Map stories

Each of these follows one empire or turning point through a handful of maps. Every map opens on the live map at the same year, so you can keep scrubbing through time from there.

264 BCE–480 CE
The Roman Empire
From a republic in Italy to an empire around the whole Mediterranean, and its division and fall in the west.
1206–1300
The Mongol Empire
How Genghis Khan and his heirs built the largest land empire in history, and how it split into four.
1400–1914
The Ottoman Empire
Six centuries of the Ottoman state, from Anatolian beylik to the gates of Vienna and back.
1880–1914
The Scramble for Africa
How European powers partitioned almost the whole of Africa in a single generation.
1914–1920
Europe Before and After the First World War
Four empires fell and a belt of new states took their place: the map of Europe redrawn in six years.