Five turning points of European history
Pompeii, Constantinople, Genghis Khan, the Enlightenment, and Westphalia.
5 questions. Pick an answer to see the explanation. Share your result at the end.
In what year did Mount Vesuvius bury Pompeii?
The eruption occurred in 79 AD. The traditional date of 24 August has been revised by modern archaeology — autumn-harvest material, woolen cloaks on victim bodies, and a charcoal inscription dated 17 October found in 2018 all point to an October date, now consensus-accepted as approximately 24 October 79 AD. 44 BC is the assassination of Julius Caesar; 117 AD the death of Trajan; 180 AD the death of Marcus Aurelius.
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 Temüjin acclaimed Genghis Khan, founding the Mongol Empire?
Temüjin was acclaimed Genghis Khan at the kurultai (tribal council) of 1206, at the age of approximately 44. 1258 is the Mongol sack of Baghdad; 1279 is the completion of the conquest of Southern Song China under Kublai Khan; 1368 is the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in China.
Whose 1784 essay 'What Is Enlightenment?' provided the movement's most famous summary, *Sapere aude* ('Dare to know')?
Kant's 1784 essay *Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?* offered the standard summary of the movement's self-conception: the application of independent reasoning to all questions, captured by the slogan *Sapere aude* — 'Dare to know.' Voltaire died in 1778; Rousseau in 1778; Hume in 1776 — none of them wrote this essay.
Which 1648 treaty ended the Thirty Years' War and established the foundations of the modern European state system?
The Peace of Westphalia (24 October 1648) consisted of two linked treaties signed at Münster and Osnabrück. It ended the Thirty Years' War, recognized Dutch and Swiss independence, and established the principle of sovereign territorial states — the 'Westphalian system' that still names the modern international order. Versailles is 1919 (WWI); Tordesillas is 1494 (Spanish-Portuguese New World division); Augsburg is 1555 (the earlier and inadequate Lutheran-Catholic settlement).