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Visual History of Empires and Wars

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Every empire that rose and fell, every war that changed the map, drawn on one timeline. Pick a featured entry below or browse the full lists.

EmpireBritish Empire1583 to 1997 (414 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayThe largest empire in history: at its 1920 peak it covered about a quarter of the world's land and ruled a quarter of its people.Open visual historyEmpireMongol Empire1206 to 1368 (162 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayThe largest contiguous land empire ever, built in a single lifetime by nomads who had no cities of their own.Open visual historyEmpireRussian Empire1721 to 1917 (196 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayTwo centuries of expansion across a sixth of the earth's land, from Peter the Great's new capital on the Baltic to Nicholas II's abdication in a railway carriage.Open visual historyEmpireRoman Empire27 BC to 476 (503 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayFive centuries of emperors, from Augustus quietly burying the Republic to a teenage boy deposed by a Germanic general in 476.Open visual historyEmpireOttoman Empire1299 to 1922 (623 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodaySix centuries from a frontier principality in Anatolia to a superpower straddling three continents, and then a long, much-mocked decline that took another 200 years to finish.Open visual historyEmpireEmpire of Japan1868 to 1947 (79 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayIn eighty years Japan went from a closed feudal society to a modern industrial great power, to catastrophic defeat, and to a constitution written by its occupier.Open visual historyEmpireNazi Germany1933 to 1945 (12 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayTwelve years, one dictator, a war that killed tens of millions and a genocide that murdered six million Jews. The 'Thousand Year Reich' lasted from January 1933 to May 1945.Open visual historyEmpireSoviet Union (USSR)1922 to 1991 (69 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayThe first communist state: born in revolution and civil war, victor over Hitler, superpower of the Cold War, and dissolved with a signature in December 1991.Open visual historyEmpireNapoleonic (First French) Empire1804 to 1815 (11 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayA Corsican artillery officer crowned himself emperor, redrew the map of Europe, marched to Moscow, and lost it all twice.Open visual historyEmpireSpanish Empire1492 to 1976 (484 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayThe first empire on which the sun never set: silver from Potosi, galleons across the Pacific, and a slow decline into a shadow of itself.Open visual history
WarWorld War II1939 to 1945 (6 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayThe deadliest conflict in human history: six years, more than 60 countries and an estimated 70 to 85 million dead.Open visual historyWarWorld War I1914 to 1918 (4 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayThe war that was supposed to be over by Christmas 1914 instead lasted four years, killed some 20 million people and destroyed four empires.Open visual historyWarFrench Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars1792 to 1815 (23 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayTwenty-three years of almost continuous war that began with a revolution defending itself and ended with all of Europe united against one man.Open visual historyWarCold War1947 to 1991 (44 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayForty-four years in which the two superpowers never fought each other directly, and yet millions died in proxy wars from Korea to Angola.Open visual historyWarMongol invasions and conquests1206 to 1368 (162 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayIn the thirteenth century a nomad confederation of perhaps a million people conquered a hundred million, and killed tens of millions doing it.Open visual historyWarCrusades1096 to 1291 (195 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayTwo centuries of holy wars for Jerusalem that captured the city once, lost it for good in 1187, and ended with the fall of Acre in 1291.Open visual historyWarReconquista718 to 1492 (774 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayNearly eight centuries of Christian kingdoms pushing south across the Iberian Peninsula, ending in the same year Columbus sailed.Open visual historyWarVietnam War1955 to 1975 (20 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayTwenty years, over three million dead, more bombs than all of World War II, and a superpower's first outright defeat.Open visual historyWarAmerican Civil War1861 to 1865 (4 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayFour years that killed more Americans than every other US war combined, ended slavery and decided that the United States was one nation.Open visual historyWarAmerican Revolution1775 to 1783 (8 years)3000 BCAD 11500TodayThirteen colonies of the world's greatest empire declared themselves free, and with French help, made it stick.Open visual history

All empires, A to Z

Greyed out entries are being written and will link once published.

All wars, A to Z