Historical maps showing territorial changes of countries and historical events of the past.
Did Stalin really plan to conquer the world? A 1952 magazine map claimed to reveal his Cold War strategy. Explore the history, the defector’s claims, and why the map still sparks debate today.
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Most of America’s biggest cities in 1790 were coastal New England ports – all built around fishing, shipping, and trade.
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Manhattan below City Hall is 50% larger than in the 1620s. Maps show the Heere Gracht canal (1626-1676), English water lots that added 500 acres by 1776, Castle Clinton built 300 feet offshore in 1808, Egbert Viele’s 1865 map showing landfill extent, Battery Park City’s 92 acres from World Trade Center excavation (1968-1976), and T. Kennard Thomson’s 1911 plan to dam the East River.
Read MoreBetween 1378 and 1417, three men simultaneously claimed to be pope. European kingdoms divided over allegiances to Rome, Avignon, and Pisa, driven purely by political interests rather than religious disagreements.
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New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period initiating with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and finishing with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spain in 1763.
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The Louisiana Purchase was the purchase of the territory of Louisiana by the U.S. from France in 1803. In return for 15 million dollars (~$18 per square mile), the U.S.obtained 828 thousand square miles or 2.14 million square kilometers. But, in reality, before purchase France only controlled a small part of this territory, mostly inhabited by Native Americans.
Read MoreIn less than a century, the United States transformed from a small coastal republic into a continental nation. Through the Louisiana Purchase, annexations, treaties, and wars, it gained territories stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific by 1853.
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Where do 42 million people live together? The answer might surprise you. Today’s largest city isn’t where most people expect, and the journey from ancient Mesopotamia to modern megacities shows how empires, trade routes, and industrial revolutions reshaped where humans chose to live.
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In 1938, the year before WW2, the United States had, by far, the largest economy worldwide in terms of GDP. The 5 Allied Great Powers that arose victorious from the war and the 3 Axis Tripartite Pact nations that were eventually defeated made up the 8 largest sovereign economies in 1938.
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Every Dutch town on a modern road sign is the latest draft of something considerably older, worn down by centuries of spoken language. This map by Victor van Werkhooven uses documented historical sources to show what the country would look like if that process had never started.
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