Skip to content
Conflict Americas

Maya City-State Wars

400 BCE – 900 CE · 1,300 years

Over a millennium of warfare among rival Classic Maya polities, dominated by the Tikal–Calakmul superpower rivalry and a web of proxy conflicts that shaped Classic Maya civilization.

See it on the timeline

Belligerents

The main peoples, kingdoms and states involved.

  • Tikal
  • Calakmul
  • Caracol
  • Dos Pilas
  • Palenque
  • Copán
  • other Maya polities

Key moments

Defining events in the Maya City-State Wars.

  1. 562 CE Caracol sack of Tikal
  2. 648–761 CE Dos Pilas campaigns against Tikal
  3. 695 CE Tikal's revenge victory under Jasaw Chan K'awiil

Elsewhere in Americas at the time

Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.

See the whole view

Landmark · Americas

Chichen Itza

600 CE – still standing

Polity · Americas

Chorrera

Attested 1500 BCE – 100 BCE

Trade route · Americas

Polynesian Eastward Voyaging

700 CE – 1300 CE

Conflict · Americas

Monte Albán Zapotec Conquest State

200 BCE – 500 CE

Landmark · Americas

Teotihuacan

200 BCE – still standing

Polity · Americas

Monte Albán

Attested 323 BCE – 700 CE

Trade route · Americas

Voyage to Hawai'i

700 CE – 1300 CE

Conflict · Americas

Tikal–Calakmul Superpower Wars

537 CE – 743 CE

Dated moments inside this span

Events the timeline places between 400 BCE and 900 CE.

300 BCE Great Serpent Mound 200 BCE Teotihuacan 200 BCE Tiwanaku 200 BCE Copán 100 CE Mitla

And in the rest of the world

Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.

Petra Landmark · Middle East 300 BCE – still standing Meroe Polity · Middle East 500 BCE – 400 CE Nile River Trade Trade route · Middle East 3000 BCE – 30 BCE Warring States Period Conflict · East Asia 475 BCE – 221 BCE Socrates Figure · Greece 470 BCE – 399 BCE Colosseum Landmark · Europe 80 CE – still standing
Image credits4 pictures from Wikimedia Commons