What's Missing from Human History?
The Globe of History is a new interactive map that recounts 6,000 years of human events. In fact, not only does it recount history - it reinterprets it as well.
For example, it reveals that what most historians have considered one of the most revolutionary and significant periods in human history was, in fact, a new dark age. That’s right - according to The Globe of History, only one significant event occurred in the whole of England during the 200 years from 1700 to 1900.
At the height of the British Empire, when the country ruled the largest global empire in human history, almost nothing happened. During the British Industrial Revolution - the period when Britain dragged the world into the modern age - the Globe of History suggests that nothing of real significance actually occurred.
The invention of the steam engine and the spinning jenny, the birth of rail travel, Newton’s laws of motion, Darwin’s theory of evolution, and the discovery of electricity are all omitted from The Globe of History, presumably due to their lack of impact on global history.
Sins of omission aside, The Globe of History is an ambitious attempt to visualize six millennia of human activity in a single interactive map. Its creators have harnessed AI to sift through vast amounts of data from Wikipedia, enriching each event with context and cross-checking for accuracy. What I like most about the interactive globe is how the timeline and map work together to filter the results displayed in the sidebar - as you pan and zoom across the map or adjust the date slider, the timeline automatically updates to show the significant events for your current view.
Overall, The Globe of History is an impressive technical achievement, even if it does seem to reduce human history to little more than a stream of battles, wars, and violent revolts.
The Globe Of History joins a long list of interactive mapping projects that are dedicated to mapping the history of the world.
These include:
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