Sorry to re-open this can of worms...

But, with the release of Crusader King III and its end date in 1453, I hope that EU5 will have a start date that is later than 1453.
I think that a new cool EU5 start date should be 1492 and the end date should be somewhere around 1880, before the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 (also known as the Congo Conference).
This would leave Victoria 3 to portray the New Imperialist era (1880-1913) and the scramble for Africa (leading into WW1).