-
7 votes
-
Looking for a visualization of North American political boundaries over time
Lately I've been taking an interest in American westward expansion and trying to get a better understanding of how the lines were drawn on maps in the past. Can anyone recommend a good video or...
Lately I've been taking an interest in American westward expansion and trying to get a better understanding of how the lines were drawn on maps in the past. Can anyone recommend a good video or interactive visualization that I can scroll back and forward through time to see the changes in detail?
Things I'm particularly interested in tracking:
- Indigenous lands (specifically how the boundaries of traditional/ancestral lands evolved into modern-day reservations)
- European claims like those of Britain, France, and Spain
- What was considered US/Canada/Mexico territory vs. no man's land or frontier at different points in time, from the governance standpoint of each of those nations
- Large and rapid settling movements like the Mormons into Utah, Oklahoma land rush, California gold rush, etc.
- Other factors like homesteading programs (I don't know much about this) and the transcontinental railroad, confederacy borders, trail of tears, etc.
- Notable battles/massacres marking bloody land disputes
I mean I guess that's a lot, this is basically "tell me about all of American history." š
I feel like I have a pretty decent grasp of the general political timeline and important events, I'm just realizing lately that I don't have a cohesive mental model of how it all fits on a map and changed over the years. I did find the Wikipedia page on Territorial Evolution of the United States to be interesting but it's a bit overwhelming and not very digestible. It contains this animated gif, which is awesome but I can't scroll through it at my own pace, and it's USA only.
13 votes -
Why did Norway try to take Greenland from Denmark in 1931?
3 votes -
In the 1600s Sweden was a great military power ā why did they decline?
11 votes -
A retrospective on the Baltic road to NATO
8 votes -
The Greenwich meridian's forgotten rival
4 votes -
Fun fact: Taiwan claims exclusive sovereignty over mainland China and Mongolia as well as parts of Russia, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Japan
Decided not to post a single link as there are tons of different articles about different aspects of it on Wikipedia. It's a whole thing! Exclusive mandate - Republic of China (Taiwan) and...
Decided not to post a single link as there are tons of different articles about different aspects of it on Wikipedia. It's a whole thing!
-
Exclusive mandate - Republic of China (Taiwan) and People's Republic of China
-
1992 consensus which established semi-official dialogue between ROC and PRC
It seems like this is a leftover from the Chinese civil war and/or Chiang Kai-shek's authoritarian and murderous rule because one of the above articles does mention that these territorial hopes haven't been worked towards for many years:
Originally placing high priority on reclaiming the Chinese mainland through Project National Glory, the KMT now favors a closer relation with the PRC and seeks to maintain Taiwan's status quo under the Constitution of the Republic of China. The party also accepts the 1992 Consensus, which defines both sides of the Taiwan Strait as "one China" but maintains its ambiguity to different interpretations.
It goes further back than that though, probably to 1966 when Project National Glory was abandoned:
[invasion of mainland China] as the initial stage of reunification was effectively abandoned after 1966, although the Guoguang planning organization was not abolished until 1972. The ROC did not abandon the policy of using force for reunification until 1990.
Thought this was all quite interesting, so I wanted to share! It is not exactly light reading though so I also wanted to ask for documentary recommendations about this, and of the Chinese civil war in general, if anybody knows of any good ones?
Don't mind me, just finding myself going into a lot of Wikipedia rabbit holes lately š
22 votes -
-
How disappearance became a global weapon of psychological control, fifty years on from Chileās US-backed coup
21 votes -
The unmaking of India: How the British impoverished the worldās richest country
21 votes -
Scenes from a fallen empire: Abandoned Russian bases dot Mongoliaās border
16 votes -
The status quo coalition
7 votes -
90th birthday interview, with transcript, of Daniel Ellsberg: recently deceased leaker and whistleblower re the Vietnam War
8 votes -
Kotka, in southeastern Finland, removed the country's last publicly displayed statue of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin
5 votes -
Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde said she won't return a historical document to Poland, as it was a ālegitimateā spoil of war
2 votes -
Portugalās insane plan to double its territory
3 votes -
The Sino-Soviet split: How did Soviet Russia and China become enemies?
3 votes -
The US's foreign entanglements
3 votes -
History is marching
3 votes -
How Brexit could reignite tensions at the Irish border
12 votes -
Why was Singapore kicked out of Malaysia?
3 votes -
Cod war tensions with Iceland ā British trawlers, bunched together as they are, make easy prey for Icelandic gunboats in 1976
3 votes -
How Iran's Qassem Soleimani became a US target
4 votes -
What the Gulf: Blood and oil
4 votes -
How a Chase Bank chairman helped the deposed shah of Iran enter the US
5 votes -
China's ancient dominance, how the West took it away from China and how China is regaining it
8 votes -
A brief history of US dirty wars in Central America that set the stage for the refugee crisis
4 votes -
Greece's geography problem
9 votes