The World Then
An interactive atlas of world history
about
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This Atlas redraws the world at any year from 2000 BCE to today, using historical map sheets and open data. Those sources cover some times and places much better than others, so keep three things in mind:
Quiet areas mean thin records, not empty land. People lived everywhere, including the places the sources skip.
Borders here are rough. They are drawn to tell the story, and no line on this map is a claim about where a border really ran, or belongs.
Events, rulers, and places are linked through Wikidata, and its filing system has quirks. Sometimes a story lands in the wrong place. When it looks off, trust the linked article over the map.
Watch the years unfold · Drag time · Click any polity for its story