began to conquer these threats as they learned advanced farming techniques to make the shallow earth fertile. They burned and cleared jungle to make room for their agriculture, particularly maize. They then began the process of crop rotation, long before anyone else. As the Mayan civilization began its steady uprising they began to redouble their efforts, they started composting, cultivating, they built irrigation systems and began to terrace the landscape to make farming more efficient and prevent erosion. They dammed rivers and flooded swamplands and marshes to create rich farmland. They instituted transport systems to move fertile silt and mud from lowlands to higher enclosed gardens and farms and created man made lakes and ponds that they used to fish and systems of corrals held wild game. They maximized their talents and squeezed out enough nourishment to support their population which had risen to several million people.

There was no single event that caused the downfall of the empires of the ancient world. The Han Dynasty, the Gupta Empire, and the Roman Empire would each collapse because of various reasons. In the case of the Han Dynasty around 220 C.E. the young emperor, Emperor Xian of Han, that came to rule the empire lost control. Three different families took control from them, creating the period known as the Three Kingdoms. Nomadic tribes from central Asia attacked the northern borders of the empire at this same time. And the final straw was the onset of an epidemic of Smallpox that struck the population of the empire. About two hundred years later the Roman Empire will start to decline. Over a thousand years the empire had grown too large to govern

A number of complex and enduring empires have dominated large parts of Afro Eurasia, and Meso-America. Among these were the Han Empire in China, the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin, and the Maya in Meso-America. These empires had wealth, power, and they are a vast size, but they all suffered their unfortunate collapse. There are multiple factors that contribute to the collapse of these empires such as warfare, taxes, the environment, problems with the government, religion, and shortage of resources like food and water. The reasons for the collapse of the Han and the Mayan empires are very similar. However, there are also some striking differences of the reasons why these empires collapsed.

The Western Roman Empire was marked by its vast territorial supremacy, as it conquering its neighbors to absorb their energy surpluses whether in agricultural outputs, mineral resources, or human capital. With the rapid growth of the Empire, the cost of maintaining order, production, and other logistical elements grew as well. This cost grew to the point there simply weren’t enough resources to defend against invasion especially when disgruntled peasants welcomed the removal of Roman control. The Maya empire failed due to the burdens of competitive warfare between the various city-states of the region. This was unsustainable especially given the population was already weakened by crop failure and drought. The Chaco Empire failed due to the communities coming to the conclusion that the costs paid to the central faction to be redistributed outweighed the benefits gained so they departed one after another. (Chippindale 1)

Consequently, the empire had been a formerly leading influence in the Mediterranean province, then gradually began declining due to certain political vulnerability, military mistakes, and foreign invasions. The unstable government had taken part in the blame for the fall of the Roman Empire, as well as the constant change in leaders sent a lack of trust and instability to the Roman people, due to political vulnerability. Additionally, carelessness and apathy led to the decline in quality and manpower in the military, including mistakes that contributed to the deterioration in the empire. Foreign invasions had multiplied the quantities of deaths already occurring, as well as weakening the already inadequate empire. As the Roman Empire began

Many decades ago, northern Central America and southern Mexico cultures developed complex political and social ranks. Researchers today know this region as Mesoamerica, known for its rich soil, abundant amount of rainfall, and agriculture. (Judge & Langdon, 2012) The Mesoamericans, Aztec and Mayan tribes, developed into complex civilizations for multiple reasons. These societies were advanced and complex for their time in areas, such as architecture, agriculture, militarism, and education. Each had unique religion and political systems as well. The rise and fall of both were due to several factors.