Reference no: EM132185874

"Change and Civilizations." Go to Ancient Civilization. This is part of a Web site maintained by Annenberg/CBP about why great civilizations collapse. Read the story of one of the four great civilizations in this Web site. What can Corporate America learn from this experience? How does this relate to the business world? What would happen to a business if it continued to ignore change?

Here is the conclusion for the fall of the Maya Civilization from the website mentioned above:

Archaeologists William Sanders and David Webster and their team have studied Copán for nearly two decades, starting in 1980. With their colleagues, they have uncovered a great deal of evidence about what happened at Copán, including the obsidian dates, the pollen sample, the erosion debris, and the modern-day farming practices.

Based on the evidence found at Copán, this team of archaeologists concluded that overpopulation was a major contributor to collapse. A very large number of people lived in the Copán Valley, and so more and more of the land was farmed, just as it is today. This caused environmental stresses, such as erosion and crop shortages. These, in turn, caused malnutrition and disease, which were clear from the anemia shown in the skulls—even the skulls of the noble classes.

From the obsidian dates and the pollen sample, the archaeologists concluded that the end of Copán was gradual, at least in the countryside. Though no monuments were built after A.D. 822, the population in the valley did not drop off seriously until about A.D. 950-1000. Significant farming continued in the area until A.D. 1200-1250. After 1200-1250, the Copán Valley returned to forest, this previous center of Maya life abandoned by all but a few remaining farmers.

Unfortunately, this is all I have to work with. There isn't any more information to go along with this. I posted it here in hopes that someone could see what I didn't. The questions asks a lot, yet the information doesn't really seem to go with corporate America.