Content review · English edition · October 17, 2026

Dates, stories and maps have different levels of precision.

The English edition includes 128 selected world-history events and 40 range entities in 10 map snapshots. It shares event IDs, dates, representative locations and map geometry with the Chinese world atlas, while retaining an independent reference edition. Historical coverage ends in 2024.

October 17 update: 20 additional Web stories

The Web catalogue now contains 128 bilingual world events. New entries add African, American, South and Southeast Asian, Pacific, scientific and human-rights histories. Earlier event records, the Chinese history chapters, map geometry and evidence status remain unchanged; the mini-program is outside this update.

Source checks distinguish periods of construction, rulers' reigns, archaeological phases and later institutional use. Where the sources differ, entries retain an attributed observation window: Caral uses the Chinese archaeological study's dating, Bagan uses the overlapping centuries in the two UNESCO summaries, and the Taj Mahal entry records the 1631/1632 start-year difference between the UNESCO summary and detailed statement. Century-wide and approximate dates are not exact foundation dates. Bibliographies remain plain text.

Scope of the previous review

Reviews on October 3 and 5, 2026 corrected dating conventions, contemporaneity, citation matching and clearly misplaced map colors. The selection was updated on October 6. A review of selected dates and facts does not establish every sentence, historical interpretation or geographic boundary. Translation in this release is not a new independent historical review.

The public website currently provides English world history. Chinese source records remain in the project for maintenance and future editions. Chinese events in the world atlas remain available in English.

October 11 update: Simplified Chinese reference-language review

The original reference pages used by the Chinese edition were checked for language across 108 world events, 27 Chinese-history chapters and their 114 milestones, and 40 map entities. Its current bibliography uses Simplified Chinese source pages, prioritizing domestic official material. The English edition retains its earlier bibliography as an independent reference edition; it does not inherit the replacement references from this language review. Reference titles are displayed as text without external links.

This language review does not expand the previously verified historical scope. In the Chinese history section, 21 milestones retain limited verified dates or facts and 93 retain chapter-reference status. Existing representative-location notes remain: a point does not show an event's full geographic extent. This update does not establish definitive historical boundaries or constitute map approval; this project has not obtained a map approval number.

Regional coverage

This is a selected atlas, not a complete chronology or a continuous history of every country. Missing entries do not imply that no historical events occurred. Cross-regional events use one representative location.

Events classified by starting year
RegionEarly CivilizationsClassical WorldInterwoven WorldsGlobal EncountersAge of RevolutionsModern WorldTotal
West Asia & North Africa41210412
Europe04234922
East Asia113321727
South & Southeast Asia16341722
Sub-Saharan Africa03420514
Americas22146621
Oceania10303310

A zero means no selected event starts in that era. Processes may continue across eras. Counts do not rank historical importance or completeness.

Date conventions

The interface distinguishes dated milestones, approximate years, extended processes and observation points. BCE and CE have no year zero. Events in the same year use a documented month or day where available; unknown precision is not treated as January 1. Representative years for long processes are not exact foundation or collapse dates.

How to read the ranges

These data are manually generalized from institutional historical maps, historical sources and geographical descriptions. The coordinates are inferred for educational mapping, rather than precise GIS supplied by the sources.

Only representative cores are selected. Uncolored areas still contained other civilizations, states and societies. Snapshots refer to specific or approximate dates; boundaries are not interpolated year by year. These historical illustrations do not represent present-day national borders or sovereignty.

These are simplified teaching diagrams using modern coastlines for orientation. Selected core areas, cultural networks, tax rights and direct administration are distinct concepts. Unpainted areas and unrecorded states must not be interpreted as empty land. The outer edges are not certified surveyed borders or statements of modern territorial claims.

A specific remaining issue is Aurangabad at the edge of the c. 1750 Maratha selection: direct administration and tax relationships there have not been independently confirmed. The selection is described as military-political and tax influence, not proof of direct administration of that city. The 1931 colonial snapshot stops being applied automatically after 1938; manual comparisons retain the older snapshot date.

Reference bibliography

This is the English edition's independent bibliography. References may support a date, a selected fact or a broader context. A single source does not necessarily support every interpretive sentence in an entry. Original references may be in Chinese or another language; the Simplified Chinese source-page requirement applies to the Chinese edition. Titles are listed for attribution; this page provides no external reference links.

World events · 128

Map snapshots and their sources

c. 1250 BCE · Contemporary civilizations of the Bronze Age

The colored areas are teaching schematics, manually generalized from geographical cores described by the cited institutions, rather than precise national borders or complete territories. Peripheral areas and variations in control within each territory are simplified; blank areas do not mean that nobody lived there. Four civilizations that existed at the same time are selected. The late Shang is represented by its cultural core, and the others by their ruling cores; maximum expansions from earlier and later periods are not combined.

221 BCE (after Qin unification) · States in the year of Qin unification

The colored areas are teaching schematics, manually generalized from geographical cores described by the cited institutions, rather than precise national borders or complete territories. Peripheral areas and variations in control within each territory are simplified; blank areas do not mean that nobody lived there. The sample reflects the contemporary situation after Qin completed unification in 221 BCE. The Mauryan dynasty was already in the period after Ashoka. During the revolt of the eastern Seleucid governors, only the dynasty’s northern Syrian core is shown.

117 CE · Rome, the Eastern Han and Silk Road empires

The colored areas are teaching schematics, manually generalized from geographical cores described by the cited institutions, rather than precise national borders or complete territories. Peripheral areas and variations in control within each territory are simplified; blank areas do not mean that nobody lived there. All four states existed at the same time. The Roman areas represent long-established provinces and exclude Trajan’s brief eastern conquests; Parthia is shown only through its Iranian core. The Kushan areas cover Bactria and Gandhara, rather than the empire at its height under Kanishka after c. 127/128 CE.

End of 750 CE · At the end of 750: Tang and Eurasian states after the Abbasid rise

The date is fixed at the end of 750: the Abbasids had replaced the Umayyads, while the Merovingians remained the nominal royal dynasty of the Franks; Pepin became king in 751. Each outline is manually simplified from geographical descriptions and represents only a selected ruling core. The sources support checks of dates and regions, but do not supply these coordinates. The shapes do not represent precise borders, all dependencies or the greatest extent of influence.

End of 1200 CE · At the end of 1200: Southern Song, Jin and regional kingdoms of Asia

All four states existed at the end of 1200. Khwarazm is shown in the period after Tekish’s death and Muhammad II’s accession, without applying its greatest extent in the 1210s. The Delhi Sultanate is generally dated from 1206, so it is excluded from this snapshot. The outlines are manually simplified from geographical descriptions and represent only selected ruling cores; the sources do not supply these coordinates.

End of 1300 CE · At the end of 1300: Mongol states and major powers in Africa and South Asia

All five states existed at the end of 1300. The Yuan, Ilkhanate and Golden Horde are shown separately, rather than combining the Mongol khanates into a single area of direct rule; the Chagatai and Kaidu powers are not selected. The outlines are manually simplified from geographical descriptions and represent only selected ruling cores; the sources do not supply these coordinates. Unmapped areas do not mean that nobody lived there or that no other states existed.

c. 1500 CE · Regional powers in the Americas and West Africa

Three representative powers are selected to add perspectives from the Americas and Africa. The colored areas are teaching schematics manually generalized from central regions described in historical sources, rather than complete territories or precise historical GIS. Blank areas do not mean that nobody lived there or that no states existed. This snapshot of 1500 does not include later expansion during the sixteenth century.

c. 1600 CE · Eurasian empires and long-distance trade

Selected ruling cores of four Eurasian empires are shown. Each colored area is manually generalized from central regions already established at the time; it is not a maximum territorial extent, a complete set of provincial boundaries or precise GIS. The Aztec Triple Alliance and the unified Inca empire had already fallen by this time and are not redrawn in this snapshot.

c. 1750 CE · Empires and successor states in the mid-eighteenth century

Four powers around 1750 are selectively shown. The colored areas are manually generalized representations of ruling cores, rather than complete territories or precise GIS. The Qing conquest of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin took place between 1755 and 1759, so Xinjiang is not colored in this snapshot. The Maratha expansion into Punjab in 1758 is also excluded.

1931 CE · Selected colonial regions across continents

Selected representative regions of the British and French colonial systems are shown. Dominions, colonies and protectorates had different statuses; the same color does not indicate the same form of direct rule. Uncolored areas do not mean that no states or civilizations existed. This snapshot is used only for comparison of the prewar colonial systems. Automatic following stops using it after 1938, but it can still be selected manually.