Back in time

The world through history

Pick a year and the map redraws the world as it was: its states and empires, and the wars, battles and other events of that moment, playing forward at the speed you choose.

Open the live mapEverything on the map
The world through historyOpen the live map

What you see

  • World borders from 3400 BCE to 2024, with detailed dated borders from OpenHistoricalMap from zoom 7.
  • Eight kinds of event, each a switch: wars and battles (from 7500 BCE), attacks, territorial claims, heritage in danger, natural hazards, politics, nuclear explosions and disasters.
  • Countries coloured by about 45 measures, such as life expectancy, GDP per person and population.
  • Click an event or a state for its Wikipedia article; click a country to chart it over time.
  • “Go to” takes a year, a date, “500 BCE” or a period’s name, and thirteen chosen moments are one click away.

Where the data comes from

  • Seshat CliopatriaWorld borders year by year, from 3400 BCE to 2024.
  • OpenHistoricalMapDetailed dated borders, from zoom 7.
  • Event recordsCorrelates of War, UCDP, the Global Terrorism Database, NOAA hazards, SIPRI’s nuclear tests, UNESCO and Wikidata, among others.

Historical records are imported once and change rarely; they are updated when their sources publish new editions.

Good to know

  • Borders are reconstructions: where they were vague or disputed, the map shows one reading of them.
  • Each kind of event covers its own span. There are no borders before 3400 BCE and no events before 7500 BCE.
  • The live layers pause while History is open.

Goes well with

The world in 1914The world in 1914 on an interactive map: the empires and borders on the eve of the First World War, then the war’s battles as they happened.World War II in EuropeEurope in the Second World War on an interactive map: borders, alliances and occupation month by month from February 1938 to May 1945, with the battles.The Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire on an interactive historical map: its borders in 117 CE at their greatest extent, and how they grew and fell over the centuries.Continental driftWatch the continents move on a 3D globe, from the supercontinent Nuna 1.8 billion years ago through Pangaea to today, with a 13-chapter story along the way.