English
English
Appearance
Historical Borders Map: See Any Country's Borders by Year
The TrueSize timeline is a historical borders map you can scrub with a slider. Pick a year, and every loaded country, empire and region redraws itself with the borders it had then. The slider reaches back to 123,000 BC, and the catalog has 4,186 historical entities with 22,255 snapshots, so you can also put a past empire next to today's countries at true size.
Europe in 1914, with the timeline panel open at the top of the map.
How to open the timeline
- Open the map at truesize.net.
- On the Home tab, switch from Modern to Historical. The timeline panel opens.
- Type a name in the search box. In Historical mode the placeholder reads "Search historical states and empires…" and the results show only what existed in the chosen year.
- Pick a result. It is drawn with its borders for that year.
- Drag the year slider, or use the buttons described below, to move through time.
If nothing is loaded yet, the panel says: "Search for a country or region to see how its borders changed through history."
Watch borders change
The timeline playing from 1910: watch Europe's borders change year by year.
The timeline controls
The year slider and its buttons.
| Control | What it does | Key |
|---|---|---|
| Year slider | Drag to any year. Small markers on the rail show years where something changed. | Home / End jump to the start / today |
| Year number | Click it to open Go to year. Type a year, choose AD or BC, then press Go. | Enter |
| Today | Jumps back to the present. | T |
| Previous change / Next change | Jumps to the previous or next year in which a loaded region changed. | Left / Right arrow |
| Previous year / Next year | Steps one year. Hold the button to keep stepping. | Shift + Left / Right arrow |
| Play / Pause | Animates the borders through time. | Space |
| Region info | Opens or closes the history card of a region. | I |
| Suggest a missing region | Starts a community suggestion. | none |
Playback has a speed setting called Playback speed. You can drag the panel by its grip, resize it, and double-click the grip to dock it again.
Compare a past state with today
Every loaded region follows the year. That is useful for watching one country change, but sometimes you want an old state beside a modern one. Use Pin: it keeps the selection as it is now, so it stops changing with the timeline and stays on the map after you close the timeline.
- Click the year number, type 116, choose AD and press Go. Then load the Roman Empire.
- Select it and press Pin.
- Move the slider to today (Today) and load the modern United States.
- Drag the pinned empire next to the USA. Both keep their true area.
The Roman Empire at its peak in 116 AD and the 48 contiguous US states side by side on the equator.
In TrueSize, measured from the map outline, the Roman Empire at 116 AD covers about 4.83 million km². The 48 contiguous US states cover about 8.1 million km², and the whole United States about 9.83 million km². The numbers are what the app measures from its outlines, so published estimates for ancient empires can differ.
When a region is not on the map
Not every place existed in every year. If a loaded region has no borders in the chosen year, the timeline shows a chip like "Name · not on the map in 1850", together with the reason: "Partitioned in …", "Annexed in …" or "Dissolved in …". If it was a part of something bigger, the chip says "Name · part of …".
The chip explains why a loaded region is missing in that year.
Use the Next change and Previous change buttons to find the years when it appears or disappears.
History cards
Press Region info (or I) to see a short history card for the loaded regions. It explains what changed on the map at that moment. If the card is empty, the panel suggests going further back in time.
A history card tells you what changed and when.
Good to know
- Some dates are approximate. The panel says "Dates approximate — sampled from historical maps." when that applies. Some boundaries may also be wrong, and you can help fix them with a boundary suggestion.
- Historical regions cannot be divided into subdivisions, and the Load All options that cover modern regions are not available in historical years.
- A shared link keeps the year. You can also build a link by hand in the form
?tl=<year>&load=<snapshotId>. - Flags, coats of arms, emblems and seals can change with the year. Read more in Suggest Flags, Names and Borders.
Examples to try
- How big was the Roman Empire?
- The Mongol Empire at true size
- The largest empires in history, compared
- The Soviet Union vs the USA
- The world in 1800
Where it works
The mobile app has the slider, the year dialog and previous/next change, but no one-year step buttons; keyboard shortcuts are web only.
Related
- Search and add countries, regions and more
- Move and compare countries at true size
- Compare countries on the Moon, Mars and other planets
- Share your map and export it