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What happened to the Ancient Maya?

60 second histories

This video covers:  A look at some of the reasons why the Maya civilization may have disappeared

The ancient Maya civilization disappeared around nine hundred A.D. We don’t know why it collapsed and although there are many theories about it, an earthquake or a volcanic eruption has been ruled out. What’s more likely is that the countless civil wars they had weakened them and famine could also have played a part. The Maya didn’t just disappear their civilization was in decline for around two hundred years and some cities collapsed quicker than others. The cities weren’t destroyed either, they were just abandoned and left for the jungle to swallow them up. It could be that people got fed up of the high taxes they had to pay to their rulers, perhaps they became sick of life in the cities, just like people today who move from a bustling city out into the country for a quieter lifestyle. It has been shown that there was climate change at the time of the Maya decline, causing sea levels to rise which would have flooded coastal villages causing people to move inland to the cities putting even more strain on food supplies when there was less land available to grow crops. With so many different theories, what do you think happened?
Eras: 
Ancient Maya
Topics: 
Civilizations
Character: 
Indiana Joan
Key words: 
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