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Despite the popular term Maya Empire, the Mayas did not have an Empire. In fact, archaeologists use the term Maya civilisation, not empire.

The features of Mayan expansion are uncertain because the archaeological material is insufficient to give a clear picture. It seems that they originated from an area of the lowlands on the Atlantic coast around the borders between Mexico, Guatemala and Belize and then expanded to the highlands along the pacific coast a bit further north in Mexico and into the nearby Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

It is not known whether this expansion involved the conquest of other peoples. The extent of the early Mayan territory is also uncertain and there are disputes among experts. Moreover, Mayan expansion had two phases. The first was territorial spread, which might have been due more to population growth and migration, rather than a design of conquest. In fact, the Maya did not have a unified state under one ruler. They had a collection of independent city-states which were liable to (and did) fight each other.

The second phase of expansion was urbanization within the areas mentioned above. The older settlements grew into sizeable cities and new settlements appeared which also grew into large cities.

The earliest archaeological finds date to what archaeologists have called the Early Preclassic Period (2000-1,000 BC). The earliest finds in the Mexico/Guatemala/Belize Atlantic lowlands date to 1,800 BC. The earliest finds on the highlands along the Pacific coast in southern Mexico date to 1,500 BC. The earliest find in the south of the peninsula of Yucatan date to 1,200 BC, and that on the northern coast of this peninsula date to the 8th century BC. The first phase of urbanisation occurred in the Middle Preclassic Period (1000 BC-400 BC) particularly in the 6th century BC. This period saw an alternation of city-states trying to achieve dominance over the others states. The Classical Period (c. AD 250-900) saw the peak of urbanisation, the largest size of the Mayan cities and the apex of Mayan civilisation. Then there was the collapse of the Classical Period, in which the towns of the southern lowlands, which had been declining in the 8th and 9th centuries, were abandoned. The reason for this is not known. The monumental inscriptions and the construction of large buildings ended. In the Postclassical Period (from the 10th to the early 16th century) Maya civilisation continued in the northern cities and it came under a variety of external influences.

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