The tumultuous history of Europe over the last Millennium, including its many revolutions and wars, has been captured in a remarkable video lasting just over three minutes.
From the Crusaders until modern times, the lines on the map of Europe have been redrawn many times and tell a tale of the rise and fall of nations including the creation of vast empires to small countries fighting for their independence.
The hypnotic video shows the lines on the map of Europe subtly changing over 1,012 years as a result of major historical events.
This map contains the names of long-forgotten places as well as showing the demise of the Byzantine Empire in a map that looks very different to modern Europe
The video invites viewers to test their historical knowledge as well as consider the vast human impact of major events such as the world wars, which are simply shown by the movement of boundaries on a map.
The video, which contains animations and maps by the creator of the Historical Atlas, Frank Reed, begins in the year 1140 at the end of the Viking Age and the beginning of the Crusades; a time when religiously-motivated military expeditions set up small states in the eastern Mediterranean.
The expeditions culminated in the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, which ended the Byzantine Empire.
Europe in the 17th Century, at the end of the Renaissance. Much of northern Europe is visibly carved up into tiny states and over a few hundred years there were many wars and revolutions
The map shows how the High Middle Ages was dominated by the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire, which at its peak stretched from China to the Baltic sea in Europe, with the Mongols led by Genghis Khan.
While England fought with France in the Hundred Years' War, beginning in 1337, the House of Habsburg got stronger, Russia expanded southward and eastward into former Mongol lands and the Ottoman Empire also grew in size as it swallowed up former Byzantine lands over time.
The Renaissance spread throughout Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries, but despite the beginning of what many people consider to be modern Europe and the proliferation of new artistic and scientific ideas, a number of religious wars and revolutions rocked the continent, changing boundaries between small states and countries.
Europe in 1913 ahead of World War One. Germany and Italy are unified nations, and the whole of Ireland was part of the UK, but the boundaries between countries were set to change dramatically in just a short space of time
Between 1815 and 1871, some Balkan nations regained their independence from the Ottoman Empire and after the Franco-Prussian War, Germany and Italy unified into nation states ahead of World War One, during which time, boundary changes in Europe were dramatic and rapid.
Following the war, the Treaty of Versailles altered the map of Europe and ultimately led to the outbreak of World War Two, as nations were divided, radical politics was fueled by angry citizens and countries subsequently invaded as Europe entered a second state of flux with boundaries and areas of ocupation that changed in a short and violent period of time.
Since 1918, when poverty triggered the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union had been growing and came to dominate the continent up to 1991, when smaller Soviet countries regained their independence.
Following two devastating world wars, Europe looks very different in 1960 with an occupied and divided Germany and the huge Soviet Union. At the height of the Cold War, the 'iron curtain' dividing communist and capitalist Europe is clearly visible on this map
A map of Europe TODAY. The video shows the changing situation in the Balkans in recent times as well as hinting at Europe's economic integration, with the founding of the European Union
Changes on the map in the video indirectly show the ideological Cold War and divide of the Iron Curtain as well as iconic moments such as the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In recent times, the video shows the changing situation in the Balkans as well as hinting at Europe's economic integration, with the founding of the European Union.
WATCH THE VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH_3op0ViyU&feature=player_detailpage
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