The formation and disappearance of the Maya civilization
The Maya civilization was formed around 2500 BC and ended in the 16th century AD, distributed in Central and South America, namely present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and other countries. Because of its extremely mature use of jade, historians classify it as Neolithic.
The history of the Maya civilization is divided into three stages, namely the pre-classical, classical and post-classical periods, which correspond to the beginning, prosperity and decline of the Maya civilization. For thousands of years, Maya civilization has been scattered in the depths of the jungle in each relatively independent city-state, and the common religious beliefs, economic models, language expressions, and symbolic writing between the city-states constitute the flesh and blood of the Maya civilization. Among these city-states, Tikal, Kopan, Palenque and the famous Chichen Itza, are representatives of the Maya civilization, symbolizing the rise and heyday of the Maya civilization.
The Maya civilization produced brilliant cultural and scientific achievements, most notably astronomical calendars, religion, architecture, and writing. Maya astronomy accurately calculated the length of the solar year to be 365.2420 days, only 0.0002 days away from modern scientific calculations; the Maya also accurately calculated the time it took for the moon to orbit the earth and the conjunction period of Venus. The Maya building techniques can be seen in the pyramids that remain today, proving that the Maya civilization once had large cities that flourished.
Religion occupied a vital position in the Maya civilization, and the development of astronomy and architecture was originally to serve the religious beliefs of the Maya. The Maya worshiped a wide variety of gods, including the god of creation, the god of rain, the god of corn, the god of black war, the god of human sacrifice, the god of wind, the god of the sun, the god of the moon, the god of the North Star, the goddess of suicide, and the god of the Quetzalcoatl serpent. In the Mayan religious civilization, the phenomenon of human sacrifice was also widespread. In addition, the Mayan script also proves that its civilization is highly prosperous, and its unique hieroglyphic writing system has become an important tool for carrying Maya civilization.
However, unlike other civilizations, although the scientific and technological and cultural development of the Maya civilization "went off the edge", that is, while it was at the extreme of the ancient world in terms of religion and astronomy, its development of agriculture, metallurgy, politics, etc. was extremely backward.
In agriculture, the Maya maintained agricultural production with "slash and burn", and the extremely inefficient production method made the city-states in the Maya civilization unable to accommodate too many urban populations, restricting the expansion of civilization, and also destroying the ecological environment, and a large amount of land lost fertility and was forced to abandon it; In terms of metal smelting, the Maya did not have metal tools, and bronze and iron tools that occupied an important position in the development of civilizations in other regions did not appear in the Maya civilization, which is the main basis for historians to classify the Maya civilization as a Neolithic civilization, and it is also an important reason for the low agricultural and industrial efficiency of the Maya civilization;
In terms of politics, the position of religion in the political life of the Maya city-states made the spread and development of Maya culture mainly dependent on the aristocratic and priestly class, the spread of art and writing was limited to high society, and the development of architecture served the gods rather than the life of citizens. All this restricted the class mobility, urban development, and political structure of Maya society, and was also an important internal factor that stifled the scientific spirit of Maya civilization.
The decline of the Maya civilization began in the 10th century AD. From the perspective of Maya society, extensive agricultural production destroyed the ecological structure of the rainforest, resulting in reduced precipitation and dry land, which eventually led to the depletion of subsistence resources such as food and water, the foundation of social stability was shaken, the population was lost, the city was abandoned, and the culture collapsed. From the outside, the advent of the Age of Discovery in Europe accelerated the process of its decline and eventually buried the Mayan civilization.
In the early 16th century, the Spaniards began to conquer and colonize the Maya city-states, and the diseases carried by the Spaniards such as smallpox, cholera, and syphilis caused a large number of Maya people who were unable to resist foreign diseases. Although the Maya continued to resist the Spanish invasions, but failed, the Maya civilization eventually disappeared into the hidden jungles of Central and South America. It was not until the 18th century that it was rediscovered. #历史开讲 #
