Map created by NagihuinThe map above shows just how big both the Spanish and Portuguese Empires were in 1790. This was just 1 year after the start of the French Revolution and 14 years after the declaration of Independence.

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Map found on WikimediaThe map above shows the relative positions and sizes of two of the American colonial eras forgotten powers, New Netherland and New Sweden in around the year 1650.

Here’s a little more about each of them:

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Map created by @researchremoraThe map above shows the major roads of the Roman Empire around the year 200 AD. More on Roman roads below:

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The graphic above shows the maps of 4 countries divided by the Cold War. Two (Germany and Vietnam) have reunified and two (North & South Korea and Romania & Moldova) remain divided.

Here are some facts about each of them:

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Map created by Nilenbert, Nicolas Perrault IIIThe map above shows where Neanderthals bones have been found. The map’s author states that: “Known Neanderthal range in Europe (blue), Southwest Asia (orange), Uzbekistan (green), and the Altai mountains (violet), as inferred by their skeletal remains (not stone tools).”

In terms of sites:

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Map found on redditThe map above shows the general plan for Operation Unthinkable, which would have imposed “the will of the United States and British Empire upon Russia,” with the help of former Nazi POWs right at the end of World War 2.

Operation Unthinkable was actually a set of two related contingency plans developed by the British military in 1945 at the end of World War II.

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Map found on reddit, from Life MagazineThe above shows the progress of electrification in the Soviet Union in 1959. The more populous European part of Russia was relatively well electrified by the late 1950’s, whereas progress into Siberia was still ongoing.

Ukraine in particular (smaller map insert) was particularly well covered (more that below).

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Map found on redditThe map above is a unique illustration from the German magazine “Signal” published by the Wehrmacht, depicting the Axis war against the Soviet Union. [Read more…]

Map created by denn23rusThe map above shows just how big the USSR was back when it existed.

Just the European part of it was larger geographically than every other European country put together.

If you include the Warsaw Pact countries, it controlled 61%! of the European landmass.

And, what’s even more suprising is that the European part of the Soviet Union was only a quarter of the it’s total land area (although did have around 75% of the population).

In terms of numbers, the European part of the USSR was around 5.2 million km2 (2.0 million sq miles), around 1.5 Indias in size.

Western vs Eastern Europe

Map Created By Geo UniverseBy the numbers:

• 415 million vs 413.73 million people
• $21 Trillion vs $6.5 Trillion GDP
• $50,600 vs $15,700 GDP per capita.

What do you think?