OR-001 · 1314
Abolished order · France
The Knights Templar — banked the Crusades, then a bankrupt king devoured them
1314 · Dissolved
OR-002 · 1773
Abolished order · Catholic Europe
The Suppression of the Jesuits — Europe’s kings hounded a pope into abolishing the order
1773 · Suppressed
OR-003 · 1826
Abolished order · Ottoman Empire
The Janissaries — the corps that made and unmade sultans was annihilated in a day
1826 · Massacred
OR-004 · 312
Abolished order · Roman Empire
The Praetorian Guard — the bodyguard that sold the throne was abolished by the man it fought
312 · Disbanded
OR-005 · 1858
Abolished company · India
The East India Company — a trading firm conquered India, then a mutiny ended its rule
1858 · Abolished
OR-006 · 1799
Bankrupt company · Netherlands
The Dutch East India Company — the world’s richest firm, sunk by debt and graft
1799 · Bankrupt
OR-007 · 1698
Disbanded corps · Russia
The Streltsy — Russia’s musketeer caste, broken by Peter the Great’s terror
1698 · Disbanded
OR-008 · 1811
Abolished order · Egypt
The Mamluks of Egypt — a slave-soldier caste lured to a citadel and gunned down
1811 · Massacred
OR-009 · 1798
Abolished order · Malta
The Knights Hospitaller of Malta — crusaders who handed Napoleon their island without a fight
1798 · Expelled
OR-010 · 1572
Abolished order · Russia
The Oprichnina — Ivan’s terror corps that he raised, used, then erased
1572 · Abolished
OR-011 · 1256
Abolished order · Persia
The Assassins of Alamut — a mountain order of killers, ground to dust by the Mongols
1256 · Destroyed
OR-012 · 1924
Abolished institution · Turkey
The Abolition of the Caliphate — a republic erased Sunni Islam’s symbolic throne in a day
1924 · Abolished
OR-013 · 1229
Exterminated movement · Languedoc
The Cathars — a faith and a region annihilated by crusade and inquisition
1229 · Exterminated
OR-014 · 1525
Abolished order · Prussia
The Teutonic Order’s Prussian State — its last Grand Master kept the land and dropped the vows
1525 · Secularized
OR-015 · 1539
Abolished institution · England
The Dissolution of the Monasteries — a king broke with Rome and seized a thousand years of wealth
1539 · Dissolved