These are notes to accompany the interactive map (below and on its own page) of the last five millennia of nations, empires and dynasties. You can click on the map to navigate geopraphically or use the slider to navigate in time. You can also click the blue links within one of up to four additional tables, depending on the context.

Notes

Original Data

The original data used for this visualisation can be divided into two kinds:

1. Graphical images based on the maps in Atlas of World History.¹
2. Quantitative data collected by Taagepera.^2-5

Collated Data

Map Images

mask.gif

The map images are based on a 1920-by-1080 (full HD) mask GIF: mask.gif

This is the Robinson projection with λ₀ set to 10°, as used by many Wikipedia maps. White areas are land, blue areas are sea and black areas are beyond the projection limits. The value of the red (or green) channel tells you how "landy" a pixel is (from no land at 0x00 to 100% land at 0xFF). The value of the blue channel tells you how "oceany" a pixel is.

Due to the nature of Robinson's projection, the land area represented by a single pixel in the mask is a function of the latitude and the pixel's red value; the longitude is irrelevant. Fully-white pixels near the equator represent 340 km². Those at the poles represent less than 6 km².

year-*.gif

These thirty GIF files are hand-transcribed approximations (using Paint Shop Pro 5!) of the following maps from the Atlas of World History:¹

Each GIF file uses the index of each pixel to assign that section of land to a particular region. Indices 0x00 and 0xFF are reserved for "Ocean" and "Unclaimed" respectively, but other indices are assigned to different regions in different files. For instance, index 0x03 is assigned to the "Roman Empire" in "year-b0200.gif" but to "Andorra" in "year-1848.gif". The mappings are explicitly defined in whim.tsv.

whim.tsv

This tab-separated value text (TSV) file holds the main chronology. Each line represents a single, timed entry. Comments are preceded by a hash "#". The columns are as follows:

1. Column 1 holds the year or year range. Years are expressed in decimal with a preceding tilde "~" signifying "BCE". Ranges are two years separated by a hyphen "-". For example, "~123-456" represents the year range 123BCE to 456CE.
2. Column 2 holds the "verb". See the table below for supported verbs.
3. Columns 3 onwards are parameters to the "verb".

Specifications

Specifications in the 'EVOLVE' instructions (and internally within the code) adhere to the following syntax:

Evolutions

Evolutions in the 'EVOLVE' instructions (and internally within the code) adhere to the following syntax:

Emblems

Precomputed Data

It takes close to a minute to compute the values of all two million pixels over the course of five thousand years. To speed up page load, pixel values are precomputed and stored in a simple TSV file. Although many megabytes in uncompressed size, it is far quicker to load these values than recompute them. The TSV file has the following columns:

1. The integer x-ordinate of the pixel.
2. The integer y-ordinate of the pixel.
3. The start year of this period as a floating-point number.
4. The code of this pixel at the start of the period.
5. The end year of this period as a floating-point number.
6. The code of this pixel at the end of the period.

Floating-point numbers are necessary here because pixel transitions are not guaranteed to occur on integer year boundaries due to the nature of the pixel flood algorithms. However, three decimal places is more than enough accuracy.

User Interface

The user interface is fairly minimal. Clicking on the main map canvas generates a pixel coordinate that is converted to latitude and longitude via the Robinson projection. This is used to update the tables:

• The event history is filtered to only include references to the region clicked on.
• The region table is shown with details of the region in the currently-selected year.
• The timeline table is shown with details of the latitude/longitude point through history.

The year slider changes the current year or "plays" time forwards and/or backwards. When the year "settles" to a specific value, it is used to update the tables:

• The event history is scrolled to show the closest event.
• The regions table is shown with a breakdown of the world's regions for that year (largest to smallest).
• The region table is shown with details of the region in that year.

Clicking on a blue link within a table updates the currently-selected year and/or region. The tables are then updated appropriately.

Animations

A separate web page, whimrec.html, is used to generate individual frames of animation. These can be composited into an animated GIF or a video using gifski or ffmpeg:

These are rendered as sixty second clips at thirty frames per second, by default.

Known Issues and Further Work

Code Issues

• Clicking on a region does not highlight that region on the map. This is particular frustrating with obscure island nations.
• Some of the region evolutions are tricky to encode using the existing verbs. Creating aesthetically pleasing transitions can be difficult.

Data Issues

• No provision for contested regions.
• I am sure some of the small island nations are in the wrong place!
• Land areas are estimates based on Robinson projection approximations and pixel opacity. For instance, Tuvalu is calculated to be 45 km², but in reality it is only 26 km².
• Some empire/nation hierarchies are problematic at certain points in time. For example, how do we represent the complex nature of the French Empire during World War Two?

Enhancements

• More historical events.
• More empires/nations/regions. For example: Tu'i Tonga and Khwarazmian empires.
• A map zoom feature.
• Better emblems with a more consistent style.
• European Union could be added.

References

1. Haywood, J. (2006). Atlas of World History. Sandcasle Books, ISBN 0-95524787-X
2. Taagepera, R. (1978). Size and Duration of Empires: Systematics of size. Social Science Research, 7(2), 108-127
3. Taagepera, R. (1978). Size and Duration of Empires: Systematics of size. Social Science Research, 7(2), 108-127
4. Taagepera, R. (1978). Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 3000 to 600 B.C. Social Science Research, 7(2), 180-196
5. Taagepera, R. (1979). Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D. Social Science Research, 3(3/4), 115-138
6. Taagepera, R. (1997). Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia. International Studies Quarterly, 41(3), 475-504
7. Stearns, P. (2001). Encyclopedia of World History. James Clark & Co, ISBN 0-22767968-7