The Decline of the Mayan Civilization
Thought to be the founders of the Mesoamerican empire, the Mayan culture began around 1800 B.C. Around 200 A.D, the mayans experienced a time of great advancements and thrived until about 900 A.D. The Mayans were able to create large cities without “essential” tools such as metal or the wheel. They were also about to create a 356 day calendar, which we still base our calendars off of today. To creating their own writing system using a form of hieroglyphics, to having a higher understanding of astronomy, it's easy to see that they were advanced for their time. Soon after their era of great advancements, their once astonishing way of life started to decline. Not disappearing entirely, but going back …show more content…
Spanish explorers came to the maya later in their existence, around the time their decline began. Along with them they brought many unknown diseases to which the Maya had no defence against. Smallpox is thought to be a major one, since this disease was new to the maya, they did not have proper immune systems to fight off the disease. With no way of vaccinating those who weren't yet infected, the disease could have spread like wildfire.
Also, because of their cities mostly being located in forests, it is likely that the mayans were susceptible to getting parasites common in those locations. Parasites could have caused many problems with the mayans. It could have caused younger children in their cities to have diarrhea, causing children to become malnourished, and not survive easily. Older members of this civilization were also very susceptible to this because of their age, and weaker immune systems. …show more content…
It is more likely, given that a drought could have easily happened. With little food everyone within the cities would slowly begin to starve. People would become malnourished, and their immune systems would be weakened. Yes, it can be believed that disease could have been the cause of the decline. However, disease would only affect them in that level of severity but their immune systems would need to be weakened for it to have that large of an effect. If disease was the problem, it would have happened way before the
Thought to be the founders of the Mesoamerican empire, the Mayan culture began around 1800 B.C. Around 200 A.D, the mayans experienced a time of great advancements and thrived until about 900 A.D. The Mayans were able to create large cities without “essential” tools such as metal or the wheel. They were also about to create a 356 day calendar, which we still base our calendars off of today. To creating their own writing system using a form of hieroglyphics, to having a higher understanding of astronomy, it's easy to see that they were advanced for their time. Soon after their era of great advancements, their once astonishing way of life started to decline. Not disappearing entirely, but going back …show more content…
Spanish explorers came to the maya later in their existence, around the time their decline began. Along with them they brought many unknown diseases to which the Maya had no defence against. Smallpox is thought to be a major one, since this disease was new to the maya, they did not have proper immune systems to fight off the disease. With no way of vaccinating those who weren't yet infected, the disease could have spread like wildfire.
Also, because of their cities mostly being located in forests, it is likely that the mayans were susceptible to getting parasites common in those locations. Parasites could have caused many problems with the mayans. It could have caused younger children in their cities to have diarrhea, causing children to become malnourished, and not survive easily. Older members of this civilization were also very susceptible to this because of their age, and weaker immune systems. …show more content…
It is more likely, given that a drought could have easily happened. With little food everyone within the cities would slowly begin to starve. People would become malnourished, and their immune systems would be weakened. Yes, it can be believed that disease could have been the cause of the decline. However, disease would only affect them in that level of severity but their immune systems would need to be weakened for it to have that large of an effect. If disease was the problem, it would have happened way before the