History of the World: Every Year

During the COVID‑19 lockdown in 2020, I decided to create a world‑history map that would cover every year from 2500 BC to the present. The sheer scale—over 4,500 maps—made the project feel impossible, so I paused it several times. After the pandemic ended, life moved on, but the unfinished work lingered in my mind. I began by compiling a database of existing yearly maps from other creators such as Emperor Tigerstar and Ollie Bye, downloading and cutting their videos into individual frames, and combining them into a single base map that I traced for each year. To speed up the process I automated many tasks: a JavaScript script changed country colours, another repositioned labels, and Power Automate ran background jobs for days. I started the timeline backwards, beginning with a detailed 2025 map and deriving earlier borders from it. I simplified the visuals by removing secondary colours, vassal states, and colonial details, and I split the world into six regional maps—North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania—to make the work more manageable. A three‑month break in summer 2024 allowed me to focus fully on the project, and by January 2026 I had completed the video, proud to present the final product: History of the World: Every Year.