Geographic HistoryMap of the Ming dynasty
On the Geographic History map, the Ming dynasty appears from 1362 to 1683. It reaches its largest mapped extent in 1414: about 4.4 million km² across 115 provinces.
The Ming dynasty was founded in 1368 by Zhu Yuanzhang, who drove the Mongol Yuan out of China. The Ming built the Forbidden City in Beijing, rebuilt the Great Wall in brick and stone, and sent Zheng He's fleets as far as East Africa. Rebels took Beijing in 1644 and the Manchu Qing went on to conquer China, although Ming loyalists held out in the south for years afterwards.
Mapped area over time
The Ming dynasty on the world maps
Largest other states in 1414
| State | Mapped area |
|---|---|
| Golden Horde | 2.3 million km² |
| Timurid Empire | 1.8 million km² |
| Oirat Horde | 1.7 million km² |
| Kazakh Khanate | 1.4 million km² |
| Mamluk Sultanate | 1.1 million km² |
| Nogay Horde | 1 million km² |
| Kingdom of Kongo | 1 million km² |
| Mongolia | 980 thousand km² |
About this map
Territory comes from the Chronas historical dataset used by the Geographic History app. Areas are approximate, computed from about 2,400 province shapes, and describe this map rather than official historical figures - border data for the ancient and medieval world is necessarily a reconstruction.
Every year has a map
Drag a timeline across 2,500 years in the free Geographic History app - every province, ruler and battle, also offline.
