Simeon I: Did you mean...?

This map illustrates the early global migrations of Homo sapiens—our species’ remarkable journey from Africa to every inhabitable continent. Tracing movements that began over hundreds of thoussands of years ago, it highlights how small bands...

The systematic European colonization of North America unfolded between the first voyages of the 1490s and the outbreak of the French and Indian War in the 1750s. Spanish, French, English, and Dutch ambitions carved up the continent, with...

The Mesoamerican civilizations represent a long continuum of complex societies that emerged independently in Central America and southern Mexico from roughly 1500 BCE to the early 16th century CE, prior to Spanish conquest. Rather than a...

The Achaemenid Persian Empire emerged in the mid-6th century BCE when Cyrus II (reign 559–530 BCE) united the Persian tribes and overthrew the Median kingdom (c. 550 BCE), establishing a new imperial state that would reshape the political...

Operation Barbarossa (June 22 – December 1941) was the codename for Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War (1939–1945). Conceived by Adolf Hitler (r. 1933–1945) as a war of conquest and ideology, it aimed...

Europe on the eve of World War I was defined by a volatile mix of alliance politics, imperial rivalry, and rising nationalism. The continent was divided into two heavily armed blocs, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente, binding the...

An infographic of the most iconic military machines from the Second World War (1939-45). WWII marked a decisive shift in the nature of warfare, as victory depended not only on soldiers and commanders but on the industrial capacity, technological...

This map illustrates the origins and territorial expansion of the Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica between the 14th and 16th centuries. Emerging from a network of Nahua-speaking city-states in central and southern Mexico, the empire rose to dominate...

A map depicting the strategic situation in Europe and the Mediterranean in early November 1942, as World War II reached a critical turning point. Axis expansion had begun to reverse, while the Allies launched major offensives in North Africa...

The Hellenistic Successor Kingdoms (the Diadochi, from the Greek for “Successors”) emerged after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, when his vast empire fractured among his generals. From this division arose powerful states such...