# Falls of nations How states and empires end: from the Bronze Age collapse and the sack of Rome to Saigon 1975 and Kabul 2021. *This story part of: State, law, and coercion* ## c. 1180 BCE — Fall of the Hittite Empire Around 1180 BC the Hittite capital Hattusa was destroyed and abandoned, ending the empire that had ruled much of Anatolia and northern Syria. Only smaller Neo-Hittite states survived in the aftermath. ## c. 1177 BCE — Late Bronze Age Collapse Around 1177 BC a wave of destruction toppled the Mycenaean, Hittite, and other palace states across the eastern Mediterranean and Near East. Cities were burned and abandoned, and several writing systems and trade networks disappeared. ## c. 722 BCE — Fall of the Kingdom of Israel In 722 BC the Assyrian empire captured Samaria and ended the northern Kingdom of Israel. Much of its population was deported, and the region became an Assyrian province. ## 10 August 612 BCE — Fall of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire On 10 August 612 BC a coalition of Medes and Babylonians stormed and sacked Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. The victory broke Assyrian power, and the empire ceased to exist within a few years. ## c. 586 BCE — Fall of the Kingdom of Judah Around 586 BC the Neo-Babylonian army under Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple, and ended the Kingdom of Judah. Much of the population was exiled to Babylon. ## c. 546 BCE — Fall of the Lydian Kingdom Around 546 BC Cyrus the Great defeated King Croesus and captured the Lydian capital Sardis. Lydia, one of the wealthiest states of Anatolia, became a Persian province. ## 12 October 539 BCE — Fall of Babylon to Cyrus the Great On 12 October 539 BC the Persian army of Cyrus the Great entered Babylon, ending the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The city was taken with little fighting and absorbed into the Achaemenid realm. ## 330 BCE — Fall of the Achaemenid Empire In 330 BC the armies of Alexander the Great overran the Persian heartland, and the last Achaemenid king, Darius III, was killed by his own officers. The empire that had ruled from the Aegean to the Indus came to an end. ## c. 185 BCE — Fall of the Maurya Empire Around 185 BC the last Mauryan emperor was killed by his general Pushyamitra Shunga, who founded a new dynasty. The empire that had once unified most of the Indian subcontinent dissolved into smaller states. ## 22 June 168 BCE — Fall of the Kingdom of Macedon At the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC the Roman legions crushed the Macedonian army of King Perseus. The Antigonid monarchy was abolished, and Macedon was broken up and later annexed by Rome. ## 146 BCE — Destruction of Carthage In 146 BC Roman forces ended the Third Punic War by storming and razing Carthage. The city was destroyed, its people enslaved, and its territory became the Roman province of Africa. ## August 30 BCE — End of Ptolemaic Egypt In 30 BC, after defeat at Actium, Cleopatra VII took her own life and Octavian annexed Egypt. The death of the last Ptolemaic ruler ended three centuries of Greek dynastic rule over Egypt. ## 16 January 27 BCE — End of the Roman Republic On 16 January 27 BC the Senate granted Octavian the title Augustus, confirming his sole authority over the Roman state. The move marked the effective end of the Republic and the beginning of imperial rule. ## September 70 — Destruction of Jerusalem and Fall of Judea In 70 CE Roman legions under Titus captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple, ending the First Jewish-Roman War. The Judean commonwealth was crushed and its people scattered. ## 220 — Fall of the Han Dynasty In 220 CE the last Han emperor abdicated in favor of the warlord Cao Pi, ending four centuries of Han rule. China fragmented into the rival states of the Three Kingdoms period. ## c. 350 — Kingdom of Kush at Meroe Collapses Around 350 CE the Nubian Kingdom of Kush, centered on Meroe, declined and was raided by the Kingdom of Aksum. The long-lived African state faded, and its capital was largely abandoned. ## 24 August 410 — Sack of Rome by Alaric On 24 August 410 CE the Visigoths under Alaric captured and sacked the city of Rome. It was the first time in nearly 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy, a shock felt across the Roman world. ## 651 — Fall of the Sasanian Empire In 651 CE the last Sasanian king, Yazdegerd III, was killed while fleeing the Arab conquest. The fall ended the Persian empire and brought Iran under Muslim rule. ## 711 — Fall of the Visigothic Kingdom In 711 CE an Umayyad army defeated and killed the Visigothic king Roderic near the Guadalete River. Muslim forces swept across most of the Iberian Peninsula, ending the Visigothic kingdom. ## 750 — Fall of the Umayyad Caliphate In 750 CE the Abbasid revolution defeated the Umayyad army at the Battle of the Zab and overthrew the ruling dynasty. The Abbasids massacred the Umayyad family and moved the center of the caliphate eastward. ## c. 900 — Classic Maya Collapse Around 900 CE many of the great Maya cities of the southern lowlands were abandoned and their dynasties ended. Monument building stopped and populations declined sharply across the region. ## 907 — Collapse of the Tang Dynasty In 907 CE the warlord Zhu Wen forced the last Tang emperor to abdicate, ending nearly three centuries of Tang rule. China broke apart into the rival regimes of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. ## 1171 — Fall of the Fatimid Caliphate In 1171 Saladin abolished the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt after the death of its last caliph. Egypt returned to Sunni rule and became the base of Saladin's Ayyubid dynasty. ## c. 1221 — Fall of the Khwarazmian Empire Between 1219 and 1221 the Mongols under Genghis Khan destroyed the Khwarazmian Empire that ruled Central Asia and Persia. Great cities such as Samarkand and Urgench were sacked and their populations slaughtered. ## December 1240 — Mongol Sack of Kiev In December 1240 the Mongols captured and destroyed Kiev, the chief city of the Rus. The sack broke the power of Kievan Rus and placed its lands under Mongol overlordship. ## 10 February 1258 — Fall of Baghdad and the Abbasid Caliphate On 10 February 1258 the Mongols under Hulagu Khan took Baghdad and soon killed the last Abbasid caliph. The sack ended the caliphate and is often seen as the close of the Islamic Golden Age. ## 19 March 1279 — Fall of the Song Dynasty At the naval Battle of Yamen on 19 March 1279 the Mongols destroyed the last Song fleet, and the boy emperor died. The victory completed the Mongol conquest of China under the Yuan dynasty. ## May 1291 — Fall of Acre and the Crusader Kingdom In May 1291 the Mamluks captured Acre, the last major stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Its fall ended nearly two centuries of Crusader states in the Holy Land. ## 1396 — Fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire By 1396 the Ottomans had conquered the remaining Bulgarian lands after taking the capital Tarnovo. The Second Bulgarian Empire ended, and Bulgaria remained under Ottoman rule for centuries. ## c. 1450 — Fall of Great Zimbabwe Around 1450 the city of Great Zimbabwe was largely abandoned as its power and trade declined. The stone-built capital of a wealthy southern African state gave way to successor kingdoms. ## 2 January 1492 — Fall of Granada On 2 January 1492 the Nasrid ruler Boabdil surrendered Granada to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. The fall of the last Muslim state in Iberia completed the Reconquista. ## 13 August 1521 — Fall of Tenochtitlan Hernan Cortes, with indigenous allies and after a devastating smallpox epidemic, captures the Aztec capital. The conquest opens the Americas to Spanish colonial rule and centuries of European domination. ## 29 August 1526 — Fall of the Kingdom of Hungary at Mohacs At the Battle of Mohacs on 29 August 1526 the Ottomans destroyed the Hungarian army and killed King Louis II. The medieval Kingdom of Hungary collapsed and was later partitioned. ## 1533 — Fall of the Inca Empire In 1533 Spanish conquistadors under Francisco Pizarro executed the captured emperor Atahualpa and seized the Inca capital Cusco. The conquest broke the largest empire of the Americas. ## 23 January 1565 — Fall of the Vijayanagara Empire At the Battle of Talikota on 23 January 1565 a coalition of Deccan sultanates defeated Vijayanagara and killed its regent. The capital was sacked and destroyed, and the empire never recovered. ## 13 March 1591 — Fall of the Songhai Empire At the Battle of Tondibi on 13 March 1591 a Moroccan army with firearms routed the much larger Songhai force. The defeat shattered West Africa's largest empire, and no successor state matched its power. ## 25 April 1644 — Fall of the Ming Dynasty On 25 April 1644 the last Ming emperor hanged himself as rebel forces entered Beijing. Manchu armies soon took the capital and founded the Qing dynasty, ending Ming rule. ## 23 October 1722 — Fall of the Safavid Empire On 23 October 1722, after a long siege, the Safavid shah surrendered his capital Isfahan to invading Afghan forces. The collapse ended effective Safavid rule over Persia. ## April 1767 — Fall of the Ayutthaya Kingdom In April 1767 a Burmese army captured and burned the Siamese capital Ayutthaya after a long siege. The centuries-old kingdom fell, though a new Siamese state soon rose under Taksin. ## 1772 to 1795 — Partitions of Poland Between 1772 and 1795 Russia, Prussia, and Austria divided the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth among themselves in three partitions. By 1795 Poland had vanished from the map for over a century. ## 4 May 1799 — Fall of the Kingdom of Mysore On 4 May 1799 British and allied forces stormed Seringapatam and killed Tipu Sultan. The victory ended independent Mysore and extended British power over southern India. ## 6 August 1806 — End of the Holy Roman Empire On 6 August 1806 Francis II abdicated the imperial crown under pressure from Napoleon, dissolving the Holy Roman Empire. The thousand-year framework of German states came to an end. ## 22 June 1815 — Fall of the First French Empire After defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon abdicated a second time on 22 June 1815. His fall ended the First French Empire and restored the Bourbon monarchy. ## 1831 — Dissolution of Gran Colombia By 1831 the union of Gran Colombia had broken apart into Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador. Regional rivalries and the death of Simon Bolivar ended his vision of a single large republic. ## 1857 — End of the Mughal Empire After the failed Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British deposed and exiled the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II. The dynasty ended and the British Crown took direct control of India. ## 4 September 1870 — Fall of the Second French Empire After Napoleon III was captured at Sedan, the Second French Empire fell and a republic was proclaimed on 4 September 1870. The collapse came in the middle of the Franco-Prussian War. ## 4 July 1879 — Fall of the Zulu Kingdom At the Battle of Ulundi on 4 July 1879 British forces defeated the Zulu army and burned the royal capital. The victory ended the independent Zulu Kingdom of southern Africa. ## 17 January 1893 — Fall of the Kingdom of Hawaii On 17 January 1893 a group of American and European settlers, backed by U.S. Marines, overthrew Queen Liliuokalani. The coup ended the Hawaiian monarchy, and the islands were later annexed by the United States. ## 1897 — Fall of the Merina Kingdom In 1897 France abolished the Merina monarchy and exiled Queen Ranavalona III. Madagascar was made a French colony, ending the island's main precolonial state. ## February 1897 — Fall of the Kingdom of Benin In February 1897 a British expedition captured and looted Benin City, exiling its oba. The punitive raid ended the independent Kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria. ## 1902 — Fall of the Ashanti Empire In 1902 Britain annexed the Ashanti lands after crushing the last major resistance. The powerful West African empire, centered on Kumasi, lost its independence. ## 15 March 1903 — Fall of the Sokoto Caliphate In March 1903 British forces captured the city of Sokoto and defeated its ruler. The conquest ended the Sokoto Caliphate, one of the largest states in nineteenth-century Africa. ## 29 August 1910 — Fall of the Korean Empire On 29 August 1910 Japan formally annexed Korea, ending the Korean Empire and the long Joseon dynasty. Korea remained under Japanese colonial rule until 1945. ## 12 February 1912 — Fall of the Qing Dynasty On 12 February 1912 the child emperor Puyi abdicated, ending the Qing dynasty and more than two thousand years of imperial rule in China. The Republic of China took its place. ## 15 March 1917 — Collapse of the Russian Empire On 15 March 1917 Tsar Nicholas II abdicated during the February Revolution, ending Romanov rule and the Russian Empire. A provisional government took power before the Bolsheviks seized control later that year. ## November 1918 — Dissolution of Austria-Hungary In November 1918, as World War I ended, the Habsburg monarchy collapsed and Austria-Hungary broke apart. Several new nation-states emerged from its former territories. ## 9 November 1918 — Fall of the German Empire On 9 November 1918 revolution forced Kaiser Wilhelm II from power, and a republic was proclaimed. The German Empire ended just before the armistice that closed World War I. ## 1 November 1922 — Fall of the Ottoman Empire On 1 November 1922 the Grand National Assembly abolished the Ottoman sultanate, deposing Mehmed VI. The move ended an empire that had lasted more than six centuries. ## 18 June 1953 — Fall of the Kingdom of Egypt On 18 June 1953, following the 1952 military coup, Egypt was declared a republic and the monarchy abolished. The Muhammad Ali dynasty that had ruled since the early nineteenth century came to an end. ## 14 July 1958 — Fall of the Kingdom of Iraq On 14 July 1958 army officers overthrew and killed King Faisal II, ending the Hashemite monarchy of Iraq. A republic was declared in its place. ## 1 September 1969 — Fall of the Kingdom of Libya On 1 September 1969 a group of officers led by Muammar Gaddafi overthrew King Idris in a bloodless coup. The Libyan monarchy was abolished and replaced by a republic. ## 1 June 1973 — End of the Greek Monarchy On 1 June 1973 the ruling military junta abolished the Greek monarchy and declared a republic. A 1974 referendum after the junta fell confirmed the end of the crown. ## 12 September 1974 — Fall of the Ethiopian Monarchy On 12 September 1974 the military Derg deposed Emperor Haile Selassie, ending a monarchy that traced its roots back many centuries. Ethiopia became a military-ruled state. ## 30 April 1975 — Fall of Saigon and South Vietnam On 30 April 1975 North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon, ending the Republic of Vietnam. The fall closed the Vietnam War and led to the unification of the country under communist rule. > "the fall of Saigon (April 1975)" > — The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers ## 3 October 1990 — End of East Germany On 3 October 1990 East Germany was dissolved and its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany. Reunification ended the separate communist German state. ## 1991 to 1992 — Breakup of Yugoslavia In 1991 and 1992 Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia broke away, and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia dissolved amid war. The multiethnic federation fractured into separate states. ## 1 January 1993 — Dissolution of Czechoslovakia On 1 January 1993 Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The event became known as the Velvet Divorce for its calm, negotiated character. ## 15 August 2021 — Fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan On 15 August 2021 the Taliban entered Kabul as the government collapsed and the president fled. The fall ended the Western-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.