Final answer:
The decline of the Mayan civilization was influenced by multiple factors such as climate change and environmental stress, warfare, and competition for resources, which were intertwined with internal strife and political turmoil.
Step-by-step explanation:
The "mysterious" collapse of the Mayan civilization has been the subject of much historical debate, and though we do not have a definitive answer, several contributors have been identified. Factors such as climate change and environmental stress, warfare, and competition for resources played significant roles in the fragmentation of the Mayan society. Around the ninth century CE, internal strife and malnutrition exacerbated the instability and were precursors to the Mayan civilization's decline. Conclusively, the Mayan people faced a multiplicity of challenges that overlapped and seemingly cascaded, leading to their downfall well before the Spanish invasions that further shaped their historical trajectory. By examining other civilizations' fall, it is evident that issues such as environmental change, crop disease, resource depletion, and climate-triggered droughts frequently intertwine with sociopolitical turmoil, resulting in a complex web of causality. Like other civilizations, the Maya experienced these challenges cumulatively over time. While political unrest and internal conflicts certainly were factors, the single most impactful cause appears rooted in environmental and climatic adversities, which contributed heavily to social and political disruptions.