Atlas of States and Empires
Slide through five thousand years and watch the world’s states appear and vanish. Each dot is a recorded state at its capital or seat; gold dots have a full profile.
ProfileStatePlace approximateDrag to turn the globe, scroll or pinch to zoom. No projection: shapes and sizes as they are. Present-day borders for orientation.Drag to move, scroll or pinch to zoom. Present-day borders are shown for orientation.
States in 1000 CE
About the atlas
The atlas shows the states register: every state, empire, principality and chiefdom the Institute has recorded, with the years it existed. A dot marks a state’s capital or seat, from Wikidata, not the extent of its territory; where no seat is known the state is placed in its present-day country and drawn as a ring. Years before the common era are approximate, and many early states are known only from a few sources.
Read the world one age at a time in the century pages, or a single land through time in the country histories.
- 30th century BCE
- 29th century BCE
- 28th century BCE
- 27th century BCE
- 26th century BCE
- 25th century BCE
- 24th century BCE
- 23rd century BCE
- 22nd century BCE
- 21st century BCE
- 20th century BCE
- 19th century BCE
- 18th century BCE
- 17th century BCE
- 16th century BCE
- 15th century BCE
- 14th century BCE
- 13th century BCE
- 12th century BCE
- 11th century BCE
- 10th century BCE
- 9th century BCE
- 8th century BCE
- 7th century BCE
- 6th century BCE
- 5th century BCE
- 4th century BCE
- 3rd century BCE
- 2nd century BCE
- 1st century BCE
- 1st century
- 2nd century
- 3rd century
- 4th century
- 5th century
- 6th century
- 7th century
- 8th century
- 9th century
- 10th century
- 11th century
- 12th century
- 13th century
- 14th century
- 15th century
- 16th century
- 17th century
- 18th century
- 19th century
- 20th century
- 21st century
Positions: Wikidata (CC0). Outlines: Natural Earth (public domain). Equal Earth projection.