12 ATLASES

History of Azerbaijan in maps

Azerbaijan as it appears in 12 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2000: Caucasian Albania, Arran & Shirvan, Azerbaijan, Soviet Azerbaijan. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

Open this map in the interactive atlas →

WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.

Free printable WWI study guide, sent by email ↓

Map of Europe in January 1894, showing Azerbaijan — MAP OF EUROPE IN JANUARY 1894

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v 0.2.1 · Natural Earth physical geography

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. Source polygons retained with original identities; geographic selections and corrections by Maps of History.. CC BY 4.0
Made with Natural Earth; geographic reference and physical land only. No modern political boundary is used as a historical boundary.. Public domain

Annual source features can describe claims, legal territory or military control. Occupied extensions are separated from the prewar Central Power homelands, while the original source names and shapes remain available.

reconstruction: 1871–1918 · reconstruction: 1894 Ottoman footprint · vector: 1815–1937 · vector: 1820–1899 · vector: 1848–1935 · vector: 1856–1894 · vector: 1864–1921 · vector: 1871–1914 · vector: 1871–1916 · vector: 1873–1914 · vector: 1880–1894 · vector: 1880–1897 · vector: 1880–1899 · vector: 1885–1894 · vector: 1885–1899 · vector: 1885–1904 · vector: 1885–1907 · vector: 1885–1910 · vector: 1885–1911 · vector: 1890–1894 · vector: 1890–1897 · vector: 1890–1904 · vector: 1890–1914

Layer records and reconstruction methods

What was Azerbaijan before it was Azerbaijan? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.

Caucasian Albania (mod. Azerbaijan) · Ancient Rome

264 BC	Hellenistic kingdoms — the opening position
62 BC	Roman clients & allies
AD 395	Rival great powers

ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Arran & Shirvan (mod. Azerbaijan) · Mongol Empire

1206	The Islamic powers — the opening position
1254	The Mongol Empire

MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Azerbaijan · Industrial Revolution

1890	Industrialising — the opening position
1890	Industrialising

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Azerbaijan · Age of Revolutions

JUL 1789

Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position

AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Azerbaijan · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia

Azerbaijan was an oil republic on the Caspian. In the 1988–94 war with Armenian forces it lost Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, and several hundred thousand Azerbaijanis were displaced. Earlier, in January 1990, Soviet troops entering Baku killed more than a hundred civilians, an event remembered as Black January. From 1993 the independent state was ruled by Heydar Aliyev, a former Soviet KGB general and Politburo member.

OCT 1964	The USSR, then Russia — the opening position
DEC 1991	Independent neighbours

MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Azerbaijan · Russian Revolution

Azerbaijan’s oilfields at Baku made it a prize for competing powers. Independent from 1918 under the Musavat party, it became the first Caucasus republic to fall when the Red Army arrived to secure the oilfields in April 1920 and sovietized it.

SEP 1855	The Tsarist empire — the opening position
MAR 1917	Provisional Government, then the Whites
MAR 1918	Breakaway national states
OCT 1920	Soviet power

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Azerbaijan (Russian Empire) · WWI

JAN 1894	The Entente & Allies — the opening position
JAN 1894	The Entente & Allies
NOV 1917	Russia in revolution
JUN 1919	Neutral or unaligned
AUG 1920	Russia in revolution
NOV 1918	Neutral or unaligned

WWI: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan SSR) · Stalin’s Soviet Union

Azerbaijan’s Baku oil fields supplied most of the Soviet Union’s oil until the war. Their importance helps explain why Hitler directed his 1942 offensive toward the Caucasus. Azerbaijan belonged to the Transcaucasian federation until 1936. Across the border in Iranian Azerbaijan, Stalin sponsored a separatist government in 1945–46 and withdrew only under American and British pressure. It was one of the first crises of the Cold War.

JAN 1924

The Soviet Union — the opening position

STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →