When discussing the fall of pre-Columbian civilizations, climate change is often presented as the primary factor. Why were pre-Columbian societies so much more vulnerable to climate change than their Eurasian counterparts?

by arkh4ngelsk

It seems that for most indigenous civilizations in the Americas, a shifting climate was enough to lead to dramatic political shifts or even total collapse. In places like Europe or Asia, however, the climate is rarely discussed in the context of geopolitical shifts, and seems to have had a negligible impact on events like the Bronze Age collapse, the decline of the Roman Empire, various Chinese conflicts, or any other noteworthy periods of change and instability in Eurasia. Is there a theory as to why Eurasian civilizations were so much more climate-resistant than those of the Americas?

Regalecus

In regards to the Maya specifically, a lot of this has to do with the geography of the Yucatan Peninsula. The major Classic and Post-Classic (and many Pre-Classic!) Maya civilizations were located on the lowlands, which are essentially just a massive, flat limestone karst. There the soil is thin and infertile, and there are NO RIVERS! It's a horrible place to form massive agricultural civilizations, but they managed to make do with cenotes and by forming underground reservoirs to capture rainwater. Naturally, this made them extremely dependent on the normally regular rainfall that Mesoamerican experiences half of the year, but during extended droughts, things could go drastically wrong once their reservoirs depleted.

The Mayans generally used slash and burn cultivation, which meant clearing areas of forest for intensive farming for a few years, then letting it rest for five or more before reclearing it so as not to exhaust it. This worked very well for the thin and infertile soil of the Yucatan. To get over the soil's high acidity, they would mix lime (something the Yucatan has in abundance!) to increase its PH.

The Mayans were very good at adapting their environment to meet their needs, but considering the hand they were dealt it's really more of a miracle that they managed to create such an advanced civilization in such an inhospitable part of the world.

If you want to read more about the Maya I recommend The Maya by Michael D. Coe.

Synonyms26

I think you just havent come across information about the impact of climate on Eurasia history. I have run across my fair share of speculations and theories about the impacts of climate change on the history of Asia.

For example, there's a speculation here about the 7th century cold spell triggering the collapse of the Eastern Turk khangate and the Medieval Warm period giving rise to the Mongols under Genghis Khan: https://news.mit.edu/2020/case-studies-show-climate-variation-linked-rise-fall-medieval-nomadic-empires-1211

This paper here also discusses about the impact of climate on the spread of Scythian culture on the steppe of Central Asia, the rise of nomadism, and the rise of the Mongol Empire: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2530/htm

Another example here is the fall of the Khmer Empire, which is partly attributed to El Nino: https://www.pnas.org/content/107/15/6748

This article on scientific america discusses a theory on the change in rain fall as being the final straw that broke the camel's back on the falls of Tang, Yuan, and Ming dynasties: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/monsoon-climate-change-chinese/

In that article, the drought that contributed to Tang's downfall was hypothesized to have been from the same general global climate change that contributed to the fall of the Maya civilization.

Imo, the biggest difference between Tang and Maya is that China grew back with Song and Maya didnt and went on a decline. China by the time of Tang was already too big to fall permanently, its culture and sheer population size easily assimilating any successful invader and continuing its identity as China in the succeeding dynasty. On the other side of the spectrum, there were scores of central Asia cultures and groups that disappeared nearly entirely or entirely from history from the impact of climate change, so it's not just the Americas that had been susceptible to climate change.