World map in 1914

Border history

The interactive map lets you inspect named territories in 1914 and compare them to earlier or later snapshots on the timeline.

Biographical context

Meet figures alive in, or close to, 1914 and move from political geography to the people connected to the period.

Era-based reading

The related chronicles below provide long-form reading tied closely to the modern period.

1914 – 1918

World War I

Allied Powers vs Central Powers

A global war with devastating military and civilian losses that contributed to the collapse of the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires.

Key battles and events: Marne (1914); Gallipoli (1915)

1914 – 1918

East African Campaign (WWI)

German Empire (Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck) vs British Empire, Belgium, Portugal

Remarkable four-year guerrilla campaign in German East Africa. Lettow-Vorbeck, with never more than 14,000 troops (mostly African askaris), tied down 300,000 Allied troops throughout WWI. He never surrendered and only laid down arms upon news of the Armistice.

Key battles and events: Battle of Tanga (1914); Battle of Mahiwa (1917)

1911 – 1932

Italo-Senussi War

Kingdom of Italy vs Senussi Order (Omar Mukhtar)

A brutal 20-year colonial war in Libya. Italy's pacification campaign under General Graziani included concentration camps, mass executions, and forced displacement of the entire Cyrenaican population. Resistance hero Omar Mukhtar was publicly hanged in 1931.

Key battles and events: Battle of El Agheila (1915); Kufra Oasis campaign (1931)

1910 – 1920

Mexican Revolution

Revolutionary factions (Villa, Zapata, Carranza, Obregón) vs Federal Government (Díaz, Huerta)

A decade-long multi-sided civil war that overthrew dictator Porfirio Díaz and transformed Mexico. The revolution pitted peasant armies under Zapata and Villa against various elite factions, killing over 1 million people and producing the world's first social revolutionary constitution (1917).

Key battles and events: Battle of Ciudad Juárez (1911); Battle of Celaya (1915)

1899 – 1920

Somaliland Campaign (Dervish War)

Dervish State (Mohammed Abdullah Hassan) vs British Empire, Italy, Ethiopia

A 21-year insurgency led by Mohammed Abdullah Hassan and his Dervish state against British, Italian, and Ethiopian forces in the Horn of Africa. Ended only when the British deployed aircraft — one of the first uses of air power in colonial warfare.

Key battles and events: Battle of Jigjiga (1900); Battle of Dul Madoba (1913)

1898 – 1934

Banana Wars

United States vs Various Caribbean and Central American forces

A series of US military interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean to protect American commercial interests and enforce the Roosevelt Corollary. US Marines occupied Haiti, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and intervened in Mexico and Honduras.

Key battles and events: US occupation of Nicaragua (1912–1933); US occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)

1873 – 1914

Dutch–Aceh War

Dutch East Indies vs Aceh Sultanate

One of the longest colonial wars in history. The fiercely independent Acehnese sultanate resisted Dutch conquest for over 40 years through guerrilla warfare and Islamic holy war, costing tens of thousands of lives on both sides.

Key battles and events: First Dutch Expedition (1873); Second Dutch Expedition (1873–1874)

Poland / United States

Abraham Joshua Heschel

1907 – 1972

Jewish theologian, philosopher, civil rights activist, prophetic voice of the twentieth century

Switzerland

Carl Jung

1875 – 1961

Analytical psychology, archetypes, collective unconscious, psychological types

France / Lithuania

Emmanuel Levinas

1906 – 1995

Philosopher, phenomenologist, ethicist, Talmudic scholar

Prague / Austria-Hungary

Franz Kafka

1883 – 1924

The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle, pioneer of existentialist and absurdist fiction

Germany

Franz Rosenzweig

1886 – 1929

The Star of Redemption, dialogical philosophy, Buber-Rosenzweig Bible translation, the Lehrhaus

British India / England / Burma / Spain

George Orwell

1903 – 1950

Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four, anti-totalitarian essays, and the invention of Big Brother, doublethink, and Newspeak

Built 1914 · Asia

Al-Muhdhar Mosque

Iconic mosque in Tarim, Yemen with the tallest mud-brick minaret in the world at 53 meters, a symbol of Hadrami Islamic architecture

Built 1914 · Africa

Cathedral Notre-Dame du Congo

Monumental cathedral in Kinshasa, one of the largest churches in Central Africa

Built 1910 · Oceania

Rabaul

Capital of German New Guinea from 1910, built around Simpson Harbour as a major copra-trade port and the chief commercial hub of the New Guinea Islands.

Built 1908 · Asia

Our Lady of Lebanon

Maronite Christian pilgrimage shrine overlooking Jounieh Bay, with a 15-ton bronze statue of the Virgin Mary atop a hill in Harissa

Built 1907 · North America

Washington National Cathedral

Gothic Revival cathedral in Washington, D.C., site of presidential funerals and national services

Built 1891 · Oceania

St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne

Gothic Revival Anglican cathedral designed by William Butterfield at the heart of Melbourne, featuring distinctive spires completed in 1932.

Serbia / United States · Scientist

Nikola Tesla

He Won the Current War. He Died Broke at 86. The FBI Took His Papers the Same Day.

Genius, rivalry, and vindication — how a penniless Serbian immigrant defeated Edison and powered the modern world.

Spain / France · Artist

Pablo Picasso

The Man Who Broke the Mirror

The life of the artist who shattered five centuries of Western painting and rebuilt it from the fragments — from Málaga to Mougins.

Poland / United States · Philosopher

Abraham Joshua Heschel

The Prophet of Radical Amazement

The Hasidic rabbi’s son from Warsaw who became the conscience of American Judaism and marched arm in arm with Martin Luther King Jr.

Prague / Austria-Hungary · Thinker

Franz Kafka

The Man Who Became a Metaphor

Alienation, bureaucracy, and genius — how a Prague insurance clerk wrote the most unsettling literature of the twentieth century, then asked his best friend to burn it all.