Credits

Map rendering & base maps

• MapLibre GL JS - the open-source engine that renders the interactive map.
• MapTiler - base map tiles (the “dataviz dark” style).

Historical borders

• historical-basemaps by Andrei Ourednik - world political borders across 50+ snapshots from antiquity to today (GPL-3.0).

Rulers, flags & articles

• Wikidata - heads of state & government, reign dates and flags (CC0).
• Wikipedia & Wikimedia Commons - portraits, flag images and the descriptions in the info panel (CC BY-SA).

Historical map scans

• MapWarper - georeferenced scans of historical maps, draped over the world by era.

AI guide

• OpenAI - powers “Ask the atlas”, turning plain-language questions into a place and year on the map.

Events & trade routes

• Curated by hand from public-domain historical records - battles, sieges, milestones and the great trade lanes of each era.

A note on accuracy

Historical borders, dates and figures are simplified and may contain errors - this is an educational project for exploration and curiosity, not a professional reference.