ATLAS OF BORDERS
ABOUT
Atlas of Borders follows the world's territories from the earliest records of civilisation, around 3000 BCE, to the present day. Forty-seven snapshots show how cities became kingdoms, kingdoms became empires, and empires broke apart into the roughly two hundred nations that now divide almost all of the Earth's land.
Move along the timeline or press play to watch the borders shift. The legend beneath the map ranks the largest powers of each era by their share of the world's land; select one to see everything it held. Each power keeps the same colour from one era to the next, so its growth and collapse can be followed through time.
For most of history, much of the map is unclaimed: land lived on by peoples who were never part of a state.
Border data from historical-basemaps by André Ourednik and contributors (GPL-3.0).