Empires and How They Fell

History · 10 questions

Powers rarely collapse for one reason; can you name the real ones.

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1. Which factor do historians most often stress in the fall of the Western Roman Empire?

   1. A single catastrophic battle
   2. One emperor's poor decision
   3. An overnight economic crash
   4. A long accumulation of pressures
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   D) A long accumulation of pressures

2. What broke the Spanish Empire's advantage despite vast silver imports from the Americas?

   1. The inflow fuelled inflation and debt
   2. The silver mines were exhausted at once
   3. The fleets were all lost at sea
   4. Silver was banned as currency
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   A) The inflow fuelled inflation and debt

3. What role did the Silk Road play in the spread of the Black Death?

   1. It kept the plague contained
   2. It had closed long before
   3. Trade routes carried it westward
   4. It only moved goods, never people
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   C) Trade routes carried it westward

4. Which technology most undermined the walled city as a defence?

   1. The crossbow
   2. Gunpowder artillery
   3. The stirrup
   4. The longbow
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   B) Gunpowder artillery

5. Why is the Ottoman Empire's late decline often linked to shifting trade routes?

   1. Its ports silted up completely
   2. Ocean routes bypassed its overland trade
   3. It banned foreign merchants
   4. Its currency was outlawed abroad
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   B) Ocean routes bypassed its overland trade

6. What made the Mongol Empire so difficult to hold together after its expansion?

   1. It was divided among rival heirs
   2. It had no written language
   3. It refused all trade
   4. It never built any roads
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   A) It was divided among rival heirs

7. What ultimately ended the Byzantine Empire in 1453?

   1. A treaty of dissolution
   2. A dynastic marriage
   3. An earthquake
   4. The fall of Constantinople
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   D) The fall of Constantinople

8. The Roman Empire in the east outlasted the western half by roughly a thousand years.

   1. True
   2. False
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   A) True

9. Rome fell in a single year, with a clean end date agreed by all historians.

   1. True
   2. False
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   B) False

10. Disease brought by Europeans was a major factor in the collapse of American empires.

    1. True
    2. False
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    A) True