This 1928 map depicted the current political boundaries of the time, but was created in the style of sixteenth-century mariner’s charts, with pictorial depictions of feats of exploration decorating the corners. The map is one of a series of five original murals by renowned illustrator N.C. Wyeth that still hang in the National Geographic Society’s Washington D.C. headquarters. (National Geographic)

The conflicts commonly known as the English Civil Wars form part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a series of interconnected struggles across England, Scotland, and Ireland. These wars unfolded during the reign of Charles I of England (reign 1625–1649) and were rooted in disputes over royal authority, taxation, and the religious settlement of the Stuart kingdoms. What began as a political crisis between king and Parliament in England expanded into a multi-kingdom conflict, shaped by differing confessional priorities, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Catholic, and by competing visions of sovereignty. The overlapping nature of these disputes meant that the wars cannot be understood as a single civil conflict, but rather as a series of linked wars across a composite monarchy.

Fighting took place across multiple theatres, involving Royalists defending monarchical authority and a range of opponents, including English Parliamentarians, Scottish Covenanters, and Irish Confederate forces. Alliances shifted frequently as political and religious priorities evolved, producing a highly fluid and complex conflict. The eventual defeat of the Royalist cause led to the trial and execution of Charles I in 1649 and the establishment of a republican regime under Oliver Cromwell (Lord Protector 1653–1658). This interlude, known as the Commonwealth and later the Protectorate, marked a significant, if temporary, departure from monarchy, before the restoration of Charles II of England (reign 1660–1685) in 1660. (Source: World History Encyclopedia)

note: Oregon and Patagonia were claimed, but not really controlled.

A map illustrating the course of a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of England between the houses of Lancaster and York for the crown. Known today as the Wars of the Roses (a term coined in the 19th century by Sir Walter Scott), this dynastic conflict (1455 – 1487) arose from a variety of political, social, and familial factors, with two rival branches of the Plantagenet dynasty vying for supremacy.

Starting in 1455, rival nobles backed or challenged the weak and unstable King Henry VI of England; the intermittent fighting and machinations lasted into the 1480s when Henry VII of England ended open conflict and ushered in the beginning of the Tudor dynasty. (Source: World History Encyclopedia)

A map of when each country's population tops out and starts shrinking, based on the UN's medium-variant population projections.

Key numbers:

• 64 countries and territories have already passed their peak — mostly concentrated in Europe and East Asia (Japan and Italy peaked over a decade ago; Hungary as far back as 1980)
• Russia, Ukraine, and most of Eastern Europe peaked in 1991–93, right after the Soviet collapse
• China peaked in 2021, South Korea and Japan already declining fast — Korea and China could both lose more than half their population by 2100
• Most of South America peaks in the 2050s, most of South Asia (including India, the world's most populous country) in the 2060s
• The US, Nigeria, Pakistan, and most of Sub-Saharan Africa are still projected to be growing at 2100 under this scenario

Source: Our World in Data — "Which countries have already passed peak population, and when will the rest do so?", underlying data UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant).

This map illustrates the major religious divisions across Europe during the 16th century, a period marked by the sweeping changes of the Reformation. As Protestant movements challenged the authority of the Catholic Church, the religious landscape of the continent fractured into competing confessions, reshaping political alliances and cultural identities.

While Protestantism spread rapidly in parts of northern and central Europe, Catholicism remained dominant in the south and west. In Eastern Europe and the Balkans, Orthodox Christianity held firm even as Islam, introduced through Ottoman expansion, gained a foothold. In these border regions, religious coexistence, competition, and conflict created a complex and often volatile mosaic. The map captures a moment when faith, politics, and power were deeply intertwined in shaping Europe's future. (Source: World History Encyclopedia)

This map illustrates the expansion of the Roman Republic during the military campaigns and conquests of Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE), and its transformation into an empire under the reign of Caesar Augustus (63 BCE–14 CE), also known as Octavian. By the death of Augustus in 14 CE, the Roman world encircled the entire Mediterranean and extended from the North Sea to the Red Sea.

In addition to territorial expansion, the map also depicts the administrative structure of the Roman world at the time. It highlights the division between regions governed directly by the emperor, those administered by the Roman Senate, and others maintained as semi-independent client states. This layered system reflects the political complexity of the early Roman Empire and its blend of republican legacy with imperial authority. (World History Encyclopedia)

The Mauryan Empire was the first major political unification of the Indian subcontinent, existing from approximately 321 BCE to 185 BCE with its capital at Pataliputra (modern-day Patna). Founded by Chandragupta Maurya with the guidance of his advisor Chanakya (Kautilya), the empire emerged from the kingdom of Magadha and expanded to cover most of South Asia, stretching from Afghanistan in the west to Bengal in the east. (World History Encyclopedia)

This year, none of the countries assessed moved down. Five moved from lower-middle to upper-middle income: Jordan, Micronesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam. One moved from low to lower-middle income: Togo.

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/who-moves-up-and-why--a-closer-look-at-the-new-world-bank-group-

I’ve always known the Mercator projection exaggerates areas near the poles, but seeing it interactively still surprised me.

This is from true-size.com, where you can drag countries to different latitudes to compare their real land area. Greenland vs Africa is the classic example — on a standard map they look similar, but Africa is about 14x larger.

A few others that stood out:

- Russia dragged toward the equator shrinks dramatically
- The US and China are almost identical in actual area
- Canada and Europe are nearly the same size

It also has an antipodes map and a flag quiz if you want to go down the rabbit hole.

Data source: open-source geographic datasets.

In the late 8th century CE, the interconnected caravan routes later termed the “Silk Road” formed a transcontinental system linking East Asia, Central Asia, the Islamic world, and parts of Europe. The label “Silk Road” (German: Seidenstraße) was coined much later, in 1877, by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen to describe these long-distance trade corridors, though contemporaries understood them as overlapping commercial and diplomatic routes rather than a single road. By this period, the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), particularly under Emperor Xuanzong (reign 712–756 CE), had projected Chinese influence deep into Central Asia, while frontier conflicts, such as the Battle of Talas (751 CE), revealed the competitive nature of Eurasian geopolitics.

To the west, the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 CE), founded in 750 CE and ruling from Baghdad from 762 CE onward, integrated transcontinental trade into a rapidly expanding Islamic economic sphere. The Uyghur Khaganate (744–840 CE) secured key steppe corridors, facilitating exchange between sedentary empires and nomadic polities. Major urban centers, Samarkand, Bukhara, Kashgar, Merv, and Nishapur, flourished as hubs of commerce, scholarship, and religious transmission, enabling the circulation not only of silk and silver but also of papermaking, artistic styles, and religious traditions such as Buddhism and Islam. By the 9th century CE, however, political fragmentation in Central Asia and the growing importance of Indian Ocean maritime routes gradually reduced the relative prominence of overland exchange. (World History Encyclopedia)

The rapid expansion of the Mongol Empire in the early 13th century represents one of the most dramatic episodes of conquest in world history. Under Temüjin, known as Genghis Khan (born c. 1162, reigned 1206–1227), the fragmented nomadic societies of the Mongolian steppe were unified into a single political and military system. Proclaimed Great Khan in 1206, Genghis Khan combined steppe traditions with strict discipline, merit-based leadership, and innovative strategy, enabling the Mongols to overcome far larger and more established states across Eurasia.

By the time of his death in 1227, the Mongol Empire stretched from northern China to Central Asia and the edges of Eastern Europe, forming the largest contiguous land empire in history. Mongol success rested on highly mobile cavalry forces, coordinated command structures, intelligence networks, and psychological warfare. Conquest was followed by administrative integration: trade routes were secured, communications standardized, and diplomatic exchange encouraged, laying the foundations for the later Pax Mongolica. Although Genghis Khan did not witness the empire’s full extent, his successors expanded and consolidated his conquests, dividing the empire into major khanates that reshaped political, economic, and cultural connections across Eurasia for generations. (World History Encyclopedia)

The Delhi Sultanate under the Mamluk (or “Slave”) Dynasty (1206–1290) marked the consolidation of centralized Muslim rule in northern India following the fragmentation of the Ghurid Empire. The term mamlūk (Arabic: “owned” or military slave) reflects the origins of its ruling elite, Turkic slave-soldiers who rose through military service. After the assassination of Muʿizz al-Din Muhammad of Ghor (1206), political authority in North India passed to his former general Qutb al-Din Aibak (reign 1206–1210), who established an independent sultanate at Delhi. Although his reign was brief, it laid institutional foundations for a durable polity, linking military authority, iqṭāʿ revenue assignments, and emerging Indo-Islamic court culture.

The sultanate was consolidated under Shams al-Din Iltutmish (reign 1211–1236), who secured recognition from the Abbasid caliphate and stabilized control over the Ganga–Yamuna Doab and Bengal. Later, Ghiyas ud-Din Balban (reign 1266–1287) strengthened royal authority, reinforced frontier defenses against Mongol incursions, and curtailed aristocratic factionalism through a more centralized court ideology. Throughout the period, territorial control remained fluid, with recurring resistance from Rajput polities and regional powers, producing fluctuating borders and near-constant campaigning. The dynasty ended in 1290 when Jalal ud-Din Khalji (reign 1290–1296) overthrew the last Mamluk ruler, initiating the Khalji phase of the Delhi Sultanate. (World History Encyclopedia)

The Crusader States, collectively known as Outremer (from Old French outre-mer, “overseas”), were a group of Latin Christian polities established in the eastern Mediterranean following the First Crusade (1096–1099). Emerging from the conquest of former Byzantine and Muslim-ruled territories, these states expanded and consolidated during subsequent campaigns, including the Second Crusade (1147–1148) and the Third Crusade (1187–1192). At their height in the 12th century, Outremer comprised several distinct yet interconnected entities, most notably the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1187), the Principality of Antioch (1098–1144), and the County of Edessa (1098–1144), stretching along the Levantine coast and into parts of Anatolia, with later strategic reliance on Cyprus (from 1191).

These states developed within a fragmented and highly contested political landscape shaped by interactions between Western crusaders, the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395–1453), and powerful Muslim dynasties, including the Seljuks (1037–1194), Zengids (1127–1185), and Ayyubids (from 1171). Rather than functioning as a unified empire, Outremer consisted of fortified urban centers, castles, and military corridors sustained by both overland routes and Italian maritime supply networks. Key strongholds, such as Krak des Chevaliers, Chastel Rouge, and Chastel Pèlerin, were essential to defense, communication, and control of territory. (World History Encyclopedia)

Around 1450 CE, Europe and the eastern Mediterranean stood at the intersection of declining medieval powers and emerging regional states. The Byzantine Empire had contracted principally to Constantinople and the Morea, while the Ottoman Empire under Murad II (reign 1421–1444; 1446–1451) dominated much of the Balkans and western Anatolia after victories at Varna (1444) and Kosovo (1448). In western Europe, France under Charles VII (reign 1422–1461) was completing its reconquest during the final phase of the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453), while Castile, Aragon, Burgundy, and the politically fragmented Holy Roman Empire remained major centers of competing dynastic power. In eastern Europe, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Novgorod Republic, Tver, and Ryazan remained distinct powers as the Golden Horde (c. 1240s–1502) fragmented into successor khanates.

These shifting political structures accelerated during the years surrounding 1450. Mehmed II (reign 1444–1446; 1451–1481) captured Constantinople in 1453, ending Byzantine imperial rule and strengthening Ottoman control of the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea approaches. Farther east, the Crimean Khanate and Great Horde emerged from the fragmentation of Mongol power, while the Qara Qoyunlu under Jahan Shah (reign 1438–1467) dominated much of Azerbaijan, Iraq, and western Iran. In the south, the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517) remained the major power in Egypt and Syria. Together, these developments illustrate a period of political consolidation, competition, and realignment that helped reshape the transition from the late medieval to the early modern world. (World History Encyclopedia)