MAPS OF HISTORY · COUNTRIES · Pakistan10 ATLASES
History of Pakistan in maps
Pakistan as it appears in 10 interactive history atlases, from 1206 to 2000: the Indus marches, India — the Indus and Punjab, Pakistan, West Pakistan, British India. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
MAP OF THE WORLD IN OCTOBER 1949 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 · The Chinese Revolution of 1949 · Cliopatria v0.2.1 historical polities · Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945–1960 · NATO membership chronology · Natural Earth v5.1.2 country geography · Natural Earth administrative references · The collapse of the Soviet Union · 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 US Department of State, Office of the Historian. US government publication 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 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. 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.
Morocco uses the nearest independent 1956 outer perimeter. The separate French/Spanish protectorate boundary lies outside this political-alignment layer, and Cape Juby remains in the Spanish source footprint until 1958.
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: 1945–1950 · reconstruction: 1945–1958 · reconstruction: 1945–1960 · reconstruction: 1945–1962 · reconstruction: 1945–1991 · reconstruction: 1945–1991 geographic union · reconstruction: 1949–1952 · reconstruction: 1950–1957 · reconstruction: Before May 1963 · reconstruction: Postwar Yugoslav reference · reconstruction: Pre-1963 North Borneo; later coast/reference exterior · vector: 1936–1986 · vector: 1945–1957 · vector: 1946–1946 · vector: 1948–1949 · vector: 1948–1952 · vector: 1948–1962 · vector: 1949–1952 · vector: 1956–1957 · vector: 1958–1960 · vector: 1969–1986
Layer records and reconstruction methods
What was Pakistan before it was Pakistan? 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.
The Indus marches (mod. Pakistan) · Mongol Empire
1206 The Islamic powers — the opening position
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
India — the Indus and Punjab (mod. Pakistan) · Industrial Revolution
c. 1850 Colony or dependency — the opening position c. 1850 Colony or dependency
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Pakistan · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
OCT 1964 Western powers and allies — the opening position
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
West Pakistan (the Raj’s west, to 1947) · Indian independence
The Muslim League demanded a state in its Lahore resolution of 1940. When Pakistan came into being in August 1947, its Muslim-majority western lands were joined to a Bengali east wing a thousand miles away across India. Its founder called the new state “moth-eaten.” Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam, lived thirteen months after its birth; his 11 August speech promising a state blind to creed remains its most contested text. Karachi doubled with refugees within a year, while the army born of the Punjab’s recruiting grounds became the state’s strongest institution. Pakistan received its first constitution only in 1956. Martial law ended it in October 1958 and brought General Ayub Khan to power, while India held its third general election on schedule.
JAN 1857 British India — direct rule — the opening position AUG 1947 Pakistan (from Aug 1947)
INDIAN INDEPENDENCE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
British India (Indus provinces) · WWI
NOV 1914 Entente-aligned & imperial territories — the opening position
WWI: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
British India (mod. Pakistan) · Chinese Revolution
1912 Foreign empires — British, French, Russian, American — the opening position
CHINESE REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Pakistan (British India until 1947) · Stalin’s Soviet Union
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Pakistan · Road to WW2
1931 Colonial empires & possessions — the opening position
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Pakistan · Cold War
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Pakistan · Mao’s China
1 OCT 1949 Neutral, non-aligned or colonial — the opening position OCT 1964 Beijing’s allies and friends
MAO’S CHINA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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