- Climate events such as drought and changes in the monsoonal system
- War and conflict
- Socio-political unease
Diamond, 2009 is a nice article that ties together all the interweaving aspects involved in the Khmer empire's demise. It also neatly (maybe too neatly) links the collapses of the Khmer empire, Mayas and Inca together.
Diamond demonstrates how a boom in agriculture in Angkor led to population growth that placed pressure on the Angkor infrastructure. Deforestation, resource exploitation and land degradation followed in attempt to sustain its large population. Socio-political unease, conflict with neighbouring cities and over reliance on a vulnerable irrigation system ultimately led to the collapse of the Khmer empire. Although this article is a few years old, it covers important factors of collapse that still exist in contemporary understanding (shown in more recent articles I've looked at). However I think it over-simplifies civilization collapse and presents a homogenous theory that is not fully representative of the variance between case studies.
Take a look at this clip from a National Geographic documentary on Angkor Wat. See the whole video on Youtube
Also have a quick read of the New York Times article by Maugh (2010). It's a good summary piece and I'm glad to see that they have acknowledged the role of factors other than climate.
Looking at the literature, I think that climate probably had a lot to do with collapse. Changes in the monsoon system would have come as an unpleasant surprise to the people of the Khmer empire. This climate change had serious impacts on agriculture and water resources that the empire could not overcome. However a society's response to environmental change is also important. In the case of the Khmer empire and its centre Angkor, fear and confusion over the change in climate acted to undermine the authorities. Matters were probably made worse by conflict with other empires and within the empire.
Keep your eyes peeled for my next post, when I'll summarise what we've found about civilization collapse in general.
Hi Celia! I think your most recent posts on the Khmer Empire and its causes of civilisation collapse have been really interesting! What do you think are the most important things to learn from this Khmer Empire example? Do you think the collapse have been delayed if it hadn't have been for anthropogenic triggers? Does it have similar trends to any other ancient civilisation collapse?
ReplyDeleteThanks Sarah! I think an important message to take away from the Khmer Empire's collapse is to be careful of over-reliance on 1 system. Water provision is vital for the survival of any civilization, and putting faith in an inadequate system is risky. Having said that, they weren't to know a drought was coming. Therefore social responses are very important! I think the civilization may have persisted if issues of water shortages were targeted swiftly. Causes leading to the Khmer empire's decline definitely has similarities with the collapse of the Akkadians, near the start of my blog. In both cases climate events and incomplete social response were key factors in collapse.
DeleteThanks Celia! It is a very interesting topic and it is intriguing to see what the causes of ancient civilisation collapse are in hindsight, especially when it could have been prevented (or at least delayed) by social responses.
Delete