What caused the collapse of the Mayan civilization?

Before the European invasion

Contact with Europeans in the 16th century may have been the end of the Maya, but new research claims that the collapse of their civilization began much earlier. Studying the capital of their civilization, Mayapan, they found that their civilization began to collapse from the 13th century and the reason was drought.

The drought therefore led to civil war, which in turn brought political collapse, forcing people to flee to smaller and safer settlements.

Much evidence shows that the civil war became significantly generalized and coincided with a long dry period between 1400 and 1450. We think that the continuous drought escalated the relations of rival factions, but the political and economic structures endured until the Europeans arrived in the early 16th century and to deliver the coup de grace.

The researchers analyzed changes in population, dietary habits and climatic conditions. They then included analyzes of skeletons that had signs of violent injuries, attributed to conflicts.

As long as there was sufficient rainfall, the population increased, while during the dry season Mayapan was abandoned. The lack of water affected agricultural activity and trade. As food became more scarce, people died or left the area. In the last mass grave discovered before the city was abandoned, researchers found the skeletons of the Cocom family, the heads of state.

Our findings support the theory that the collapse of Mayapan between 1441 and 1461 resulted from civil strife caused by political rivalry and ambition, which has been embedded in the social memory of the inhabitants of the Yucatan Peninsula and recorded in writing in the first Colonial Period.

The research was published in Nature Communications .