Historic Events on the Map
The turning points of world history, each on the map for the years it happened: who held which land before and after, where the battles were fought and how the borders changed. Every page has a timeline that moves the map, key facts, pictures and answers to the questions people ask.
High & Late Middle Ages & Steppe Hegemonies
1095 – 1291Crusades mapThe Crusades were a series of wars, launched by the popes between 1095 and 1291, to win and hold Jerusalem and the Holy Land for Latin Christendom.
1337 – 1453Hundred Years' War mapThe Hundred Years' War was a long series of wars between the kings of England and France, fought mostly in France from 1337 to 1453.
1346 – 1353Black Death mapThe Black Death was the plague pandemic that swept from Central Asia through the Middle East, North Africa and Europe between 1346 and 1353.
Early Modern & Age of Discovery
1618 – 1648Thirty Years' War mapThe Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) began as a revolt by the Protestant nobles of Bohemia against their Catholic Habsburg king and grew into a war for the balance of power in Europe, drawing in Denmark, Sweden, Spain and France.
1765 – 1783American Revolution mapThe American Revolution was the rebellion in which thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America threw off British rule and founded the United States.
Industrial Era & Global Empires
1814 – 1815Waterloo and the Congress of Vienna mapIn 1814–1815 the victors over Napoleon met at the Congress of Vienna to redraw the map of Europe.
1861 – 1865American Civil War mapThe American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States (the Union) and eleven Southern states that seceded to form the Confederate States of America after Abraham Lincoln's election, to protect slavery.
Modern & Contemporary Era
1945 – 1953Division of Korea and the Korean War mapAt the end of the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union divided Korea, a Japanese colony since 1910, along the 38th parallel.
1955 – 1975Vietnam War mapThe Vietnam War was fought from 1955 to 1975 between communist North Vietnam, backed by the Soviet Union and China, and South Vietnam, backed above all by the United States, which sent more than half a million troops.
1961 – 1989Berlin Wall mapThe Berlin Wall was the guarded concrete barrier that East Germany built around West Berlin on 13 August 1961 to stop its people fleeing to the West.
1991 – 2008Breakup of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Wars mapBetween 1991 and 2008 the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia broke apart into seven countries: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, whose independence is not recognised by all states.