Back in time
The world in 1914
In 1914 much of the world was ruled from a handful of European capitals. Open the map in 1914 to see those empires’ borders, then play on through the First World War as its battles appear where they were fought.
Open the live mapWhat you see
- The world’s borders as they stood in 1914.
- Wars and battles appearing as they began.
- Play on at a month a second, or go to 1920 to see the borders the peace treaties drew.
Where the data comes from
- Seshat CliopatriaWorld borders year by year, from 3400 BCE to 2024.
- 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.
- Battles are placed where the records put them, some only roughly.
- The live layers pause while History is open.
Goes well with
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 world through historyAn interactive historical atlas: the world’s borders year by year from 3400 BCE, with wars, battles and other events from 7500 BCE, on a 3D globe.
The Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire on an interactive historical map, from its rise around 1300 to its end in 1922, with its borders at the siege of Vienna in 1683.