Five ends
Rome, Acre, the Hundred Years' War, Constantinople, and the last sultan.
5 questions. Pick an answer to see the explanation. Share your result at the end.
When is the Western Roman Empire conventionally said to have fallen?
The conventional date is 4 September 476 AD, when the Germanic general Odoacer deposed the last Western emperor, the teenage Romulus Augustulus. 410 was the first sack of Rome by Alaric and the Visigoths. 1453 was the fall of the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire to the Ottomans — a thousand years later. 330 was the founding of Constantinople as the new eastern capital.
When did the Crusader presence in the Holy Land end?
Acre, the last major Crusader stronghold on the Levantine coast, fell to the Mamluk Sultanate on 18 May 1291 after a six-week siege. The remaining Crusader-held coastal forts surrendered or were evacuated over the following months. The two-century Crusader presence in the Holy Land was over. Jerusalem had been lost to Saladin a century earlier in 1187.
How long did the Hundred Years' War actually last?
The conventional dates are 1337 (Edward III's claim to the French throne) to 1453 (the French recovery of Bordeaux). That's 116 years, with multiple long periods of de facto truce. The label *Guerre de Cent Ans* is a 19th-century French historiographical convenience for what contemporaries experienced as a series of distinct wars.
In what year did Constantinople fall to the Ottomans, ending the Byzantine Empire?
Constantinople fell on 29 May 1453 to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II after a 53-day siege. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died fighting at the walls. 1204 is the Fourth Crusade sack of Constantinople (the city was recovered in 1261); 1517 is Luther's 95 Theses; 1648 is the Peace of Westphalia.
In what year was the Ottoman Empire formally abolished?
The Ottoman sultanate was formally abolished by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on 1 November 1922. The last sultan, Mehmed VI, left Constantinople on a British warship two weeks later. The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed on 29 October 1923 (1923 is a common but slightly wrong answer). 1918 is the Mudros armistice; 1908 the Young Turk revolution.