Geographic HistoryMap of the United Kingdom
On the Geographic History map, the United Kingdom appears from 1800 to 1999. It reaches its largest mapped extent in 1901: about 19 million km² across 382 provinces.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed on 1 January 1801. In the 19th century it led the Industrial Revolution and built the largest empire in history, which by the 1920s covered about a quarter of the world's land. Most of Ireland left the union in 1922, and after the Second World War the empire was dismantled, with most colonies independent by the 1960s.
Mapped area over time
The United Kingdom on the world maps
Largest other states in 1901
| State | Mapped area |
|---|---|
| Russia | 22 million km² |
| Qing | 11 million km² |
| United States of America | 9.7 million km² |
| Brazil | 7.5 million km² |
| France | 6.5 million km² |
| Canada | 5.2 million km² |
| Ottoman Empire | 3.3 million km² |
| German Empire | 2.9 million 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.
