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The fall of a state, a ruling class, a regime, a society, a mode of production, a civilization due solely to climate is anti-scientific ideological nonsense.
mercredi 3 juin 2026, par
The fall of a state, a ruling class, a regime, a society, a mode of production, a civilization due solely to climate is anti-scientific ideological nonsense.
The theory that drought explains all collapses of civilizations is widely used.
But that’s just nonsense…
One example : the fall of the Native American city of Cahokia – the mystery deepens
Does the name Cahokia ring a bell ? Yet, at the beginning of the 13th century, Cahokia rivaled London in population, with nearly 25,000 inhabitants. It was the largest city of the ancient Mississippian civilization.
Some scientists have argued that it wasn’t a civil war but climate change that caused the collapse of the Mississippian civilization.
In southern Illinois, east of the Mississippi River, lie the remains of an ancient Native American city : Cahokia. The site is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but was once a thriving urban center. Between the year 1000 and the 13th century, one of the earliest cities in North America covered more than 1,600 hectares and had a population of 50,000, explains ScienceAlert.
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-mystery-of-lost-city-of-cahokias-abandonment-just-got-even-deeper
Yet, after several hundred years of prosperity, Cahokia was deserted. Historians still don’t fully understand why. Until now, the most popular theory among specialists pointed to a possible severe drought that led to a poor harvest, forcing the inhabitants to relocate. But a new study by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the University of Washington suggests otherwise. The results of this research are published in the journal Sage Journals.
“Food insecurity and disruption of agricultural systems are often cited to explain the observed correlations between climate change and demographic shifts in past agricultural societies. While these narratives are replete with data on climate and population changes, they often lack substantial information on the processes contributing to agricultural destabilization. In this article, we use stable carbon isotopes extracted from paleosols collected at Cahokia Mounds, the largest Native American settlement in North America, to illustrate that plant communities failed to respond to the multidecadal drought that struck the central region of the continent in the late 13th century. This research highlights existing gaps in our understanding of how plant communities respond to climate variation. In order to effectively use historical examples to shape future strategies for adapting to contemporary climate change, it is imperative that we gain a deeper understanding of the tolerance of native crops and culturally important plants to various drought and flood conditions.”
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09596836241254488
For researchers, food shortages were not the cause of this mass exodus. According to their field study, the city’s farmland could have easily withstood a climate change such as a drought. The team collected and analyzed soil samples from Cahokia, looking for carbon isotopes—atoms left behind by plants that were once cultivated there.
Each plant leaves different carbon traces, and the specialists say that two particular carbon isotopes, carbon-12 and carbon-13, remained relatively constant during the period when people abandoned Cahokia. "This suggests that drought and crop failures were not the cause," ScienceAlert points out.
So, if it’s not the climate, what caused this company to collapse ?
The civilization of the Mississippi Indians disappeared following a civil war, before the start of European colonization.
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article5276
Etzanoa Falls, a historic city of the Wichita people, located in present-day Arkansas City, Kansas, near the Arkansas River, which flourished between 1450 and 1700
https://www-wichita-edu.translate.goog/academics/fairmount_las/anthropology/archaeology/etzanoa_field-school.php?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=fr&_x_tr_hl=fr&_x_tr_pto=sc
The collapse of the Bronze Age coincided with uprisings and civil wars.
During what is commonly known as the "Bronze Age collapse," the Hittite Empire and Mycenaean civilization, along with several smaller powers and the trade routes that connected them, collapsed. This led to anarchy, uprisings, civil wars, and rivalries between pharaohs in Egypt, while Assyria and Babylonia suffered from famines, epidemics, and invasions.
https://www.nationalgeographic.fr/histoire/2023/02/antiquite-la-chute-dun-empire-inscrite-dans-des-arbres-vieux-de-3-200-ans
Yet droughts are often cited as a cause of the fall of civilizations.
https://mrmondialisation.org/comment-la-secheresse-a-fait-tomber-la-derniere-capitale-maya/
https://www.nouvelobs.com/histoire/20180713.OBS9608/guerre-mondiale-secheresse-le-mystere-de-l-effondrement-de-l-age-du-bronze.html
And we also need to analyze the fall of the Mayans…
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article5243
Fall of empires and civilizations, the collapse of the Bronze Age
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article5429
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article1167
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%82ge_du_bronze_final
The three great civilizations of the Early Bronze Age in the Aegean Sea (Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean before the Greeks) as well as that of Troy (Hissarlik) and dozens of other smaller ones (Dimini, Sesklo, Lemnos, Kephala, etc.) were swept away by invasions and revolutions.
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article5900
https://www.worldhistory.org/trans/fr/1-10433/effondrement-de-lage-du-bronze/
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effondrement_de_l%27%C3%A2ge_du_bronze_r%C3%A9cent
https://www.worldhistory.org/trans/fr/2-1446/interview--le-mysterieux-effondrement-de-lage-du-b/
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article5259
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article5388
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article5497
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article395
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article4146
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article1677
https://www-marxists-org.translate.goog/history/etol/writers/faulkner/2010/hist-world/part08.html?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=fr&_x_tr_hl=fr&_x_tr_pto=sc
Climate theories of civilizational collapse (such as those put forward by Jared Diamond) are contested.
https://www.cairn.info/revue-espace-geographique-2011-1-page-76.htm
https://laviedesidees.fr/Grandeur-et-decadence-des-societes-humaines-a-propos-de-Jared-Diamond
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article1750
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article2314
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article7476
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article1046
https://escapethecity.life/effondrement-jared-diamond-resume
https://www.afis.org/Suicide-ecologique-al-Ile-de-Paques-ce-qu-en-dit-l-archeologie
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article1677
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article7739