Final answer:
The collapse of the Maya civilization was likely due to a combination of factors, including environmental degradation, warfare, societal issues, and possibly disease, with their cumulative effect causing the civilization's decline.
Step-by-step explanation:
The collapse of the Maya civilization has been attributed to a variety of factors, indicating it was likely a result of multiple interconnected causes rather than a single event. Prominent theories propose that elements such as environmental degradation, warfare, resource depletion, societal issues, and climate change played significant roles. Environmental factors like deforestation and soil exhaustion could have led to food shortages and famine. Sustained drought could have exacerbated these difficulties. Furthermore, societal issues such as political turmoil, potentially increased by warfare between competing city-states and internal conflicts, may have hastened the downfall of the Maya states. The potential spread of diseases could have also impacted the population, contributing to the decline. While the exact hierarchy of these causes remains debated, it is generally accepted that their cumulative effect triggered the eventual collapse of Maya civilization.