A History of the World in 500 Maps

Product Information

In 3500 BCE, much of the world is inhabited by small groups of hunter-gatherers. Since about 9000 BCE, however, farming has been spreading in and around the Middle East, southern and eastern Asia, Europe and northern Africa. The spread of agriculture has enabled populations to expand, and villages of farmers now dot the landscapes of these regions. This is a trend which will last throughout global history, right up to the present day, as farmers push hunter-gatherers into ever smaller corners of the planet. The horse In Africa, the Bantu peoples, with their iron-using farming culture, are spreading across the central grasslands from their homeland in western Africa. As they go they displace or absorb the hunter-gatherer peoples they encounter. South East Asia and Oceania At this point in world history, at the height of the Bronze Age, civilization is continuing to spread throughout the Ancient World.

World Maps - World History Atlas Historical World Maps - World History Atlas

This new heavy cavalry was used, not just for mounted archery, but for charging the enemy and breaking up infantry formations with long spikes. Cavalry-on-cavalry engagements also became frequent. In due course, heavy cavalry would come to dominate the battlefield, and be the basis for the rise of the military aristocracies of the Middle Ages. That, however, is long in the future. For now, the military power of the states of the Mediterranean and Middle East rested on large, highly-organized formations of infantry. Alexander the Great’s phalanxes had proved their worth on the battlefield, but now the Roman army was the most effective exponent of this type of warfare. For sheer numerical superiority at this date, however, one has to look to China. South Asia In South Africa, the descendants of the European farmers settled on the southern tip of Africa have been multiplying. With the British taking control of the Cape territory, many of these farmers are migrating into the interior, founding independent republics there. Balkans and the Middle East In the Pacific, Polynesian culture is taking shape as the islanders adapt their way of life to local conditions. The Americas In central America, the Mayan civilization is on the rise, while in Mexico one of the largest cities of the pre-Columbian Americas, Teotihuacan, is in its pomp. The unification of China has been paralleled by the rise of the first steppe “empire” in world history. This is a culmination of a long process for the nomadic tribes of central Asia, who have posed an ever-increasing threat to the Chinese – a threat such that the Chinese have built a long series of defensive walls separating their agricultural homeland from the steppes.

Far to the south, the Chavin civilization, the first of a long series of urban cultures in the Andean region of South America, has appeared. The camel is being domesticated about now, probably in Arabia. This will open up trans-desert trade routes, and will give rise to the nomadic Bedouin lifestyle. Naval supremacy has gone hand in hand with commercial supremacy, and London, Britain’s capital, is now effectively the financial and commercial center of the world. The slave trade Elsewhere in Africa, the trans-Saharan trade routes continue to expand, and as a result, new states are appearing in West Africa. South East Asia

Review: A history of the world in 500 maps by Christian

Similar to nowadays, older civilizations used road maps for their migrations or economic trade routes between different regions. These world history maps allow us to look in the past and make an idea about how a road trip looked like for our ancestors. Enjoy The Latest Historical Maps for Free at World History Maps In the mid-6th century, much of the steppes of central Asia fell under the sway of a Turkish confederacy. This extended its power right across from China to Europe. It soon divided into Eastern and Western halves, and on the western steppes a Turkic people called the Khazars seized the leadership in the early 7th century. The Khazars have had to fight hard to stop Arab armies from pushing into the steppes. Perhaps because of this their rulers have recently converted to the Jewish faith. This period of world history is one which sees large states emerge to dominate the ancient civilizations of the Eastern Hemisphere. In so doing, they consolidate the cultural achievements of the past centuries, and expand the reach of these civilizations. East Asia To the west, the small land of Judaea has been the springboard of the spread of two major religions. Christianity is finding millions of converts throughout the Roman and Parthian empires. At the same time, the Jewish people are now experiencing the early stages of their Diaspora, which by this time has also reached the frontiers of Rome and Parthia. The Jews will play a major role in the history of Europe, particularly in the development of commerce and finance. AfricaBoth within the Roman empire and the barbarian kingdoms of the old western provinces, Christianity has become the official religion. From now on, European civilization will become synonymous with “Christendom”. East Asia Africa sees the emergence of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. Far to the south, the Bantu have reached the limit of their migration – which happens to be the southern limit of the tropical crops they rely on. Denis Bellemare. Historical Atlas of Late Antiquity. Maps of “ West Europe“, “ East Europe“, and “ North Europe” in 500 AD” South East Asia is experiencing two migrations. In a sort of pincer movement originating in southern China, farming populations are coming down via Burma into Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. These are the ancestors of today’s Mon and Khmer. To the east, meanwhile, the ancestors of today’s Malays are spreading along the coasts and islands of Vietnam, Malay and Indonesia.

World Map - 500 BCE: Greece, Persia, India and China - TimeMaps World Map - 500 BCE: Greece, Persia, India and China - TimeMaps

Over the past few centuries, Iron Age technology has been spreading far and wide in the Eastern Hemisphere. It has now reached South East Asia, and is rippling down into Africa. Wherever it arrives it replaces the Stone Age tools used by farmers for millennia. This allows agricultural productivity to rise, populations to expand, towns and cities to grow, and civilization to advance. It is one of the great turning points in global history. User:Dbachmann. Maps of “ Hallstatt_LaTene 800-500 BCE” and “ Hallstatt_culture.png”. Available on Wikipedia. share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.One phenomenon which certainly appears in West Africa at this time, though probably unrelated to the slave trade, occurs on the inland grasslands south of the Sahara. A number of campaigns –“jihads”– install puritanical Muslim groups as rulers of several kingdoms. These are mostly the work of members of the Fulani, a cattle herding and trading people who have lived in and around the trading towns of the region for centuries. Change in North America The Celts, or Gauls, as the Romans call them, have been expanding over the past few centuries, into Italy, Spain, Britain, the Balkans, and even as far as Asia Minor. Africa Organized chronologically, A History of the World in 500 Maps tells a clear, linear story, bringing together themes as diverse as religion, capitalism, warfare, geopolitics, popular culture and climate change. Meticulously rendered maps chart the sequence of broad historical trends, from the dispersal of our species across the globe to the colonizing efforts of imperial European powers in the 18th century, as well as exploring moments of particular significance in rich detail.