Key
At the selected date, the colour of each place shows who held it. To learn its story, click or tap a country or marker.
Drag to move · scroll to zoom · click a country or marker
To move the map on a touch screen, drag it. Pinch to zoom, or double-tap to zoom in.
From 1775 to 1848, people on both sides of the Atlantic faced a question: by what right is anyone governed? The thirteen colonies established a republic. In France, a revolution spread across Europe. In Saint-Domingue, half a million enslaved people gave a more complete answer, and were made to pay for it the longest. The red territories on this map represent a claim shared across these struggles: government rests on consent.
The twelve chapters begin at Lexington and end at the barricades of 1848. Along the way they pass through Valmy, Vertières, Austerlitz, Boyacá and Waterloo, placing fronts, arrows and turning points where they happened. Move the timeline to see empires dissolve and kings return, or click a territory to read its dossier. The Field Exam then lets you test what you have learned and see what rank the age assigns you.
Keys: ←→ chapters · space play time · +− zoom · ⌘K search · ? all keys.
You can return to the library of twenty-one atlases at any time: select the balloon at the top left.