The Atlas
Move the slider, press play, or jump to a year. Every part of the map is coloured by what governed it in that year: a province or commonwealth of the Union, a republic or kingdom that had not yet joined, an organised territory, a colony before the Charter, or land held by France, Spain, Mexico, Britain, Russia or the Native nations. Where the colours change, the borders move with them.
- Province
- State
- Commonwealth
- Grand Duchy
- Republic
- March
- Kingdom
- District
- Territory
Borders are drawn from county lines, so the older ones are approximate. Land is shown under the jurisdiction that held it that year: a territory covers the counties it covered, whatever polity they belong to now.
The atlas could not be loaded. The map of the polities as they stand is shown instead.
How to read it
The Charter of Union dates from 1783, so before it the map shows the colonies as they stood. After it, each polity is coloured by its type from the year it joined, and the sidebar names every polity admitted that year, every territory organised, and the events the Register’s own chronologies record. Select any county for its status, and a link to the polity it lies in today.
The slider ends at the present. A polity joins the Union on the date its own article gives, and the sidebar lists every polity admitted in the year, every territory organised, and the events the Register’s chronologies record.
✎ Editor's Note · How the dates were set
The slider’s last year is the Register’s present, which runs two years ahead of the calendar and is worked out in the browser, so it rolls on with the real date and is never written down. Where a polity’s article gives no admission date, the date of its real counterpart stands unless the record says otherwise (CANON 5l), and every territorial stage the articles do not date is the real territorial history adapted to canon and flagged as such in the data files under tools/atlas. Borders are drawn from county lines, so the older ones are approximate.