14 ATLASES
History of Israel in maps
Israel as it appears in 14 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Judaea, the Latin Kingdom’s heart, Palestine & the Crusader coast, Israel, Palestine, Palestine / Israel. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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.
What was Israel before it was Israel? 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.
Judaea (mod. Israel) · Ancient Rome
Under Herod, Judaea was a client kingdom; in AD 6 it became a Roman province. The revolt of 66–73 brought the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, marked ◆ on the map. A second rising, led by Bar Kokhba in 132–135, ended in devastating defeat and the province’s renaming. The history of Roman rule here remains part of both Judaism and Christianity.
| 264 BC | Hellenistic kingdoms — the opening position |
| 62 BC | Roman clients & allies |
| Roman territory | |
| Breakaway Roman empires (260–274) | |
| Roman territory |
ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
The Latin Kingdom’s heart (mod. Israel/Palestine) · Crusades
Jerusalem, Acre, Ascalon and Jaffa lay at the heart of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was taken in the massacre of 1099, lost after Hattin in 1187, briefly regained by Frederick II’s treaty in 1229, and gone for good by 1244. A Frankish minority ruled over a mixed population of Muslims, Jews, Samaritans and Eastern Christians, whose memories of that century differ greatly from one another.
| The Islamic powers — Seljuk, Zengid, Ayyubid, Mamluk — the opening position |
CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Palestine & the Crusader coast (mod. Israel) · Mongol Empire
| The Islamic powers — the opening position |
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Israel · Industrial Revolution
| Opened by force or treaty — the opening position | |
| Opened by force or treaty |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Israel · Age of Revolutions
| Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Israel · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
| Western powers and allies — the opening position |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Palestine (Ottoman Empire) · WWI
Israel · Stalin’s Soviet Union
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Israel · Road to WW2
| Colonial empires & possessions — the opening position |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Israel · WW2
| Western Allies — the opening position |
Israel · Cold War
Founded in 1948 in the shadow of the Holocaust, Israel immediately became a variable in the Cold War. Czech-brokered deals and France supplied its arms first; America did so later. Israel’s 1967 victory redrew the region. In 1973 the map nearly changed back, and both superpowers went on nuclear alert (Ch. 8). The US–Israel alignment forged during the era survived it.
| NATO & core Western allies — the opening position | |
| US-aligned states | |
| US-aligned states |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Israel · Decolonization of Africa
| Independent before 1945 — the opening position |
DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Israel · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Authoritarian, one-party or colonial rule — the opening position | |
| Right won in law | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Palestine / Israel · Refugee crises
For many Jewish DPs, British-mandated Palestine was the destination they demanded. Britain’s limits on entry led to clandestine voyages, the Exodus affair and detention on Cyprus. After Israel was proclaimed in May 1948, it admitted the remaining Jewish DPs, about 132,000 with IRO help, alongside hundreds of thousands of Jews from the Middle East. The same war displaced 700,000 to 750,000 Palestinians.
| Western bloc or democracy — the opening position | |
| Neutral or between the blocs |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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