Civilizations and empires, 3100 BCE–2000
Follow major civilizations and empires across five thousand years, from Egypt and Sumer to the modern world. Hover over a stream to highlight it. Click or tap any state, era, or event to see the primary sources connected to it.
How to use: In the River view, scroll or pinch to zoom, and drag to pan. Click a colored stream for a state's key dates and sources, a bar on the left for an era, or an empty spot for sources from that year. The other views scroll sideways or down.
About the widths: A stream's width is an approximate visual indicator of each state's relative power and territorial extent. It is not measured data, and the widths are scaled to fill the chart in every year, as on the classic 1931 Histomap. Only selected major states and civilizations are shown, so many important societies are not drawn as streams.
Images: Thumbnails come only from the public-domain Slides decks on this site. Events with no public-domain image appear as text.