During the 9th century AD, the central Maya region suffered major
political collapse, marked by the abandonment of cities, the
ending of dynasties, and a northward shift in activity. [56] No
universally accepted theory explains this collapse, but it likely had
a combination of causes, including endemic internecine warfare,
overpopulation resulting in severe environmental degradation,
and drought.[73] During this period, known as the Terminal Classic,
the northern cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal showed increased
activity.[56] Major cities in the northern Yucatán Peninsula
continued to be inhabited long after the cities of the southern
lowlands ceased to raise monuments.[74]
Classic Maya social organization was based on the ritual authority
of the ruler, rather than central control of trade and food
distribution. This model of rulership was poorly structured to
respond to changes, because the ruler's actions were limited
by tradition to such activities as construction, ritual, and warfare.
This only served to exacerbate systemic problems.[75] By the 9th
and 10th centuries, this resulted in collapse of this system of
rulership. In the northern Yucatán, individual rule was replaced by
a ruling council formed from elite lineages. In the southern
Yucatán and central Petén, kingdoms declined; in western Petén
and some other areas, the changes were catastrophic and
resulted in the rapid depopulation of cities.[76] Within a couple of
generations, large swathes of the central Maya area were all but
abandoned.[77] Both the capitals and their secondary centres were
generally abandoned within a period of 50 to 100 years. [55] One by
one, cities stopped sculpting dated monuments; the last Long
Count date was inscribed at Toniná in 909. Stelae were no longer
raised, and squatters moved into abandoned royal palaces.
Mesoamerican trade routes shifted and bypassed Petén.
Although much reduced, a significant Maya presence remained
into the Postclassic period after the abandonment of the major
Classic period cities; the population was particularly concentrated
near permanent water sources.[80] Unlike during previous cycles of
contraction in the Maya region, abandoned lands were not quickly
resettled in the Postclassic.[55] Activity shifted to the northern
lowlands and the Maya Highlands; this may have involved
migration from the southern lowlands, because many Postclassic
Maya groups had migration myths.[81] Chichen Itza and
its Puuc neighbours declined dramatically in the 11th century, and
this may represent the final episode of Classic Period collapse.
After the decline of Chichen Itza, the Maya region lacked a
dominant power until the rise of the city of Mayapan in the 12th
century. New cities arose near the Caribbean and Gulf coasts,
and new trade networks were formed.[82]
The Postclassic Period was marked by changes from the
preceding Classic Period.[83] The once-great city of Kaminaljuyu in
the Valley of Guatemala was abandoned after continuous
occupation of almost 2,000 years.[84] Across the highlands and
neighbouring Pacific coast, long-occupied cities in exposed
locations were relocated, apparently due to a proliferation
of warfare. Cities came to occupy more-easily defended hilltop
locations surrounded by deep ravines, with ditch-and-wall
defences sometimes supplementing the protection provided by
the natural terrain.[84] One of the most important cities in the
Guatemalan Highlands at this time was Qʼumarkaj, the capital of
the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom.[83] The government of Maya
states, from the Yucatán to the Guatemalan highlands, was often
organised as joint rule by a council. However, in practice one
member of the council could act as a supreme ruler, while the
other members served him as advisors.
Mayapan was abandoned around 1448, after a period of political,
social and environmental turbulence that in many ways echoed
the Classic period collapse in the southern Maya region. The
abandonment of the city was followed by a period of prolonged
warfare, disease and natural disasters in the Yucatán Peninsula,
which ended only shortly before Spanish contact in 1511.[86] Even
without a dominant regional capital, the early Spanish explorers
reported wealthy coastal cities and thriving marketplaces.
[82]
During the Late Postclassic, the Yucatán Peninsula was divided
into a number of independent provinces that shared a common
culture but varied in internal sociopolitical organization.[87] On the
eve of the Spanish conquest, the highlands of Guatemala were
dominated by several powerful Maya states.[88] The Kʼicheʼ had
carved out a small empire covering a large part of the western
Guatemalan Highlands and the neighbouring Pacific coastal plain.
However, in the decades before the Spanish invasion
the Kaqchikel kingdom had been steadily eroding the kingdom of
the Kʼicheʼ.
In 1511, a Spanish caravel was wrecked in the Caribbean, and
about a dozen survivors made landfall on the coast of Yucatán.
They were seized by a Maya lord, and most were sacrificed,
although two managed to escape. From 1517 to 1519, three
separate Spanish expeditions explored the Yucatán coast, and
engaged in a number of battles with the Maya inhabitants. [90] After
the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell to the Spanish in 1521, Hernán
Cortés despatched Pedro de Alvarado to Guatemala with 180
cavalry, 300 infantry, 4 cannons, and thousands of allied warriors
from central Mexico;[91] they arrived in Soconusco in 1523.[92] The
Kʼicheʼ capital, Qʼumarkaj, fell to Alvarado in 1524. [93] Shortly
afterwards, the Spanish were invited as allies into Iximche, the
capital city of the Kaqchikel Maya. [94] Good relations did not last,
due to excessive Spanish demands for gold as tribute, and the
city was abandoned a few months later. [95] This was followed by
the fall of Zaculeu, the Mam Maya capital, in 1525.[96] Francisco de
Montejo and his son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger,
launched a long series of campaigns against the polities of the
Yucatán Peninsula in 1527, and finally completed the conquest of
the northern portion of the peninsula in 1546.[97] This left only the
Maya kingdoms of the Petén Basin independent.[98] In 1697, Martín
de Ursúa launched an assault on the Itza capital Nojpetén and the
last independent Maya city fell to the Spanish.
