World history timeline charts, from 1769 to an interactive one
People have been drawing all of history on one sheet for more than 250 years. These are the charts this timeline follows, what each one shows, and what an interactive chart adds.
A New Chart of History, 1769
Joseph Priestley published A New Chart of History in 1769. It lists events in 106 separate places, grouped by geography, and sets out to show the history of empires and how power passed between them.
- Maker
- Joseph Priestley
- Published
- 1769
- Source
- Wikipedia: A New Chart of History
Adams' Synchronological Chart, 1871
Sebastian C. Adams first published his chart in 1871, under the title Chronological Chart of Ancient, Modern and Biblical History. It is a wall chart 23 feet long. It starts in 4004 BC with Adam and Eve, following a biblical chronology. One long line carries the time, with a pillar every hundred years, and nations run beside it as streams that split when one becomes independent and merge when one is conquered.
- Maker
- Sebastian C. Adams
- Published
- 1871
- Starts
- 4004 BC
- Source
- Wikipedia: Adams Synchronological Chart or Map of History
The Histomap, 1931
John B. Sparks designed The Histomap: Four Thousand Years of World History, and Rand McNally first printed it in 1931. Time runs down the sheet. Each people or state is a coloured band, and the band widens and narrows to show its power against the others alive at the same time.
- Maker
- John B. Sparks
- Printed
- Rand McNally, 1931
- Covers
- Four thousand years
- Source
- David Rumsey Map Collection: The Histomap
The World History Timeline poster by SenseForMaps
The layout of this site is inspired by the printed World History Timeline poster by SenseForMaps, which stacks regions as bands and colours civilisations by language. This site is an independent work built on its own dataset.
This chart
The World History Timeline is the same idea on a screen. Time runs left to right from 3200 BCE to 2025. The world is stacked in 12 regions, and 2,172 states, empires, colonies and peoples are drawn as bars, coloured by language family. A printed chart has to choose one scale. This one zooms from five thousand years down to a single decade, so the small states that a poster leaves out have room.
- Covers
- 3200 BCE to 2025
- Rows
- 2,172 states, empires, colonies and peoples, and 437 events
- Colour
- Language family, 49 of them
- Sources
- Listed on every entry page
- Data
- Open as JSON
You can search for any state, lock the chart to one year to see everything alive in it, or follow a guided tour. Each bar opens a page with its dates, what came before and after, and what else existed at the time.
- History timelines, 38 dynasties, empires and periods in order
- History century by century
- 437 turning points
- How this chart is built, its colours and sources
Questions
What is the Histomap?
The Histomap: Four Thousand Years of World History is a printed chart designed by John B. Sparks and first printed by Rand McNally in 1931. Time runs down the sheet, and each people or state is a coloured band that widens and narrows as its power grows and fades.
What is Adams' Synchronological Chart?
A wall chart by Sebastian C. Adams, first published in 1871 and 23 feet long. It starts in 4004 BC, following a biblical chronology, and draws nations as streams that run side by side, split when one becomes independent and merge when one is conquered.
Is there an interactive world history chart?
Yes. The World History Timeline on this site is a zoomable chart of 2,172 states, empires, colonies and peoples from 3200 BCE to 2025. You can search it, zoom from the whole of history down to a single decade, and open any bar to read about it.
Which chart came first?
Of the charts on this page, Joseph Priestley's A New Chart of History, published in 1769. Adams' Synchronological Chart followed in 1871 and the Histomap in 1931.