MAPS OF HISTORY · COLD WAR · MAPS BY YEAR · October 1962The Cold War, 1945–1991 · THE MAP IN OCT 1962
Map of the world in October 1962
Cuba flips; Africa walks free · Cold War
The world in October 1962: Cuba flips; Africa walks free. Since November 1956, 30 territories changed status on this map: including Cuba, Iraq, Ghana and 27 more.
OCT 1962 · THE COLD WAR, 1945–1991 These maps are reconstructed from published sources · The Berlin Airlift, 1948–1949 · North Atlantic Treaty: Algerian departments cease to apply from 3 July 1962 · Berlin’s four-power status and its termination · The rise and fall of the Berlin Wall · Cliopatria v0.2.1 historical polities · Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945–1960 · United Nations Command: the 1953 armistice · NATO membership chronology · Natural Earth v5.1.2 country geography · Natural Earth administrative references · The collapse of the Soviet Union · 1954 Geneva agreement, Annex I: demarcation line · South Yemen: independence and alignment chronology · South Yemen: Soviet relationship, 1971 intelligence estimate
Source details US government historical publication. Historical facts cited; no source artwork or prose reproduced NATO, treaty footnote 2. Historical treaty facts cited; no artwork or prose reproduced US government historical publication. Historical facts cited; no source artwork or prose reproduced US government historical publication. Historical facts cited; no source artwork or prose reproduced Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY 4.0 · Selected dated records; documented component selection, unions and shared-edge extraction. US Department of State, Office of the Historian. US government publication United Nations Command. Historical facts cited; no source artwork or prose reproduced NATO. Historical facts cited; no artwork or prose reproduced Natural Earth contributors. Public domain · Full source components and holes retained; documented historical unions and repairs. Natural Earth contributors. Public domain US Department of State, Office of the Historian. US government publication US Department of State, FRUS 1952–1954, Volume XVI, document 1035. US government publication of diplomatic documents US Department of State. US government historical publication US Department of State, FRUS 1969–1976, volume XXIV, document 182. US government historical publication This political-alignment geography uses national and administrative extents; it does not map every military front. Modern-reference perimeters are explicitly recorded where no more suitable reviewed historical geometry was adopted. All source parts and holes are retained.
The Soviet, Yugoslav, Czechoslovak, Sudanese and other historical unions remove later internal borders. Occupation and armistice lines retain their separate meanings.
South Yemen uses the 1969 source as a geographic proxy for earlier Aden/protectorates. The boundaries and status of individual protectorates are not resolved at this scale.
Dated assignments correct omissions across the legacy views: independent Algeria is non-aligned after July 1962; Greece and Turkey join NATO in 1952, and Spain in 1982. South Yemen is separate from North Yemen, with British administration before late 1967 and the Soviet-aligned Marxist government after 1969.
proxy: 1945–1990, later municipal exterior reference · proxy: Natural Earth v5.1.2 contemporary reference · proxy: Pre-1963 Netherlands New Guinea; later provincial reference · reconstruction: 1945–1991 · reconstruction: 1945–1991 geographic union · reconstruction: 1952–1991 · reconstruction: 1953 · reconstruction: 1953–1963 · reconstruction: 1953–1972 · reconstruction: 1954 (1956 vector proxy) · reconstruction: 1958–1989 · reconstruction: 1960–1991 · reconstruction: Before May 1963 · reconstruction: Postwar Yugoslav reference · reconstruction: Pre-1963 North Borneo; later coast/reference exterior · vector: 1936–1986 · vector: 1946–1946 · vector: 1948–1962 · vector: 1949–1952 · vector: 1953–2023 · vector: 1956–1966 · vector: 1958–1959 · vector: 1958–1960 · vector: 1958–1968 · vector: 1961–1962 · vector: 1969–1986
Layer records and reconstruction methods
What changes on the map Cuba US-aligned states → Soviet-aligned states Iraq US-aligned states → Non-aligned & neutral Ghana NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Guinea NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Mali NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Senegal NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Mauritania NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Niger NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Nigeria NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Chad NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Central African Republic NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Republic of the Congo NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Congo (Zaïre) — → Non-aligned & neutral Gabon NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Cameroon NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Benin NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Togo NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Ivory Coast NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Burkina Faso NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Madagascar NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Sierra Leone NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Tanzania NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Uganda NATO & core Western allies → Non-aligned & neutral Rwanda — → Non-aligned & neutral
The chapters of this moment
Related maps
◧ EMBED THIS MAP ON YOUR SITE
You may embed this map free if you keep the attribution link. Teachers can find print-ready
study guides at /study/ .
THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE
Get the printable study guide for The Cold War free. I’ll send you a few short letters, then one when a new atlas opens. That’s all. — Paul
NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE ·
UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME
