European Colonial Empires 1492-2008

Historical timeline of territories colonized by European powers, the United States and Japan from 1492-2008.

Colonial powers and empires shown in this animation:

Portugal, Spain, France, Netherlands, England/UK, Russia/USSR, Ottoman Empire/Turkey, Denmark, United States, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Japan

Credits:

Map Images: from Wikipedia Author: Andrei nacu. Public domain.

Music: Kevin MacLeod, "Dangerous"
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

[willneyheffrels]

*The World Exists*
UK, France, Spain, Russia and Turkey: Is it for me?

[Roboseal]

This is so interesting! I am currently using this to take notes for new and old imperialism in my World History class.

[CT--ljck]

My world studies classmates, where you at?

[sy_in_D]

Wtf is nobody going to talk about how boss Ethiopia (the country next to Somalia) is?! They stayed standing unconquered from Europe throughout all these centuries, what legends. They need some acknowledgement 👏👏👏

[abetheconservationist]

"Long ago, much of the world lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Europeans attacked."

[xxTheCeLLxx]

Japan? Ottomans? America? Wow very european

[AdhamOhm]

You can see why World War I happened when the 1914 frame comes up. That's when all those imperial colonies start to get smooshed together. None of the empires were happy with the land they already owned, so they wanted to take more. Then the fighting broke out.

Greed is the biggest cause of war.

[conartist]

Technically speaking, the USSR was a colonial power. Not all of their land had ethnic majority of Russians, so those countries that broke away from it were technically colonies even though they were part of the mainland

[DKings]

Wrong, the first colonial empire was the Portuguese and started in 1415 with the conquest of Ceuta no with the descovery of America, before that and as it is on the map, Portugal already had colonies and yes good job Wikipedia 👏

[Tobias_Klein]

the european colonial powers somehow managing to put straight line borders in the most inconvenient of places possible

[uysalemre]

Reminding again: Ottoman Empire was not a colonial empire! Expansionist, yes; but not colonial!

[johngallant]

the usa is a colonial empire just because its mainly a land empire doesnt stop it from colonising.its not restricted its self to its original 13 colonies has it.

[davidjose]

the world has rulled just by few europeans countries such as England, Spain, France

[nikitabhusal]

Such a misinformation. Nepal was never colonized by any country. It was always an independent nation.

[sumaia]

Good work! I was waiting to see the israeli occupation showing on the map.

[DaanBruins]

Ah yes my favourite European countries, the US and Japan.

[puspaksingharoy]

you have take it from wikipedia am i right?

[NapoleonBonaparte]

Its remarkable how much the Spanish took in just 50 years after 1492 shows you how backward the natives were

[matthewmann]

Amerindians, Eskimos, Polynesians, Aboriginal Australians, Torres Strait islanders, And Tasmanian Aboriginals suffered the worst under European rule

[suhnih]

The fact that big ol' China never had any colonies is super weird lmao