Periodical
Historical Atlas of Europe Explanation
These
maps are forming a historical atlas of a new kind. I did not
seek to depict the crucial historical moments but to present the
evolution of a continent. Thus it is a cartographic work
describing with a regular frequency the countries of Europe over
the centuries.
An
Atlas Depicting History by Periods
History
is an uninterrupted string of insignificant events among which
prominent facts sometimes emerge: wars, conquests, revolutions
etc. It becomes possible to evaluate the influence of these
important movements in the course of time, by comparing them to
less determining periods, to "control years" in some
way. The Periodical historical Atlas, describes the political
status of the European continent at fixed intervals. It
therefore represents a list of reference points and permits an
appreciation of the real range of important items on the
continuation of political changes. Henceforth, stress is put on
the precise drawing of territories at one exact instant defined
by an arbitrary periodicity, that is the first day of each
centennial year.
The
notions taken into account are merely legal, literary or
linguistic. I noted in English the official names of the states
as they are known, and I distinguished the sovereign states, the
semiautonomous entities, the parts of states and the
administrative circumscriptions. When information was
insufficient, usual names of groups or federations of
populations only are indicated. The names of the cities are
usually mentioned in local language but, on some maps,
alternative forms are used too, in order to allow easier
research.
Names
Names
of entities mentioned in the Periodical Historical Atlas are
those officially used at the considered time. When the latter
are not known or when sources are contradictory, I have applied
the names mentionned by sources close to the depicted region and
to the century of the map. In cases where such information isn't
available, a short circumlocution names such an entity. Last,
notably for nomad populations, I have used the names by which
those peoples were commonly described in the 20th century.
Borders
According
to knowledge existing in the second half of 20th century, only
effective borders were drawn. This means that territories
nominaly subjected to a state without any real control on it are
merely inserted in the area of the ruling country. An edge of
same color as that of the dominant power surrounds such a
territory and its official name is written in dark grey whereas
the main name is black. To simplify matters, one can say that
borders are lines someone cannot cross without difficulty at the
considered century.
Categorization
Three
kinds of entities are shown:
1) Independent states, that are possessing these four
features simultaneously:
a)
a territory delimited by borders,
b)
a population,
c)
an authority exercising the effective public power on
population and territory,
d)
supremacy, that is with capacity to control absolutely
the territory and the population.
Such
states are drawn in plain color and their names are written in
black. They may be divided in parts, with names in red italics.
These parts may contain sub-parts, counties or provinces etc.,
with names in grey italics. Borders of parts are broken brown
lines with white edging and borders of sub-parts are mere brown
broken lines.
2)
Dependent states that are possessing:
a)
a territory delimited by borders,
b)
a population,
c)
an authority subject to an higher-level authority.
Such
a dependency may be the result of an union with a stronger
country, a legal link or a military occupation. These entities
are drawn with their proper color which appears plain when they
are independent but, here, is surrounded by a strip of the same
color as the dominant state. Their names are marked in plain
grey fonts while the main name is written in black. Dependent
states are sometimes including sub-parts whose names are printed
in grey italics. Dependency may be the result of many kinds of
reasons. I have tried to consider only effective dependency. In
spite of this, many complex cases are left. The most common are
those where a country X claims lordship over a country Y while
the latter maintains to be free and sources are not very clear.
When the state Y does not rule the state X according to him, it
is drawn as dependent.
3)
Populations not well-known or nomadic. Their names are
written in dark grey italics on white, grey areas or shaded with
grey areas.
Graduate
colors towards white or another color are often used. This shows
uncertain boundaries.
On
all maps, names are written in Latin from AD 1 to AD 500 and in
English from AD 600 on.
Christos
Nüssli, 2009
|