The Forms of government of the Maya Were very different because their history is divided into three major periods (preclassic, classic and postclassic) that developed between 1500 BC. And 1500 AD.
The pre-Classic period was characterized by few large policies and a high level of literacy. The classic improved the policies of a civilization, as well as commerce.
Finally, the postclassic period marked the decline of one of the most important empires in history.
You may be interested Political Organization of the Maya .
Historical line of Maya forms of government
It is believed that the government policies of the Mayan civilization began around 300 BC, meaning that the kings of the preclassic period lacked a stable and definite policy.
In the preclassic there was a belief that rulers were a combination of Human god , Establishing in this way a kind of unified state. This belief made visible the power line in the family, nucleus where it was normal to see how a person of any gender governed.
Men and women were in the capacity to govern. Women could do so if the king of that time was a minor, if he was at the foot of a war or if he simply was not available for some reason.
Those who ruled were reaffirmed as kings and lords and there was a custom to make an effigy for each king in the Holy Round, a calendar that had a total of 260 days and was divided into 13 months which in turn had 20 days.
A specific god represented each month. In this way, the sacred rituals were destined for the Day of the Lord (Ahau).
With the passing of the Maya era, they maintained separate regimes, thus avoiding the constitution of an empire, a phenomenon that also occurred during the classical period.
It is believed that the classical period had 72 or more major political units, succeeding through them, making the Mayan civilization a civilization International trade .
According to the studies carried out on the form of government of this civilization, it has been possible to conclude that the Mayas lived two cycles of politics:
On the one hand there was a time of rise and fall, which involved a longer time for economic, political and population development; Then an era called a rebound.
The postclassic period (900 AD - 1530 AD) was characterized by the decay of the then-posited city-states, which ended up being abandoned, thus achieving a severe decline of inhabitants.
Wars between Mayan policies
The Mayan civilization suffered numerous wars due to the existence of different policies that led to serious conflicts.
Although there is no unified reason for the collapse of this civilization, the idea of natural disasters, cultural wars, civil unrest, famine and even climate impacts are often shared as important reasons for this to happen.
It is believed that the Mayan collapse was rooted in the rise of the war arising from different policies that led to the subsequent disintegration.
However, experts believe that war was not the only reason for the collapse of Mayan civilization. In fact, one of the reasons that takes more force is the lack of political unity.
It is estimated that there were up to 50 Mayan states in the course of the classical period. A devastating fact that reflects this lack of political harmony.
Likewise, the size of the pre-classical policies, which had between 5 thousand and 10 thousand people, marked a strong contrast in comparison with those established during the classic period, which had populations of up to 50 thousand people.
During the preclassic period there was not the same competition that we see during the classic period. The former did not require a specifically political integration to survive, while the latter did require some political concord that would allow them to counteract competition, as well as those who inhabited states of great power.
It could be said that there was much similarity in the preclassic states, while the power struggles between one and the other classic state were very recurrent.
Even so, it is also believed that the decay of civilization, which occurred around 1300, had great responsibility for variables such as agricultural depletion, overpopulation, Social upheavals , Ecological and certainly political factors.
Although there were no permanent armies, the war played a very important role during the Mayan era in various fields such as religion, power and prestige.
References
- Gomez, María C. Maya government. Ancient History Encyclopedia. United States (2015). Retrieved from ancient.eu.
- Good to know. What kind of government did the Mayans have? (2014). Recovered from good-saber.com.
- Borge, Carolyn A. Yucatan Peninsula website. Mayan Government. U.S. (2000). Retrieved from webpages.uidaho.edu.