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Five Thousand Years of Middle East History in 90 Seconds

mapsofwar.com — Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history? Pretty much everyone. Empires seem to rise and fall with surprising regularity.

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  • philbutler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+34That is about the neatest presentation I have seen of the Geo-strategic nature of this crossroads for Indo-European patterns of war. Being a geographer, I find graphics like this fascinating. This type thing puts things in a context that we can observe and begin to understand.
    This is particularly true if we superimpose the religion and culture of these peoples over the conflict. Thanks for Digging this Diggamer!
    • SirNoobius, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13and I had to learn all this in 7th, 8th and 9th grade.
    • Liam76, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20There is one specifically for religion.

      I think I saw it on Digg a while back but here you go

      http://mapsofwar.com/ind/history-of-religion.html

      I liked this one better, but they are both cool.
    • Liam76, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Although the religion one does not give any indication of jewish/christian/muslim groups that have existed in isolation from the main body and in relatively small groups mixed among other religions.

      Jews throughout the middle east until they were booted out. Coptic christians in Egypt.
    • jus1haz2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5http://duggmirror.com
    • jaycliche, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6"and I had to learn all this in 7th, 8th and 9th grade."

      Lucky you. Man...I got shafted on history in primary and middle school....luckily my stepdad was a history buff and got me studying it on my own (now history minor). Lets hope kids get a better education then I did then
    • VeganBob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Site is being a little sluggish right now. Here's a downloaded copy of the file:
      http://www.veganbob.com/tmp/digg/Imperial-History.zip
    • Wholey, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1We watched this in my AP World History Class. My teacher likes parrots.
    • absolutehavok, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Damn. I was expecting something funny.
      My life is boring. Nobody likes me. Sigh...
  • monomyth, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3it is incorrect in several aspects that I can see, and there are lots of things I don't know and/or didn't notice.
    • Liam76, on 10/12/2007, -8/+0How is it incorrect?

      I am not expert on this so it looked ok to me.
  • Schrodinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13This is much better than the 90 second american war presentation earlier.
  • Cerealkillr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7These are great teacher tools.
  • Prysorra, on 10/12/2007, -28/+9Warning! No record of US Imperialism found in selected reason. Thread risks destroying semi-coherent worldview!
    • saikhan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+20Why does it always have to come to this? Can't we just enjoy a simple history presentation without staring some political rant about the current administration's monopolization of world power and economics? *Ahem*
    • jaycliche, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Well the cold war power plays shouldn't be ignored...a lot of the ***** that is happening now are echos of this. Still a nice presentation for the older history...modern history really isn't old enough to account for a larger perspective.

      Also the House of Saud has a ***** of influence now and has for a while....not sure if you could say empire yet...time will tell.
    • bobcrotch, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Do not bury his comment it is the truth.

      Why do people time and time again get buried for pointing out facts?
    • Prysorra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Err....wow. I didn't know I was *that* good at sarcasm :|
  • haooken, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13But is it done by Bunnies?
    • sarusa, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4When I saw the title of this one, I immediately pictured a crowded field packed full of bunnies all shrieking 'I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU DIE DIE DIE' and pounding on each other with sticks. For 90 seconds.

      Oh, and the sticks are explosive.
  • solarstar567, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5The Mongol Empire Controlled all of the Indian Area, why isn't that not highlighted?
    • jaycliche, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3It is supposed to just cover the middle east...the rest is bonus.
    • noahtron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i think you might be thinking of the mughals... who werent quite mongols, but their descendants...
      (me =/= a history expert)
    • vsri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Not really, It was Mughals, not Mongols who controlled India
  • DatDamWuf, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Found the map interesting and *mostly* correct.

    liam76, the religious map you linked to is not so good, it leaves out a number of important religions and the Judaism bit is really weird, makes it seem as though Judaism happened after Jesus' Christianity, how odd. Nor does it map the (albeit small) spread of Judaism. It also shows only one branch of Buddhism and completely ignores so many other religions as to be useless. And, hey, where are the atheists on that map, LOL!
    • Liam76, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Actually it shows Judiasm starting with abraham in 2000BC, but the kingdom of israel is pretty quick so maybe you missed it.

      But you a re right they don't really depict the diaspora well, or other small pockets of religion.

      Overall not perfect, but I think it is good for a quick guide of when and where the major religions came to different areas.
    • dignation, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2The map would look really splotchy if it was done perfectly. Its just the major religion in any one area. I am unaware if Judaism is the dominant religion in another country other than Israel, but from what I believe it seems accurate to me.

      plus, atheism isn't really a religion, just a lack thereof. even so, it is not prevalent in too many areas, not openly at least.
  • jaycliche, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Nice...but where were the british empire...or are they lumped into general europe?
    • auxplage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Just lumped into Europe.

      The Brits had Egypt, Palestine, Kuwait, Iraq, and Oman; the latter four with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (well Egypt too - technically).
      The French had all of North Africa except Libya (that was Italy's) and Lebanon and Syria (these two are with the end of the Ottoman)
  • Kugellehr, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1this was on digg before......wtf?
  • ybfree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The Mongols had one hell of an empire. I'm going to have read up on it. The things they don't teach you in school!
    • nam20485, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The Mongol empire controlled most of the two continents, actually. Want to take a guess as to who the greatest conqueror of all time, as measured by surface area controlled/conquered, was? Most people would not choose Ghengis Khan as their first guess, but most people would actually be wrong. For references to missing empires and ruling nations in the graphics, read their comments on the site. There are some very interesting omissions pointed out in the comments of the control of Middle East map if i remember correctly from when this was dugg about a half year back.
  • thehouse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16Five Thousand Years of Middle East History in 90 Seconds...

    Five Thousand Dollars of Server Room Equipment on Fire in 45 Seconds...
  • Jezon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I learned of a few new empires. Don't know why the roman is always taught as being so great, when you see how much larger the Mongol one was.
    • itsme92, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I agree that the Mongol empire was huge, but it only lasted a few years
    • MrUnderbridge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Interesting, I saw a History Channel special on this a few months ago. Basicallly, the problems with the Mongol Empire as to why they didn't get so much historical "credit" are these:

      1) Spent too much time kicking ass to establish a "culture" and crap,
      2) Conquored too fast - their empire never became culturally Mongol
      3) Empire was too short
      4a) Their army spent too much time away from the Mongol homeland in later generations, and
      4b) They didn't bring their own women with them, meaning that
      4c) They tended to be assimilated culturally with the native women they settled down with.

      So culturally, there's not much left behind that's really Mongol. But if you were to ask any history buff, "Who kicked more ass than anyone in the history of the planet?" the answer would be the Mongols, and G. Khan specifically. He also advanced military tactics amazingly and pretty much invented the modern military organization system.

      If the History channel does their "Barbarian Week" again this year, watch the one on Khan, it's awesome.
    • tarmithius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The Mongols were just reaching out and conquering. They had no real hold on what they had.
  • maddla, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Well given that this is the second "90 second" post on digg today, I am going to start searching for "Get and entire GED education in 90 seconds"
  • yaosio, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1BZZZ WRONG. The countries there now have always been there, that's why they are called SOVEREIGN nations.
    • grubwort, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They're called sovereign nations because... they're sovereign. They've been given sovereignty and they're viewed as sovereign entities. That's why.
    • reticulate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yaosio, you're an idiot.

      Seriously, go read a book or something.
  • shaneau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Mirror of the .swf:

    http://images.geo.localizedmedia.com/fb01448c5ad7245925a07d05f1b0fab5/mapsofwar.com/EMPIRE17.swf
  • TheIguana, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Ironic when you consider that up until about 3000 years ago, much of what is now the western world was considered barbarians. Where as those who lived in the current day middle east were the ones innovating and building the ideas that would later become the basis for any human civilization.
  • silversalute, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Maybe this points out the reason there is no chance of independent democracy in the region. The people have been dominated by some outside influence for thousands of years. It is ingrained into their culture to be subservient to a strong dictatorial force. The only chance for the people of the region to experience justice will be for their next ruler to be benevolent.
  • lancestraz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I though it said "Middle Earth"....
    • mastersarg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0lol so did I .... I was totally expecting some LOTR battles
  • unknownunknowns, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I like the end, because it shows that European colonialism, Nation-states and borders, and the foundation of the state of Israel have led to the current geopolitical problems we see today.
    • MrUnderbridge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Wow, you missed that one. It should show you that the Middle East has been constantly fought over and held by a series of short-lived but fairly strong empires, meaning that "today's" problems aren't really new at all.
    • unknownunknowns, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I didn't miss anything. Yes, the Middle East has seen many empires rise and fall. Maybe you missed the major transition from empires fighting over resources to the establishment of nation states by Europe, which later became independent nation states. Today's problems are new, because they emerge from the imposition of borders and the creation of nation states.

      Sure, fighting over resources isn't new. But, taking on a "national identity" is a new phenomenon in human history, which started in Europe and spread through colonialism. When you try to impose a national identity on a region inside of an arbitrarily created border, sometimes people don't subordinate their other identities (ethnic identity, for example) to the national identity, and then you get a "civil war."
  • nixfu, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3
    Hard to really show the way the Middle East has changed without the impact of Religion and the fact that the middle east until recent history was the "Land of the Christians and Jews"...that is before the Islamic hordes went on their murderous rampage and destroyed, killed, and enslaved everyone who didn't bow down before their devil spawn of a killer-pedophile prophet....that is why we have the ***** hole sand pit we all know as the middle east today.
    • Korvaras, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Right... because the Macedons, Persians, Romans, Egyptians, Babalonians, Mongols WERE ALL CHRISTIAN OR JEWISH.

      Get a grip man! Think before you speak!
    • SilverBack101, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Bravo Nixfu...you've just proven how much of an idiot you are. Get your history straight first before you ***** all over this board.

      Jeez.

      *blocked*
  • gigarizil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1fantastic, summarized about 30 documentaries I've seen over the last 5 years in about 90 seconds.
  • joosebuck, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1pretty cool THE FIRST ***** TIME I SAW IT LAST YEAR?????
    • unknownunknowns, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1and complaining about things on the internet not being new enough is somehow new and relevant?
    • joosebuck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0more new and relevant than this waste of 90 seconds.
  • Rikushix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Interesting that this is where human civilization began...
  • rnelsonee, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1*edit - digg didn't like my 'less than' sign. bury.*
  • rnelsonee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4It's so weird seeing this, and wondering if we're special. By that I mean, is the world as we see it today going to keep its borders? Most of them at least? This maps shows that over thousands of years, most of these borders have existed for less than 75 years. Who's to say that Egypt, Morocco, Spain, Iraq...etc. will be recognizable in 100 years? 1,000?

    Granted, we live in the first truly global society (trade with all nations, the UN's establishment in particular), so maybe that means that the borders are now more stable. But Jeez - nearly everyone, save for the really forward thinking always thought that their world was *the* world as it was always going to be. It's not like the Romans ever could've thought that their empire would *completely* disappear. The only surviving thing from Roman times is the Vatican, which resembles nothing of the Rome of old (Mount Olympus, Zeus, etc.).

    I want to know if the US ever takes over Canada and Mexico. I also wonder what will happen with Israel, since there's about 1 square km that holds the most important site for Christianity, Judaism, and the third-holiest site for Muslims. Borders are definitely gonna change.
  • magnusdopus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I agree. One of the coolest sites I've seen. Brilliant.
  • yearginchess, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Really neat interactive map.
  • chachie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What's with the empire that took over the Christian Byzantine empire,, although almost no one has heard about Byzantium (Christian empire wiped out violently by muslims) I've never heard much about this sASSANid empire, just before the Caliphate.
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