Many writers concerned with impending collapse of Western civilisation refer to the well-known case of the fall of the Roman empire for comparisons. However, as argued by Victor Davis Hanson, another parallel historical example is that of the Byzantine Empire which had managed to survive 1,00 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The key city of Constantinople fell on May 29, 1453 to the Ottomans, as a Turkish army of 150,000 defeated the 7,000 defenders of the city. The city of Constantine was renamed as Istanbul by the Islamic invaders, and the once largest Christian church in the world became the largest mosque in the Islamic world. Today, there is no longer any epic kinetic battle, or last stand, as mass immigration and cultural and ethnic replacement does it all much more smoothly. And, unlike in the past, the ruling elites want this to happen.