Mexican History

Classical Period - 300 AD to 900 AD

The second period is referred to as the Classical Period and ranged from around 300 AD to 900 AD. It is considered to have been the golden age of Mesoamerica, as main civilizations all flourished during this period and reached the height of their development. Religion was a very important element of all these peoples and determined organization of the social structure.

The civilization with its cultural center at Teotihuacan, which means “City of Gods” was very influential in its time, with a fairly advanced counting, writing and calendar systems. Later the Cholula, Zapotec and Mixtec cultures also flourished, at times imposing on each other, at times intermixing and living side by side. The largest of these civilizations however was made up of the group of people known as the Mayas; a group of Indians that lived in the territory north of what today is Peru.

Of all Mesoamerican civilizations, the Mayans are considered to have been the most intelligent. They reached the peak of their development approximately during the 6th century.
These people depended mainly on agriculture for sustenance and raised a varied range of crops, including cotton, cocoa, maize and beans among others. Life was very much interrelated with religion and ceremonial rites and sacrifices were necessary to appease the gods and secure their favor. Scientifically the Mayas excelled far beyond any of their contemporaries, refining the techniques and discoveries that others had left before them. This included hieroglyphic writing, astronomy and mathematics. They were able to predict natural events such as eclipse with great accuracy and the calendar system they developed and used was actually more precise than the calendar we know and use today.

These are some of the legacies left behind by these great people, along with many ruins of temples, palaces and other buildings and architectural wonders.

The demise of the Mayas is said to have come about due to a combination of natural disasters such as earthquakes, famine, epidemics, internal uprisings and foreign invasions.