# Where can I see what world historical political borders looked like?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 14, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677 "2011-03-14T17:52:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/1 "2011-03-14T17:52:39Z")
I saw that there are a couple maps like this on Wikimedia Commons, but I was hoping for some more. Basically, what were countries’ borders in 1600, 1750, 1850, etc, etc. Any help?
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### Author:  [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/2 "2011-03-14T18:05:43Z")
Google found me this commercial site: [World History Maps from OnlyGlobes.com - Free Shipping!](http://www.onlyglobes.com/World_History_Maps_s/328.htm)
There are several others, but I don’t know if you can browse them online. Sorry.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/3 "2011-03-14T19:10:57Z")
As a start, check out the University of Texas’s Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection.
[http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/index.html](http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/index.html)
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### Author:  [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/4 "2011-03-14T19:32:35Z")
Somewhere I have a “Historical Atlas” or “Atlas of History” or something like that. Not all the maps are political borders, and they’re not done at 50-year intervals, but some of what you want might be there.
I’ve also got some atlases from the early to mid-20th century. I’ve seen maps from the 1600s and 1700s but not in any organized collection.
If you just want the information and don’t need it in map form, I would recommend Isaac Asimov’s book on World History. He breaks history into time intervals that get smaller as we get closer to the present, and you can get a good sense of where borders were at the end of each time period.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/5 "2011-03-14T19:38:08Z")
[Colin McEvedy’s historical atlas series](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Colin%20McEvedy) is excellent for showing the ebb and flow of European history. His African and North American volumes are good too. Unfortunately, his Pacific atlas doesn’t really do justice to the the political evolution of Asia. Too much is crowded into a tiny sliver on the left-hand side of the maps.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/6 "2011-03-14T19:51:09Z")
[The Historical Atlas of the 20th Century](http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/20centry.htm) is obviously limited in terms of scope, but you can’t beat it for animated GIF maps ([Watch Communism spread and recede!](http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/communis.htm)) and some of the commentary is rather interesting.
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### Author:  [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/7 "2011-03-14T23:24:39Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#):
>
> [Colin McEvedy’s historical atlas series](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Colin%20McEvedy) is excellent for showing the ebb and flow of European history. His African and North American volumes are good too. Unfortunately, his Pacific atlas doesn’t really do justice to the the political evolution of Asia. Too much is crowded into a tiny sliver on the left-hand side of the maps.
My dad had a copy of the ancient world atlas when I was a kid. Truly awesome. It went from pre-history to fall of the Western empire.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/8 "2011-03-14T23:50:53Z")
> [@lisiate](#):
>
> My dad had a copy of the ancient world atlas when I was a kid. Truly awesome. It went from pre-history to fall of the Western empire.
There are four of them. Medieval runs from the fall of Rome to Columbus’s voyage. Modern continues from there to Napoleon, and Contemporary is from Napoleon to the present.
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### Author:  [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/9 "2011-03-15T00:04:39Z")
Here’s Europe by 100 year increments:
> **[Euratlas Periodis Web - Maps to be Used for the History of Europe](http://www.euratlas.net/history/europe/index.html)**
>
> Online historical atlas of Europe showing a map of the European continent and the Mediterranean basin at the end of each century from year 1 to year 2000. Thus the history of Europe is described as a cultural area through Antiquity, Medieval and...
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/10 "2011-03-15T00:20:48Z")
This is pretty neat.
You’ll have to play for the full setup but the demo has plenty of maps.
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### Author:  [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2011, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/11 "2011-03-15T11:02:16Z")
> [@Sitnam](#):
>
> This is pretty neat.
>
> You’ll have to play for the full setup but the demo has plenty of maps.
[Fixed the link for you.](http://www.brothersoft.com/p.-historical-atlas-of-europe-demo-27749.html)
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2011, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/12 "2011-03-15T13:22:26Z")
> [@Baffle](#):
>
> [Fixed the link for you.](http://www.brothersoft.com/p.-historical-atlas-of-europe-demo-27749.html)
Thanks.
😕Where did I go wrong?
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### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-see-what-world-historical-political-borders-looked-like/574677/13 "2011-03-15T19:06:08Z")
thanks!