What happened to the Mayas is one example of the unsustainable development that destroyed many of the world's earliest settled societies. By using the natural resources available, by finding ways to exploit them fully, by creating artificial environments, the Mayas were able a complex society capable of great cultural and intellectual achievements. For a considerable time, their society continued to develop and flourish. However,the demands of this ever-expanding society outgrew the ability of the altered environment to support it. Actions to ensure the food supply, which at first must have looked like creative solutions to environmental limitations, proved to have disastrous long-term effects. Ultimately, the Mayas destroyed the environment on which they relied for food, the environment the was the basis for their survival.