15 ATLASES

History of Georgia in maps

Georgia as it appears in 15 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Colchis & Iberia, Kingdom of Georgia, Georgia, Soviet Union, Soviet Georgia. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

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Map of Europe in January 1894, showing Georgia — 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 Georgia before it was Georgia? 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.

Colchis & Iberia (mod. Georgia) · Ancient Rome

264 BC	Hellenistic kingdoms — the opening position
62 BC	Roman clients & allies

ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Georgia · Norse and Aztecs

c. 790

Other peoples and states — the opening position

NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Georgia — the Christian Caucasus · Crusades

While the crusades unfolded, the Christian kingdom of Georgia in the Caucasus reached its golden age under Queen Tamar. The crusaders knew of this Christian great power by rumor, but never joined it. Georgia’s strength was broken by the Mongols rather than a Muslim neighbor; their thirteenth-century advance reshaped the region east of the crusaders’ world.

CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Kingdom of Georgia · Mongol Empire

Georgia was a Caucasus power that corresponded with crusaders. In 1221–22 the Great Raid shattered its forces twice, before Europe knew the raiders’ name. Chormaqan then subjugated the kingdom in the 1230s. Georgian heavy cavalry went on to serve in Mongol armies from Alamut to Baghdad: service was part of vassalage, which in turn offered a way to survive.

1206	Other settled powers (Jin China, Christendom, Delhi) — the opening position
1241	Tributaries & vassals

MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Georgia · Industrial Revolution

1890	Industrialising — the opening position
1890	Industrialising

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Georgia · Age of Revolutions

JUL 1789

Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position

AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Georgia · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia

In April 1991 Georgia declared independence, two years after Soviet troops killed 21 demonstrators in Tbilisi. The new state soon faced civil war: its first president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was overthrown in 1991–92. Wars in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in which Russian forces played a part, left both regions outside Tbilisi’s control. Eduard Shevardnadze, formerly Gorbachev’s foreign minister, returned to lead Georgia from 1992.

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

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

Georgia · Russian Revolution

Georgia became an independent republic in 1918 under moderate Mensheviks, who attempted a rare experiment in democratic socialism. In February–March 1921 the Red Army invaded and sovietized it, making Georgia the last independent piece of the old empire to fall. A Georgian named Stalin had pushed for its conquest, which foreshadowed how the nationalities question would be “solved.”

SEP 1855	The Tsarist empire — the opening position
MAR 1917	Provisional Government, then the Whites
MAR 1918	Breakaway national states
1921	Soviet power

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Georgia (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
JUL 1923	Russia in revolution
NOV 1918	Neutral or unaligned

WWI: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Georgia (Georgian SSR) · Stalin’s Soviet Union

Stalin came from Georgia, yet his homeland became one of his harshest battlefields. As Commissar for Nationalities, he forced its reluctant communists into the Transcaucasian federation in 1922, angering Lenin. His ally Lavrenty Beria became party chief in 1931, and Georgia’s purges were among the bloodiest. Stalin’s birthplace at Gori became a shrine. After the Secret Speech, students gathered in Tbilisi in March 1956 to defend his memory; troops fired on them.

JAN 1924

The Soviet Union — the opening position

STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →