ompleted collapsed with the conquest of the last independent Mayan state, Tayasal, by Martin de Ursua in 1697 (Sharer, xiii).
While descendants of the Mayan still live in southern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala today, for the most part, their two thousand year old history came to an end when they were conquered by the Spanish. Before their ultimate collapse, the Mayan population expanded into millions of people who were ruled by a succession of independent kingdoms. They were supported by forests, rivers, lakes and seashores and they built famous palaces, roadways, marketplaces, decorated temples, carved monuments and houses. In times of peace the independent Mayan kingdoms traded with each other, in time of war their kings conquered neighboring kingdoms. Individual achievements in this society were recorded on stone monuments and scholars are beginning to decipher their complex writing system (Sharer, 1).
The achievements of Mayan society were varied. They domesticated plants like maize (corn), cacao (chocolate), and chili peppers. The Mayans also constructed great reservoirs, and made great artwork (sculpture, painting, textiles, carved jade figures, pottery). They had devised elaborate mathematical systems, made complex calendars, and created wonderful architectural designs and styles.
There are a number of conflicting theories about the rise of the Mayan civilization. One theory is that the Mayan came into contact with Chinese travelers who influenced their artwork and architecture. This theory now seems to be a bogus one because no object from the Old World have been found in the New World and had the Mayan come into contact with the Chinese, some Chinese objects should have appeared in Mayan site excavations. Unfortunately, scholars are still uncertain why the Maya used the same complex lunar and solar calculations as the Chinese, which would suggest that there had been some contact between the peoples otherwi...