Is there a website that has modern-style historical world maps?

August 25, 2017 6:49 PM

I want to find a website where I can look at a map of the world, set a point in time, and see the lands and borders of that day/month/year, preferably on a modern map, such as a blank/generic Google map. Does that exist?

I fell into a wikihole, and realized I couldn't find a website like I'm thinking of, so here goes: Is there a good website that has world maps that I could look at in a point in time, maybe be able to adjust the time at a whim, maybe on a Google map or Open map or similar?

For instance, I was reading the wikipedia page about the Crimean War, because no matter how many times I read about the Crimean War, I always think "Why was this war fought again? Who even fought? Who won? When was this?" I re-learned that the war started in 1853. So I wanted to find a map of the world in 1853, and all I found were sites with historical maps, which is to say, images of actual maps made in 1853. What I wondered is: is there a website that I can pull up a more-or-less generic map of the world, and set a year, look about, change the year? Does that exist?

posted by Mister Fabulous to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

This is not an answer to your question, but it sounds like you'd really enjoy Colin McEvedy's series of Atlases. Each spread has the same map area on the right, and explanatory text on the left. "Recent History" covers the period you're currently interested in. "Medieval History" is the best.
posted by caek at 8:38 PM on August 25, 2017

Seconding the McEvedy atlases. Chronas approximates the kind of the thing you're looking for, but it's a work in progress. You might also like Ian Mladjov's maps, and Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States is also worth a squizz.
posted by zamboni at 8:53 PM on August 25, 2017

Here's the FPP on Chronas from last year, and another interactive historical map application I found while looking for that FPP: GeaCron.
posted by XMLicious at 10:03 PM on August 25, 2017

Also not exactly what you're looking for, but might scratch the itch a bit, this site has animated/interactive maps of things like religion and democracy over time:
Maps of War
posted by quinndexter at 2:35 AM on August 26, 2017

This video covers Europe and western Asia only, and is pretty basic, but it does some of what you want.
posted by brianogilvie at 8:31 AM on August 26, 2017

Seconding Geacron - I think it gives a nice territory-based view of history, although it's lacking in nuance, obviously.
posted by Happy Dave at 8:32 AM on August 26, 2017