The Mayan Empire: A Historical Outline

Jul 18, 2011
Robert Marcell

Mayan jadeite pendant - Los Angeles County Museum of Art, photo by Beesnest McClain

The history of the Mayan Empire is traditionally divided into three periods: The Pre-Classic period, the Classic period, and the Post-Classic period.

The Mayan Empire was a major agrarian civilization developed over about two thousand years in and around the Yucatan Peninsula (Central America). The Mayans produced remarkable architecture (most famously in the form of their flat-topped pyramids) and art (including carvings, reliefs, statuary, ceramics, and paintings), advanced mathematics and timekeeping (with a 365-day solar calendar, or "Haab" cycle, a 260-day religious calendar, or "Tzolkin," and a 52-year cycle combining the both of them together), and their own writing system -- quite possibly the first in the Western Hemisphere.

Traditionally, their history has been divided into three periods: The Pre-Classic period (from about 1800 B.C. to about A.D. 300), the Classic Period (from about A.D. 300 to about A.D. 900), which ended with the collapse of the Mayan Empire, and the Post-Classic period (from about A.D. 900 to A.D. 1524).

The Pre-Classic Period (1800 B.C.-A.D. 300)

The calendar used by the Classic Mayans begins in 3114 B.C. (McKillop, 343), but the earliest examples of their civilization come to us from artifacts from around 1800 B.C. Maya settlements on the Pacific from this period seem to suggest contact between the Pre-Classic Maya peoples and the Olmec peoples (Foster, 29), and it is in the Pre-Classic period that writing slowly and the Maya calendar begins to develop (Foster, 31).

From about 700 B.C., the Pre-Classic Mayans were transforming their environment with agriculture and monument building, and population growth and trade growth was expanding the reach of the civilization (Foster, 32). The earliest known mural paintings come to us from about 300 B.C., depicting Vucub Caquix -- a demonic bird who wanted to be the sun (Milbrath, 97) -- at San Bartolo, Guatemala; and distinctive Maya pottery develops from about 75 B.C. to about A.D. 25 (McKillop, 344).

The Classic Period (A.D. 300-A.D. 900)

It was during the Classic period that the Maya civilization spread to its furthest limits, and reached its highest peaks. The Maya developed major city-centers at Copán (Honduras), Palenque and Uxmal (Mexico), and Piedras Negras, Uaxactun, and Tikal (Guatemala). Tikal, in particular, becomes a center for goverment, education, economics, and religion in the Mayan Empire, with a population estimated at 60,000 near the end of the Early Classic period (Foster, 44), and reaching upwards of 100,000 people during the Late Classic period (McKillop, 96).

It was during the second half of the Classic period that the Maya accomplished their greatest feats in government, art, and science, however: the cities of Calakmul and Caracol ascended even over Tikal, and numerous other cities proliferated; Maya art "reached what many consider its highest level of achievement" (Foster, 55); numerous books were written (with many later burned by the Spanish), including the Madrid, Dresden, and Paris codices -- so-named for where they eventually settled when they were brought over to Europe (McKillop, 288); and both advanced mathematics and astronomy were developed (McKillop, 276-288).

The Post-Classic Period (A.D. 900-A.D. 1524)

The Classic period ended with the collapse of the Mayan Empire. The Maya peoples stopped building stone monuments, the great Mesoamerican trade alliance set up by the Maya during the Classic period fell apart, and "[over] a period of more than 100 years, one city after another was abandoned in the central area." (Foster, 60) Theories as to the causes of the collapse range from invasion to drought, from overpopulation to political uprisings, but Mayanist scholars are divided on the issue, and many would argue that it was multiple factors that led to the decline of the civilization.

Politically, the region fragmented, and "the Maya were eclipsed by the powerful Aztecs, or Mexica, as they called themselves, in central Mexico." (Foster, 78) When the Spanish arrived in the region, the Aztecs suggested to the highland Maya that "they consolidate their forces against the Europeans," but the Aztecs were defeated before anything could come of this agreement, and the Spanish were soon in control of the Yucatan peninsula as well.

Although the Mayan Empire collapsed, and its people were assimilated into the Spanish Empire, the Maya culture did not die out. The Maya are still around today, ensuring the survival of their stories, language, and traditions. Indeed, many Maya "still practice their traditional way of village farming today." (McKillop, 108)