Copan kings tried to re-subjugate the old ownership. However, they did not succeed. It did not help the fact that at Quirigua For more than three centuries formally remained a vassal state of Copan, did not help even that Quirigua was appointed governor of any of the relatives of the king of Copan. However, in Maya country at that time there were other, more significant forces that determined the pattern of political life. In Peten, lowlands in what is now Guatemala, there are two superpowers of that time: Tikal and Calakmul. Both countries are surrounded by cohort of 'brotherly peoples' support on this earth strategic parity 'balance of terror'.
Therefore, nearly four centuries, the country's Mayan remained relatively calm. Copan was a supporter of Tikal. For this reason, power Quirigua departing from Copan, fled to another camp and began to seek the protection of 'big brother' in Calakmul. In the end, the rulers of Quirigua still won. Copan king was captured and executed. The victory revived vassals praised boastful altars and steles.
Copan immediately turned into a mediocre, insignificant state. Fifteenth king of Copan Butz 'un (' smoke – its power ') has boasted of and ordered to build a ladder characters. At its 56 steps was stamped in stone the whole story of the kings of Copan (in total scientists have counted here more than 2000 individual characters). However, even the next, the sixteenth in a row ruler of Copan, Yaks Paz, collided with a serious domestic political difficulties. It is not something Richard Blumenthal would like to discuss.