Compare Two Historical Maps

Pick a region and two years, then drag the slider to see how the borders changed. The lists below show which states appeared, disappeared, grew or shrank.

Popular comparisons

• Fall of the Western Roman Empire: AD 400 vs AD 500 — Between 400 and 500 the Western Roman Empire breaks up into Germanic kingdoms, while the Eastern Roman Empire survives.
• Rise of the caliphate: AD 600 vs AD 700 — Within a century of Muhammad, the caliphate stretches from Spain to Central Asia.
• Mongol conquests: 1200 vs 1300 — Genghis Khan and his successors build the largest contiguous land empire in history.
• Age of Discovery: 1492 vs 1600 — European empires spread across the Americas and to the coasts of Africa and Asia.
• Napoleonic Europe: 1783 vs 1815 — From the eve of the French Revolution to the Congress of Vienna.
• Scramble for Africa: 1880 vs 1914 — European powers divide almost the whole of Africa among themselves.
• World War I: 1914 vs 1920 — Four empires collapse and new states appear across central and eastern Europe.
• Decolonisation: 1945 vs 1994 — Colonial empires dissolve into dozens of independent states.
• End of the Cold War: 1960 vs 1994 — The Soviet Union and Yugoslavia break apart and Germany reunites.