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COLLAPSE – CHAPTER 5 THE MAYA COLLAPSE

THE RUINS

 Ruins of advanced culture found in Central American jungle in the mid-1800s

 Written Records

 Hieroglyphs

 Still being decoded

 History was recorded

 Efficiency of Farming

 Sophisticated Techniques

 Sophisticated Calendar

 Military Success

 Warfare

 Food Supply

CLASSIC PERIOD

 250 - 900 AD

 Multiple small collapses

 “Power Cycling”

MAYA, AZTEC, AND INCA

THE MAYA TIMELINE

 Exactly how the Mayan Empire met its end is really not known. By the time the Spanish explorers came to the places where the Mayans thrived, many cities were already in their ruins, long abandoned with no trace of what happened. Climate change, drought, famine and overpopulation are some of the possible causes as hypothesized by the historians.Evolution of Maya culture

Olmec 1200-1000 B.C.

Early Preclassic Maya 1800-900 B.C.

Middle Preclassic Maya 900-300 B.C.

Late Preclassic Maya 300 B.C. - A.D. 250

Early Classic Maya A.D. 250-600

Late Classic Maya A.D. 600-900

Post Classic Maya A.D. 900-1500

Colonial period A.D. 1500-1800

Independent Mexico A.D. 1821 to the present

THE MAYA - B.C.E.

 11,000 - The first hunter-gatherers settle in the Maya highlands and lowlands.

 3114 or 3113 - The creation of the world takes place, according to the Maya Long Count calendar.

 2600 - Maya civilization begins.

 2000 - The rise of the Olmec civilization, from which many aspects of Maya culture are derived. Village farming becomes established throughout Maya regions.

 700 - Writing is developed in Mesoamerica.

 400 - The earliest known solar calendars carved in stone are in use among the Maya, although the solar calendar may have been known and used by the Maya before this date.

THE MAYA - B.C.E.

 300 - The Maya adopt the idea of a hierarchical society ruled by nobles and kings.

 100 - The city of Teotihuacan is founded and for centuries is the cultural, religious and trading centre of Mesoamerica.

 50 - The Maya city of Cerros is built, with a complex of temples and ball courts. It is abandoned (for reasons unknown) a hundred years later and its people return to fishing and farming.

THE MAYA – A.D./C.E.  100 - The decline of the Olmecs.

 400 - The Maya highlands fall under the domination of Teotihuacan, and the disintegration of Maya culture and language begins in some parts of the highlands.

 500 - The Maya city of Tikal becomes the first great Maya city, as citizens from Teotihuacan make their way to Tikal, introducing new ideas involving weaponry, captives, ritual practices and human sacrifice.

 600 - An unknown event destroys the civilization at Teotihuacan, along with the empire it supported. Tikal becomes the largest city-state in Mesoamerica, with as many as 500,000 inhabitants within the city and its hinterland.

 683 - The Emperor Pacal dies at the age of 80 and is buried in the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque.

THE MAYA – A.D./C.E.

 751 - Long-standing Maya alliances begin to break down. Trade between Maya city-states declines, and inter-state conflict increases.

 869 - Construction ceases in Tikal, marking the beginning of the city's decline.

 899 - Tikal is abandoned.

 900 - The Classic Period of Maya history ends, with the collapse of the southern lowland cities. Maya cities in the northern Yucatán continue to thrive.

 1200 - Northern Maya cities begin to be abandoned.

THE MAYA – A.D./C.E.

 1224 - The city of Chichén Itzá is abandoned by the Toltecs. A people known as the Uicil- abnal, which later takes the name Itzá, settles in the desolate city.

 1244 - The Itzá abandon Chichén Itzá for reasons unknown.

 1263 - The Itzá begin building the city of Mayapán.

 1283 - Mayapán becomes the capital of Yucatán.

THE MAYA – A.D./C.E.

 1441 - There is a rebellion within Mayapán and the city is abandoned by 1461. Shortly after this, Yucatán degenerates from a single united kingdom into sixteen rival statelets, each anxious to become the most powerful.

 1511 - A Spaniard named Gonzalo Guerrero is shipwrecked and washed up on the eastern shore of Yucatán. He defects to the Maya, tattooing his face, piercing his ears and marrying into a Maya noble family. Guerrero later becomes an implacable foe of the Spaniards and does much to help the Maya resist Spanish rule in Yucatán.

 1517 - The Spanish first arrive on the shores of Yucatán under Hernandez de Cordoba, who later dies of wounds received in battle against the Maya. The arrival of the Spanish ushers in Old World diseases unknown among the Maya, including smallpox, influenza and measles. Within a century, 90 per cent of Mesoamerica's native populations will be killed off.

THE MAYA – A.D./C.E.  1519 - Hernán Cortés begins exploring Yucatán.

 1524 - Cortés meets the Itzá people, the last of the Maya peoples to remain unconquered by the Spanish. The Spanish leave the Itzá alone until the seventeenth century.

 1528 - The Spanish under Francisco de Montejo begin their conquest of the northern Maya. The Maya fight back with surprising vigour, keeping the Spanish at bay for several years.

 1541 - The Spanish are finally able to subdue the Maya and put an end to Maya resistance. Revolt continues, however, to plague the Spaniards off and on for the rest of the century.

 1542 - The Spanish establish a capital city at Mérida in Yucatán.

 1695 - The ruins of Tikal are discovered by chance by the Spanish priest Father Avedaño and his companions, who had become lost in the jungle.

THE MAYA – A.D./C.E.  1712 - The Maya of the Chiapas highlands rise against the Mexican government.

They will continue to do so off and on until the 1990s.

 1724 - The Spanish Crown abolishes the system of encomienda, which had given Spanish land barons the right to forced Maya labour, as long as they agreed to convert the Maya to Christianity.

 1821 - Mexico becomes independent from Spain. In general, life becomes more tolerable for the Maya than it had been under Spanish rule.

 1822 - An account of Antonío del Río's late eighteenth-century explorations of Palenque is published in London. The book raises a great deal of interest in further exploration of the "lost" Maya civilization and settlements.

THE VIKINGS AN INTRODUCTION

EXPLORATION

 Vikings were raiders, but also:  Farmers

 Traders

 Colonizers

 Explorers of North America

VIKING “EXPLOSION”

 Around 800 AD

 Ended around the time of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 AD

 Push and Pull factors

 Autocatalytic Process

 Viking social system was relatively violent and hierarchical

 Christian Conversion of Scandinavians

SIX VIKING COLONIES

 Orkney

 Shetland

 Faeroe

 Iceland

 Greenland

 Vinland

SUCCESS IN VOYAGES

 Success correlated with distance from the Scandinavian homeland

 Early Iceland was superficially similar to the landscape of Norway and Britain, but different underground

 Iceland society's awareness of the fragility of their landscape

 Settlers in Vinland meet the Native Americans

 Problems with Vinland and Greenland settlements are similar

SUCCESS IN VOYAGES

VIKING RELIGION

 The Viking Age was a period of considerable religious change in Scandinavia.

 Part of the popular image of the Vikings is that they were all pagans, with a hatred of the Christian Church, but this view is very misleading.

 It is true that almost the entire population of Scandinavia was pagan at the beginning of the Viking Age, but the Vikings had many gods, and it was no problem for them to accept the Christian god alongside their own.

ATTACK ON CHURCHES

 Had nothing to do with religion

 Churches were poorly defended

 Had gold and plunder to loot

 Vikings were nothing if not skilled opportunists!

ADOPTING CHRISTIANITY

 The Vikings came into contact with Christianity through their raids, and when they settled in lands with a Christian population, they adopted Christianity quite quickly.

 This was true in Normandy, Ireland, and throughout the British Isles. 

 Archaeological evidence  Pagans buried their dead with grave goods, but Christians normally didn't, and this makes it

relatively easy to spot the change in religion.

PAGAN RITES

 We know almost nothing about pagan religious practices in the Viking Age.

 Occasional references to paganism in the Viking sagas - mostly composed in Iceland in the 13th century - we have to remember that these were written down 200 years after the conversion to Christianity. 

 We know that chieftains also had some sort of role as priests, and that pagan worship involved the sacrifice of horses.

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE

 The chief god Odin was sacrificed to himself by being hanged on a tree and pierced in the side with a spear, and this was followed by a sort of resurrection a few days later - a clear parallel with Christ's crucifixion.

 Gods relationships with Giants and Dwarfs

 Odin, the Allfather, god of warfare, justice, death, wisdom and poetry.

 Thor  Most brawn over brains

 His hammer Miollnir, crafted by the dwarfs, he was the main defender of the gods against the giants

 God of Thunder

 Worshipped by seafarers

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE

 Frey and Freyja  Brother and Sister

 God and Goddess of fertility

 Many other smaller gods and goddesses existed

 The great enemies of the gods were the giants, and there were often conflicts between the two races.

 Among the gods, only Thor was a match for the giants in strength, so the gods usually had to rely on cunning to outwit the giants. 

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE

 Although Vikings often seem to have maintained their beliefs throughout the periods of their raiding, there was considerable pressure to convert to Christianity if they wished to have more peaceful relations with the Christians.

 This could happen on a political level, as in the Treaty of Wedmore in 878.  The treaty bound the Viking leader Guthrum to accept Christianity, with Alfred of Wessex as his

godfather, and Alfred in turn recognised Guthrum as the ruler of East Anglia.

CONVENIENT TIES

 Another more or less formal convention applied to trade, since Christians were not really supposed to trade with pagans.

 Although a full conversion does not seem to have been demanded of all Scandinavian traders, the custom of 'primsigning' (first-signing) was introduced.  Fell short of Baptism, but was a first step

 Enough to trade

CONVENIENT TIES

 Attempts to convert Scandinavia began even before the Viking Age.

 The Anglo-Saxon St. Willibrord led a mission to Denmark in 725, but although he was well- received by the king, his mission had little effect. 

 The Frankish St. Ansgar led a second wave of missionary activity from the 820s onwards - with the support of the Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious.

 Ansgar and his followers established missions in both Denmark and Sweden, with the support of local rulers, but made little impact on the population as a whole.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

 Archaeological evidence suggests that Christianity was adopted piecemeal in Norway, with settlements converting or not depending on whether the local chieftain converted. 

  The same idea can also be seen on a larger scale.

 In the mid-tenth century Hakon the Good of Norway, who had been fostered in England, tried to use his royal authority to establish Christianity. 

 However, when it became clear that this would lose him the support of pagan chieftains, he abandoned his attempts, and his Anglo-Saxon bishops were sent back to England.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

 Olaf Tryggvasson of Norway and Olof Tribute-king of Sweden were both converted, but this had limited effect on the population as a whole. 

 A further wave of conversion in Norway under Olaf Haraldsson (St. Olaf) (1015-30) was more successful and gradually led to lasting conversion.

 Sweden, however, faced a pagan reaction in the mid-11th century, and it was not until the 12th century that Christianity became firmly established.

 Again, Vikings were nothing if not skilled opportunists!

NORSE GREENLAND

FJORDS

 A long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, as in Norway and Iceland, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley.

HOW DO WE KNOW THE CLIMATE CHANGED?

 written records

 pollen samples

 ice cores

LITTLE ICE AGE

 Native Americans abandoned Greenland before Norse settlers arrived in Greenland in 980 AD

 Inuit arrived in Greenland around 1200 AD

 Inuit adapted to Little Ice Age, but Norse did not

 Pastoralism and hunting were the primary source of food

 “Mystery” of why Greenland Norse did not eat fish (taboo)  Maybe someone got sick and created a taboo

NORSE SOCIETY

 Economic integration over time, and over space

 Complex integrated economy

 Norse society  communal, violent, hierarchical, communal, conservative, Eurocentric

 "Social survival" vs. "biological survival"

FALL OF GREENLAND

 Greenland Norse damaged environment in three ways: destroying natural vegetation, causing soil erosion, cutting turf

 Deforestation not only caused shortages in wood, but also iron.

 Losing iron caused the Norse to lose their military advantage over the Inuit

 In addition to encountering the Inuits, the Norse encountered another group, the Dorset people

FALL OF GREENLAND

 Inuit represented the climax of thousands of years of cultural developments by Arctic People learning to master Arctic conditions

 Complexity of the Inuit kayak, and the Inuit harpoon

 The Inuit proved more adaptable to the arctic conditions than either the Norse or the Dorset people

 Norse treated the "skraelings" with contempt

FALL OF GREENLAND

 Positive cultural exchange between the Inuit and the Norse was limited

 First contact situations often terrifying

 All five of Diamond's factors contributed to the decline of the Greenland Norse

 Although the proximate cause of the decline of the Greenland Norse is not clear, Diamond speculates that it was famine

 Societal factors contributing to the collapse of the Norse (four of them)

FALL OF GREENLAND

 All five of Diamond's factors contributed to the decline of the Greenland Norse  Human Induced Environmental Damage

 Climate Change

 Hostile Neighbors

 Friendly Trade Partners

 Society’s Responses to Environmental Problems