History of the Maya by Njord Kane

Author:Njord Kane [Kane, Njord]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Americas, Central America, Ancient History
ISBN: 9781943066179
Publisher: Spangenhelm Publishing
Published: 2016-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

Veneer stones belonging to an ancient Maya dam.[243]

The dam was constructed using a combination of cut stone, rubble and earth. The dam stretched in length for more than 260 feet and held about 20 million gallons of water in a human-made reservoir with 33 foot high walls.

There were periods of excessive rainfall that coincided with a rise in population from 300 to 660 AD. The Maya had to learn to conserve and use their natural resources wisely in order to support a very populous and highly complex society despite the many environmental challenges, which included periodic droughts.[241]

Large-scale alterations in the landscape plus the high demands placed on resources from an ecosystem that caused an extreme amount of stress on environmental conditions. This caused the ever growing harsher conditions to become amplified by increasing amount of climatic aridity developing.

These events made economic and environmental conditions quickly change which caused an increasing amount of social conflict in the region. A climate reversal occurred and a drying trend began to take place at around 660 AD. These adverse conditions triggered political competition and increased warfare. By 1000 AD, the overall sociopolitical instability finally pushed to the Maya elite to diminish control of the cities and migrate elsewhere in the peninsular region. They could not meet the high costs of maintaining the cities with an environment that could no longer sustain the human demand.

Even the flow of commerce had shifted from crossing the peninsula over land and through the wastelands to moving by sea to go around and avoid it. After the central Maya lowlands were finally abandoned, the environment began to largely recover. However, the Maya population never fully recovered after this period.[242]

This was followed by another extended drought that happened between 1020 to 1100 AD. This drought likely caused huge crop failures that resulted in a famine that caused many deaths. More mass migration out of the areas was ultimately the collapse of the Maya population before the arrival of the Spanish.[244]

Hurricanes have played a key role in much of the devastation that has taken place throughout history of Belize and the Yucatan peninsula. The 'Maya Area' has long been hit with large, devastating hurricanes and tropical storms.

In modern history, a hurricane in 1931 destroyed over two-thirds of the buildings in Belize City and more than 1,000 people had died in that storm. In 1955, 'Hurricane Janet' leveled the northern town of Corozal, Belize. It was only six years later when they were still recovering and rebuilding when "Hurricane Hattie" struck the central coastal area. This hurricane struck the countryside with 300-kph winds and storm tides that were over four meters high.

The devastation of Belize City for the second time in thirty years prompted the relocation of the Belizean capital to be moved 50 miles inland to the planned city of Belmopan. Relocating cities and resettling survivors had occurred several times with the ancient Maya as a result of some of the violent hurricanes they'd experienced.

In 1978, 'Hurricane Greta' hit along the southern coast and then 'Hurricane Iris' made landfall on October 9, 2001.

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