I am a lot disappointed, because so many facts are missing and the generalities are more than rough-textured. E.g. Where is ancient Greece? What is with Corsica having a democratic constitution before the French revolution? The feudalism has not had only the Bill of Rights, but e.g. the Holy Roman Empire has got under Maximilian a Constitution and the first court the Reichkammergericht in order to solve constitutional problems etc... generally too rough generalisations
Yes, where was ancient Greece? The English cut off their King's head in 1649. I don't think any historian would say that England wa feudal at the time of the French Revolution.
Was the USA a democracy in 1776? Would women and slaves have thought it a democracy?
The map doesn't have any dates, which makes it hard to figure out what is supposed to be going on.
At one point, only the United States is listed as a democracy. Then, suddenly Western Europe, Canada, and Colombia suddenly become democracies. From the borders of Colombia, it looks like this is supposed to be about 1900.
Are you saying that there were no European democracies until the 20th Century?
What definition of democracy are you using? It seems like you are blurring the difference between actual democracies, and countries that were simply allied with the US in various conflicts.
Your map seems to be implying that South America was entirely democratic (except for Cuba) during the cold war. That seems rather silly.
You also seem to say that Europe (with the exception of Switzerland) was entirely fascist before World War 2. Huh?
It would be great if you had some notes to explain your reasoning.
I cannot agree totally with this map since there are many missing parts especially that concern Africa, and Middle East. Also, I think the definition of the democracy that used to constrict this map depends only in the Western meaning, and neglected the Eastern type of democracy where were some elections for the leader of a tribe, a nation, or a religious group.
not exactly accurate. For example, even though Russia was Czarist prior to WWI it's economy was one of the most democratic at that time. And today's China is very democratic! This map only shows the government name, not exactly the type, if you know what i'm trying to say.
Not as good as earlier efforts. Very general and criteria for denoting what makes a democracy seems a little sketchy as well. I generally really enjoy these, but not this one. Also, I must agree with earlier posts regarding accuracy and timing.
No, serious, only thing I didn´t like on this another wonderful work of you is the idea that democracy was born on USA and "spread" to France, when historically it was the opposite. You know Thomas Jefferson lived in Paris and was the one bringing the Iluminism ideas to USA, right? Maybe a "return" there instead of "spread" would solve the question and make people think and learn.
kind of missed out on the Dutch version of a democratic republic prior to 1776? The republican commonwealth of the UK prior to that under Cromwell? Switzerland in the 17th & 18th cty?
Bonkers from start to finish. Rome was the "first democratic world power"?? ROFL! USA was the "first nation founded on democracy"- what about Iceland! Wrong in general approach; e.g in ignoring the rise of democracy in Greece. Wrong in detail; e.g. Norway was conquered by Nazi Germany before France and the Balkans; Catalonia was not part of France in the French Revolution; Western Ukraine was part of the USSR throughout the Cold War; Magna Carta was not a statement of democracy; etc., etc.
A typical history lesson from the United States. Fast and loose with the U.S front and centre. As a Canadian, it is always entertainment watching the Americans ignore their Northern neighbours. I wonder if Black Americans,Brown Americans, Native Americans and women also are impressed with this display of democratic pride?
It would be good to see this done with different colours - 1. Democracy of the ruling classes, e.g. Ancient Roman, Greek, perhaps America before the emancipation of the slaves. 2. Democracy for all classes. e.g Iceland 3. Women's suffrage. Another shade could indicate the presence of unelected leadership along with democratic bodies - e.g English monarchy. Imperial Rome. Another important but difficult factor is the ability for true parties to form, as is not the case in Singapore, Japan and Russia now.
The French Revolution was anything but democratic. They claimed to be for peace and brotherhood and liberty but all they really wanted was a totalitarian deification of the French state. Robespierre's reign of terror anyone?
Doing a march of democracy's tough because in many cases it has been established very incrementally and it hard for you to put an exact date as to when a country or region "made the switch".
This map was nowhere near as good as some of your others; it was oversimplified.
Very slanted view, and technically Communism is more democratic then the US system. Also fail to take into account the rise of Socialism spreading in the 21st century. The Only thing ended in the "Cold War," was the reign of a Stalinist state capitalism. Trotsky's Socialism will win.
Definitely something that would come from our American educational system. It's very limited in the world view scheme of things. Example: If you have Rome then why not Poland? their king was elected by the nobility. They also had the second constitution in the world following us. More research is needed to make this useful.
Interesting, I agree...however there are two very LARGE errors in the whole map...first of all the map shows the USA as a democracy, however it was founded and should still be a republic... this common mistake is due to our public school indoctrination... also, the world is now becoming "capitalistic communist"(for lack of a better name, ie universal or world governance)... if you are unfamiliar with the communist manifesto feel free to explore the internet and compare the manifesto to what the USA has become...unbeknownst to most americans, we have allowed it...
This map incorrectly shows the Netherlands as having a fascistic government during WW-1, when it was in fact a neutral country and not part of the WW-1.
that map shows a complete lack of understanding of European history for one.
And what is democracy? i would not describe the united states upto the 1960's as a democracy it excluded ethnic minorities form the vote, bothe constitionally and un constitutionally. The same goes for athens.
And Rome was never a democracy it was dominated by a powerful elite and economic limits on who could stand for office.
The single biggest mistake on your map, and I'm afraid there are many, is that during the Cold War you show India as Tribes, Kings or Tyrannies desipite the fact that since Independence in 1948 it's been the world's largest democracy.
Secondly it's very politically loaded to show democract sweeping south from the US through South America since since it's not historically accurate and the US had a habit of supporting coups against dermocratically elected governments in the area.
so the cold war was between democracy and communism, huh? Wow, I have to brush up on my history, I thought these were two forms of democratic government, one capitalistic and one communistic and both decidedly totalitarian and undemocratic.
I´m Icelandic and I can get behind those saying that Iceland was the first country founded as a democracy. However, it is debatable to what degree Iceland embraced democracy way-back-when and whether it was actually founded as a democracy from the beginning or whether it evolved into that form of governance. But then again, it is difficult to call the earliest manifestation of democratic America truly democratic as slaves and women were exempt from the democratic process until the mid 20th century. The map is a good idea but it is deeply flawed.
A basic idea of what happened but definetly with flaws that others mentioned already so I won't go ranting on about them. Dates are very important with anything involving history so that truly needs to be implemented.
Nice work so far. You might consider the Iroquois Confederacy (Founded sometime between 1150 and 1650, depending on who you ask), which has been credited as an inspiration for American Democracy.
This is a controversial point, but that it is controversial suggests that there were enough democratic notions in the Iroquois Constitution that it very well may deserve a spot on the map at least.
"In 2004 the U.S. Government acknowledged the influence of the Iroquois Constitution on the U.S. Framers. The Smithsonian Institution also noted the similarities between the two documents, as well as the differences. "
Came here for the first time in a number of months. Was more interested in the technological dimensions, this time, than the actual data. Had appreciated some other visualizations. Didn't have high expectations on this one. And even my relatively low expectations weren't met.
Glad to see such thoughtful comments, here. Seriously, it shows that people do think critically. Even when a visualization is "purty," people are able to assess information. To play devil's advocate, there's a few things that I like about this visualization. For one thing, it occasionally shows regions instead of countries. Unfortunately, this erases differences between parts of a single region but it makes a bit more geographical sense than the typical animation using a contemporary political map. Another thing is that it pays lip-service to the notion that apart from "democracy" and "the rest," there are different forms of governance. Some people interpret these other forms as more or less democratic (hence the color scheme) and the maps lump together different forms of governance while separating relatively similar governance systems. But, still, there's almost an acknowledgement that a republic is different from a parliamentary democracy. Well... At least, it's a try...
a dissapointing lack of knowledge of history any other than "USA democracy" very vague, and it'd be nice to learn some history of the world, south america happens to exist too.
This map is completely bogus. Democracy is a politically loaded word and is defined by whoever uses it. Every government, even the harshest dictatorship, has to be democratic to some extent or another. It is impossible to rule without some degree of democracy. Who says western democracy should be the standard of which democracy should be defined?
The most ridiculous thing is showing Iraq is a democratic country which ruling parties' member was preselected by USA governor, Paul Bremer, before election.
You completely skip the Icelandic Republic, dating from the year 1000. The Iroquois Federation might qualify. Certainly the Swiss Federation does, from the 14th Century, and several other Greek city states. I also think you left India a little late.
I will also concur on the US being a republic, not a democracy. If you're going back to Greek and Roman times, the Gauls and Brittano-Celts were democratic to a great degree, and both they and the Viking-era Norse gave women a lot more status than others of the time.
Jeers for the conspiracy nutjobs trying to use minor incidents to "prove" America is not a representative republic.
Also, have you considered deleting the spam comments?
Why is Venezuela marked as a current democracy, when it clearly is in serious danger of totalitarianism. Why is China called Communist? Perhaps Totalitarian is more appropriate. Why is the Russian Federation not marked as a democracy? It should be.
Too Americo-centric. Requires more serious scholarship. E.g: During the spread of democracy, why does it start in the U.S, going through Canada and spread to Europe?
Boy, you have a tough audience, but I applaude the effort. I'm sending this to a teacher friend. Most of his kids wouldn't have a clue what this map is about. However, I have a technical question. The maps (on my computer) seem to be squashed-vertically. (NO I'm not a computer whiz). Anything I can do about that?
I thought this map was awesome. I think a good idea for improvement would be to distinguish between true democracy and 'class' or 'caste' democracy such as the US before the Civil War, Athens, and basically every democracy/republic since recent times. More detail would be nice, too. Europe was not entirely fascist before WWII, and you missed a few democracies that existed before the map shows any blue.
I believe that you forgot the republic of Carthage that had a constitution and a people's house and a senate and believed in liberty and free trade . Carthage fought the dominance of Rome and fought wars for it's constitution. True Democracy in the classic era died with the burning of Carthage.
The March of Democracy maps, totally forgets what happened in America (the Continent not the US), 1810 Mexican independece of Spain, later in other countries in Central and South America, and before becoming what USA is now half of the country was part of Mexico!
Sure, there's going to be a lot of generalization giving a 90 second overview of 4000 yrs and I don't want to seem cruel (considering the quality of previous work on this site) but the 'March of democracy' is truly an abomination and I think it would be wise to pull it. Epic fail...
That map generates a lot of false esspecially it is not consider any facts from history of Poland related to democracy, constitutions, cold war, second war - so it should be totally fixed.
Interesting but not entirely correct. Firstly the United States and virtually every single nation on the planet that we would call a "democracy" is really a Republic. Yes, parliamentary bodies ruling is also a Republic. Or, if you wanna call it this, a representative democracy. If you call it that then the United States fits the criteria of a democracy. Also, as others mentioned, some detail would be nice. I can't agree with the characterization of the Roman Republic as a democracy... however, several other comments seem to have missed that you meant the Republic prior to Caesar. If you consider this a democracy, then many other things have to fit into it. I think the best date to call the United States, and most other nations on the planet, would be around 1920 when women gained the right to vote. For those who say African-Americans didn't gain the right to vote until the 60s in the US, check your history. The United States even had African-American congressmen in the 19th century and they were given the vote just after the American Civil War. In the purest sense of the word, they had the legal right to vote. Wikipedia references the United States as the first liberal democracy, however, that does not make it the FIRST democracy. I would advise you to remove the Roman Republic and other states where almost no one could vote as democracies. Perhaps make the benchmark either the removal of a need to own land to vote, granting of the right to vote to minorities or the right to vote to women. Another option is to reclassify democracies under different styles, such as liberal, communistic and direct, things like that. It was alright, not great.
Interesting form of distributing knowledge. I'll leave the other pedantic comments to scholars of history, but I do wish you could change a prominent misspelling: PHILADE(L)PHIA is missing its second 'L'.
Apart from some confusing transitions(which seem to have confused top drop), which makes the dates sort of hard to follow- I found it entirely excellent.
It seems a lot of Europeans seem a little flustered at the idea they missed the democracy bandwagon by a few years, of course, you got it right. France came after the US, and when you must express everything through maps, it just looks like it spread.
In "Modern Era" Afganistan and Irak are marked as democratic countries! Is a war enough to bring democracy to those places; The grey colour for them sounds more logigal to me..
More over, DEMOCRACY FIRST FOUNDED IN GREECE AT THE CITY STATE OF ATHENS. Notice that the word "Democracy" is a Greek word.. You should start with that!
Okay, I'm going to jump on the oversimplified bandwagon...
1. Where were the representations of republics and democracies in Italian city-states for example. Granted, It was very restricted to upper class, still, the notion of democracy still was kept alive to some degree.
2. The British had parliamentary representation for years, long before the US revolution for example. In fact, the initial violence leading up to the revolution before the declaration of independence itself was merely brought on by a demand for colonial representation in British parliament.
3. What was with the sweep of "nationalism" overtaking Europe but untouching the US? Those countries were still republics just as the US was heavily nationalistic at the time as well.
4. In one bit of defense for the map, the roman republic existed, just not in the full bounds of the empire as represented on the map, in fact, the formation of the empire marked the end of the republic.
Calling South America and Central America democratic after WW2 is grossly inaccurate. What about the paramilitary fascist dicatatorships in: Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile, Uruguay (I can go on).
Calling South America and Central America democratic after WW2 is grossly inaccurate. What about the paramilitary fascist dicatatorships in: Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile, Uruguay (I can go on).
So funny, but what is the democracy? For American Indian, it was not the fun to see the foundation of THE FIRST DEMOCRATIC country.
Why do this show that there were just tribes, kings, etc. in Africa? Who confirms?
I'm sure that there were a lot more than this horrible map. History is not a simple flash animation, but mixtures of mutual developments. Democracy is not the final answer.
So, no shades of gray in how democratic countries are? Rome, of course, was only democratic if you were a member of the Patrician class. Athens was just as bad. only about 1% of the population of classical Athens was able to vote in any way. It should be noted that the "tribes" that are the vast blank area the map began with were often quite democratic. Modern stone-age tribes in New Guinea and the Amazon tend to be run by councils of elders; at least as democratic as our Senate. Iceland, San Marino, Switzerland, the Iroquois Confederacy, the Hussite revolts in 14th century Bohemia, The English Commonwealth of 1649-59, the Parliamentary system of the UK, Corsica (1755), the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, etc. all seem to have been forgotten. To simply have American democracy created ex nihilo in 1776 does a horrible disservice do the centuries of people who struggled for freedom before then.
Why is the UK marked as 'feudal', 'nationalist' etc. during the periods in which we were governed by an elected parliament? Why is the French revolution defined as democratic?
Wouldn't it be better to go
- from 'tribes etc.'
- to the early Greek etc. republics
- to the Roman Empire
- to feudalism
- to republics like the Venetian and Dutch and parliamentary countries like Britain as opposed to the absolutist ones like France
- then show the spread of the European empires
- then the US war of independence
- then the post-1870 democratisation in France
- then the unification of Germany and Italy
- then the democratisation of central Europe and Germany post WW1
- then pan out for the rise of Fascism world-wide
- then zoom in for the division of Europe between communist and democratic countries
- Then pan out to show the results of the various independence struggles, the Chinese war of independence
- Then show democratisation in Spain, the Philippines and South America
- Then zoom into Europe to show the end of the cold war
- Then zoom out again for a final survey of democratic and non-democratic countries.
Usually your maps are great but - like other people said - you seem to be missing some important ones: what about the Dutch Republic in the 1600s and the Renaissance Italian city-states in the 1400s (even though they were really run by wealthy dictators)?
Very nice tool. Unfortunately very approximate also. You can't rank France, Tschekoslovakia, and Great Britain into "fascism" before WW2. Watch Poland and Hungary in the XVIth century, which elected their kings... Go on, you're on the good way!
Very confused. You seem to automatically associate republicanism with democracy, which is nonsense as there are democratic monarchies and republican dictatorships. In order to make this kind of map I think you need to develop the idea of degrees of democracy; e.g. The UK had "democracy" long before the founding of the USA (where do you think the American ideals came from?) but it wasn't the full franchise we recognise today. But then again, neither was the US (no slaves, no women etc. The British system was only different by degree, not type). You should start with a shading system that hits a final colour once a country has a universal franchise.
The errors are caused by generalizations and modern filters. Yes, US leaders really meant "All WHITE MEN" are created equal. But, that has since been fixed, at least Constitutionally.
One place was WAY overlooked. The world’s oldest continuous democracy (and the highest literacy rate) is about 1000 years old in Iceland. Funny how that never gets mentioned. It is ignored just as is the European “discovery” of America by Icelanders who settled Greenland in the 10th century and whose descendants STILL own it to this day! I guess when they discover oil up there, someone will start paying attention.
Wow... There is a great deal of history left out and this is a decidedly Caucasian/Western view of history. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy was established in 1142 with a written constitution. There are other examples.
I'm disappointed, since the 15th century feudalism was not present in the Dutch Republic! It was highly urbanised and the areas where there was feudalism were few! The Dutch Republic was democratic in the sense that the rich people could vote, just like it was in Athens in Ancient Greece!
I love the idea of the US as a shining beacon of democracy whilst the whole of Europe was lost in 'Nationalism" can anyone imagine a more Nationalistic state than the US? Jeesus Learn some history before pushing this rubbish
What about India ? It is still greyed out (as in no form of rule there ??) all the way up until the cold war .... in reality though India has been the largest democracy in the world (population wise) for the last 61 years (soon after WWII).
Your democracy map is nothing more than an appalling and historically inaccurate piece of propaganda. I was genuinely excited about watching this and am now gravely disappointed. Painted with ignorant broad brushstrokes it appears simply that the authors are attempting to paint the (supposed) victory of a United Sates ideology. This sort of teaching aid undermines the value of democracy. It is a disgusting promotion of American imperial revisionism.
Terrible. In addition to Chris' and Killinchy's comments, not only is Ancient Greece (with exception of a brief mention of Athens) missing and the fact that England democratic was no less democratic than it is now at the time of the French Revolution where are the British colonies? - where is the rest of British North America, Australia, British East Africa, etc.? Where is the Mexican Revolution? Why are the ELECTED fascist governments of Germany and Italy excluded? By the definition of Fascism arguably the United States is Fascist now. As with "Top Drop" I seriously wonder what definition of democracy you are using. And at that, Greek democracy is radically different than representative democracy.
The United States was hardly the first nation founded on democracy. Iceland has about a thousand year jump on the U.S. as Johnathan points out.
Utter crap produced by someone who clearly has bought U.S. propaganda hook, line and sinker.
Well democracy should not be confound Republic and Democracy. So a Constitutional monarchy is still a democracy. So for example in Great Britain and in the Netherlands, there where democracy before the US. Well if we are very strict and consider that in a democracy everyone can be a representative, with the right of vote for the whole society than there are only democracies since WWII. And still for example the children cannot vote. So my sentence some could consider as a definition, is never true and will never be true. There are and will be always people who do not have the right of vote. Therefore in my opinion you should consider a democracy a country where the society is well represented, and the principle of the counter power is stated (so the King cannot rule without the parliament).
But this map is a nice idea.( But You should not only use History books from the US secondary schools).
Yoy must be jocking! Its well known to every person knows a little history that democracy was born in Athens. The meaning of democracy of course has been changed since then.
I've come across this website by accident and I have to say it is full of flawed information and utterly simplistic. It's almost dangerous. Leave history to the experts. Don't pretend you know what you are talking about when clearly you are no more than an ill-educated layperson.
Ludicrous! The creators of this map are pitiable. What is it that motivated them to attempt such a large-scale-project without the least understanding of world history beyond 9th grade standard American level? Without wanting to point out the obvious further (as has been done in the posts before), I suggest this map be removed. Still astounded by the sheer stupidness of it.
Very biased towards the USA as the 'first' democracy! There's so much here that's just plain wrong that it's useless. All south american states are democratic in the 20th century? Rome is a democratic republic? Waste of time.
OMG, whatever happened to Iceland, Switzerland, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Netherlands? All of them were pre-1700's democracies of their kind.
The United States was indeed the first nation founded on democracy, where democracy= white propertied males can vote, while females get to do laundry at home and brothas happily plant cotton under the benevolent whip of their overseers.
whats whith the whole of europe beeing fasists before WW II? only italy was truly fasist. The germans where national-socialists Who elected Hitler... And democracy is not so much an expression of believes as it is a way of goverment, You can still be a nationalist country if your form of goverment is democratic (the US beeing the best example here).
This map is poor quality :( I don't like this effect - spreading the blue color from USA to the rest of the world. This suggests that democracy was spread in Europe in XX century by USA and this is so not true. USA was maybe helping in the process but nothing more. I'm from Poland and I saw many mistakes about history of my country. In 1573 we had firs free king's election, and many elements of democracy. In fact on May 3th 1973 we had first democratic constitution in Europe! etc.
Ireland was not a democracy at the break of WW1 as it was under tyrant rule from England so cannot be coloured blue, and they were not democratic at break of ww2 as Ireland was founded as a socialist state in 1921 when we got our independance, we slowly turned into a democratic state but not by 1939.
map is severly flawed and I dont like the thought some kids may think they are learning something from this flawed history lesson
Why all the rancor in this thread? Can't the group deal civilly with the subject and each other?
I assume it is about a moving map showing the spread and subsidence of the main religions in history.
My impression was that it did a good job but I am sure that it was too big a job to be especially accurate.
To prepare a really accurate such grand-scale presentation of all the religions over all historical times would involved, it seems to me, decades of research by more than one person and cost considerable money.
Totally inaccurate presentation... Seems to have been made by an illiterate American teenager.. You should first study some history -from serious and accurate historical books- and then attemp to make a map of it. (e.g. you ignore the fact that Democracy was born in ancient Athens many centuries before 1776...)
americans have quite the narrow view of world history. to suggest that the united states was the first democracy is... is... well, it defies description in its complete ignorance and arrogance. iceland?
It's not easy to get make such a simplistic representation of history totally accurate, but there are a few glaring errors. For example, no Ancient Greece, and the map greatly overestimated the number of fascist countries before WWII. France, for example, was not fascist. Neither was Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, or many of the other countries on that map. France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal were. Japan was still ruled by an emperor, so though it was allied with Germany and Italy, it was not actually fascist, just imperialist.
In addition, nationalism as an ideology only became popular in Europe prior to WWI. And it did not necessarily preclude also being democratic. In fact, a lot of democracies are quite nationalistic.
Yah, there are many errors on this map, though some of the others are very general, but much better done. This one could be better. Putting in years, and clarifying what definition of democracy you're using as well as checking a lot more historical facts would go a long way to making this map far more useful.
The most democratic state in the world is Republic of Indonesia, because we directly choose the President by general election one man one vote to choose President and not Via parliament or something like that...even in the U.S.A they not directly choose the President...Hmmm, who's democratic most?...
So where is the Icelandic democracy, the world's oldest surviving one. How come the African countries are shown as being democratic. If they count as democratic, then England from 1300 should also be counted. Since when did the USA, which sanctions slavery in its original constitution count as a place "founded on " democracy.
This map needs a bit more work, it's suggesting that the United States spread democracy to Europe which is obviously incorrect given that the UK was already a democracy before the USA came into being, and we in no small part had our democracy enhanced by continental Europe and specifically William of Orange.
Canada's democratic system came from the UK, pretty obvious given it has a Parliament, as did Australia. At this time the United States was not a world power so impossible for it to spread anything anywhere.
This map, by leaving out a good 500 years, completly misses the birth of parlimentary democracy (in England) which is the basis of the American, and most of other democratic systems in the world. Bad Work.
this map is generally innacurate and therefore harmful as it is pretending to be authentic.
The British Empire, covering India, Africa, Asia and the US was a 'democracy' just not a 'republic' the two types of government are different. Modern Russia is a fully fledged democracy and so is India... both seem to be left gray as though they don't have any government????
The USA wasn't one whole country as it is today until after they acquired Texas and Hawaii in the 19th century.
Finally, you might be surprised to know that Hitler was actually democratically elected... meaning that the Yellow 'Fascism' during WW2 was actually still technically a democracy.
Highly recommend removing this map as it is just plain ignorant!
Absolute twaddle England has arguably had a paliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch since the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and certainly since the accession of the the Hanoverians (George I 1714) power vested itself in Parliament in a way almost unchanged into today. Sometime you'll recognise before Declaration of Independence, unfortunately it suits the US deocratic myth that you fought for freedom from the wicked tyrant King George and have since spread freedom to the world. New Zealand seems to be the first country to offer universal sufferage and should therefore possibly be considered as home of meodern democracy. US rights to vote for slaves and Women are just as patchy as the story of universal sufferage in many other countries in the World including UK. Bad history
China overthrew the Imperial government in 1914 and established a Republic. If the US, a Republic is mapped, I think China's Nationalist Government would also make China eligible to be placed as a Democracy for that time period.
Interesting, except you left out Western Hemisphere Indians. They had Chiefs and Tyrants as old as the ones you showed in Europe and India, and the first DEMOCRACY in North America was the Iroquois Confederation, not the United States.
Have you ever asked an American native - i.e. red Indian - if he or she understands what you depicted as western expansion of democracy in North America as such ? Describing the white genocide against Indian tries as a "democratic" process is not only misleading, but shameful as well.
Some nations have and had not democracy, but military dectatorcy, which means you could label some nations with military dictatorcy not grey (Kings, Tribes and Tyrants), but with different labels for Kings, Tribes and Tyrands and just to know, Military Dectatorcy is different than the "Tyrants" you describe... And... where's the time (I don't know very good English) shower in the down of the screen? I only see B.C and A.C.
Poor... I suggest you make another map more detailed. Believe, me I would be delaited...
there are so many mistakes in it, that it is actually more misleading than teaching in any sense. it cannot even be used as a general overview. as sad as it is, i have the impression that this is the way history is seen by many people in the US. founded as the first democratic nation, then spreading the superior idea all over the world...
another very important missing is the aspect: democracy of whom? slaves, women, blacks... there were always people who somehow weren't allowed to contribute to the democracies.
it's just not as easy as that, you can't explain history just with maps.
This map was obviously designed by an American who knew nothing detailed about the way the government works. Nationalism is a belief, not a form of government. USA - 'first nation founded on democracy' - what does that mean? What constitutes the founding of a nation? If it is simply a change in government, then the Roman Republic was the first nation founded on democracy. That is the only possible meaning. When the USA became independent, the people's way of life did not change, in fact, it changed much more in Rome. The USA is a state,a country, but not a nation, anyway. The people's nationality is not 'American' unless they are native americans. They speak another country's language, and define themselves on how their government is run. Britain was democratic before the French revolution, by 1660 they ran the same system as they use now.
Anonymous, you should know by now, regardless of HOW wrong the information is, if it is on the internet 50 % of the world population believe it 100%, and 40% think it is a conspiracy.
Gotta say, Polk and Manifest Destiny is pretty "Nationalist" to me. Or how about the "Isolationist" stand that the US took for about 150 years? Also kind of a "Nationalist" flavor of Democracy.
Sie sind nicht recht. Ich biete es an, zu besprechen. Schreiben Sie mir in PM, wir werden reden. viagra levitra [url=http//t7-isis.org]viagra ohne rezept kaufen[/url]
Although I assume intended as a piece of fun, this map is almost a-historical. If any research was done, I'm sure it did not impact on the answers that the auther came to, with the possible exception of the two pre-greek democracies.
On the factual accuracy scale from one to ten you score minus twentyfive:
You missed the polish-lithuanian commonweath one of the largest and longest lasting democracies ever!
You missed the medieval confederacy of the Rhine
You missed THE ITALIAN CITY STATES of the Renaissance including the oldest democracy Venice (well done!)
You missed the Hanseatic League of the same period.
I have no idea what kind of government 'Nationalism' is, or how it's different from democracy.
You missed the united irish men revolution and the republic of connacht (but you could be forgiven for leaving that out)
The magna carta has noting to do with democracy because it was only a charter amoung the ritch, agreeing to found a ritch boy's club and protect them from prosecution. It did not offer universal sufferage, nor protect any universal rights, and the right to trial was only for the titled aristocrats - it was no different from any other medieval tyranny. All european states had parlements (hint it's actually a french word) at that time why not mention them all?
You imply that western europe was democratic before the first world war? 'Kaizer' Willheim mean anything to you?
You missed the Republic of the Netherlands.
The map's very western europe oriented, particularly english-speaking oriented.
You didn't mention the League of the Iriquios, whom where a major inspiration to the Constitution, then you steam roller over them during the 'expansion of america' animation - the ignomony.
You don't mention the republic of China before the cold war.
Your depiction of the second word war in europe must have been influenced by hallucinogenic drugs. Facisim did not transform into democracy then get invaded by communism. Eastern europe went from Facsism to communism with no intervening period of democracy.
You list taiwan and chilie as democracies with no mention of the brutal facsist dictators that america forced on those countries? Ditto for numerous other latin american states.
Some third world included as democracies that are such only in name.
What i'd like is a map of 'real democracies' so a list countries that have universal sufferage; then you'll find that democracy didn't exist anwhere before the 1920's.
Iceland (first parliament), Republic of Venice (richest democratic country of that time), Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (biggest landpower in europe, in many aspects kind of predecessor of USA) were democratic long before USA and France. Check wikipedia or any other reliable source for reference...
I agree with the rest of the commentators... you leave out all the bits that are interesting... these maps show nothing new, and sometimes your data is corrupted. SET IT STRAIGHT.
However, you make a good attempt. You should check out the www.worldmapper.org
Um....this map is wrong on soooooooooooooooooooooooooo many levels. First off, the United States was NOT the first nation founded on democracy, not even in the western world. The UPN (United Providences of the Netherlands) was first, and England had its constitutional monarchy before the American Revolution even begun. If you check the facts, the American Revolution only shifted the executive power to the States, as a legislative body had existed before the Revolution, but many did not support it. The Revolution only shifted those in power, but the same style of government was re-inpossed on the colonialists after the Constitution was drafted (and after the failed Confederate system, i.e. the Articles of Confederation).
Next, Nationalism is not a government type....it is merely the product of a government, and one that was not foreign to the US. That's right, we should also be included in that silly Nationalist expansion.
Many people are criticizing this map - understandably.
But what they DONT seem to understand is the enormous complexity of animated global historical mapping. It would be extremely difficult to capture ALL the events because you quickly get into an ontological discussion of the "is-ness" of particular event. What "is" this battle, and what does it represent? Does it represent an empirical change or a boundary shift? Did this event effect the spread of particular ideals within a set region?
I honestly applaud MOW for their approach of at least making an attempt to animate historical events over time. In order to appease the masses, however, a map like this would need to be interactive, where the user could move the time control back and forth, manipulate the speed and "span" of the history to be shown, and be able to be author themselves within the app. Also, be able to toggle "thematic" elements of the animation - such as "military", "political" "religion" etc.
A user generated content approach would seem to be applicable in this situation (wikipedia for mapping) but would need EXTREME functionality to be effective at all.
Perhaps sourcing the material referenced in this animation?
This is so incompetent it must be American. No one else could make so many mistakes and leave it up. Unless of course it is created as a joke by someone trying to caricature the Americans, such as al-Queada. But then the spelilng would be better
This was an utterly dismal effort. You missed out so many societies both ancient and modern that were founded on democratic institutions. If I were you, I would be too ashamed to put this on the web, as it only shows how ignorant you are.
No mention of polish democracy in the 16th and 17th century? The only country in Europe to elect their kings, and have the 'librium veto'(for better or worse) in their parliament.
327 Comments:
This Map has very serious missing parts of the World History
I am a lot disappointed, because so many facts are missing and the generalities are more than rough-textured.
E.g.
Where is ancient Greece?
What is with Corsica having a democratic constitution before the French revolution?
The feudalism has not had only the Bill of Rights, but e.g. the Holy Roman Empire has got under Maximilian a Constitution and the first court the Reichkammergericht in order to solve constitutional problems etc...
generally too rough generalisations
Chris
Much tooo general
I can't agree to a map listing Russia today as blue, I would make it a very red purple color, at best.
Scott
Yes, where was ancient Greece? The English cut off their King's head in 1649. I don't think any historian would say that England wa feudal at the time of the French Revolution.
Was the USA a democracy in 1776? Would women and slaves have thought it a democracy?
Please get the spelling of Fascism right!
It's not "Facism".
The map doesn't have any dates, which makes it hard to figure out what is supposed to be going on.
At one point, only the United States is listed as a democracy. Then, suddenly Western Europe, Canada, and Colombia suddenly become democracies. From the borders of Colombia, it looks like this is supposed to be about 1900.
Are you saying that there were no European democracies until the 20th Century?
What definition of democracy are you using? It seems like you are blurring the difference between actual democracies, and countries that were simply allied with the US in various conflicts.
Your map seems to be implying that South America was entirely democratic (except for Cuba) during the cold war. That seems rather silly.
You also seem to say that Europe (with the exception of Switzerland) was entirely fascist before World War 2. Huh?
It would be great if you had some notes to explain your reasoning.
I cannot agree totally with this map since there are many missing parts especially that concern Africa, and Middle East. Also, I think the definition of the democracy that used to constrict this map depends only in the Western meaning, and neglected the Eastern type of democracy where were some elections for the leader of a tribe, a nation, or a religious group.
the roman empire was a great democracy. :) I would ban all this incorrect maps.
not exactly accurate.
For example, even though Russia was Czarist prior to WWI it's economy was one of the most democratic at that time. And today's China is very democratic!
This map only shows the government name, not exactly the type, if you know what i'm trying to say.
Not as good as earlier efforts. Very general and criteria for denoting what makes a democracy seems a little sketchy as well. I generally really enjoy these, but not this one. Also, I must agree with earlier posts regarding accuracy and timing.
Where´s Albania red dot on the last map? (((:
No, serious, only thing I didn´t like on this another wonderful work of you is the idea that democracy was born on USA and "spread" to France, when historically it was the opposite. You know Thomas Jefferson lived in Paris and was the one bringing the Iluminism ideas to USA, right? Maybe a "return" there instead of "spread" would solve the question and make people think and learn.
Get going with your great work, your maps are
kind of missed out on the Dutch version of a democratic republic prior to 1776? The republican commonwealth of the UK prior to that under Cromwell? Switzerland in the 17th & 18th cty?
Bonkers from start to finish. Rome was the "first democratic world power"?? ROFL! USA was the "first nation founded on democracy"- what about Iceland!
Wrong in general approach; e.g in ignoring the rise of democracy in Greece. Wrong in detail; e.g. Norway was conquered by Nazi Germany before France and the Balkans; Catalonia was not part of France in the French Revolution; Western Ukraine was part of the USSR throughout the Cold War; Magna Carta was not a statement of democracy; etc., etc.
The Roman empire...democratic???
Were are all the Right-winged Dictatorships (e.g. Latinamerika???) in Cold-War-times?
Wow! Thank you. What a great visual, and it helped me put the March of Democracy in a simple overview perpective.
A typical history lesson from the United States. Fast and loose with the U.S front and centre. As a Canadian, it is always entertainment watching the Americans ignore their Northern neighbours. I wonder if Black Americans,Brown Americans, Native Americans and women also are impressed with this display of democratic pride?
Thank you, Matt!
Iceland has been democratic longer than anywhere else
Last time I checked the the united states was founded as a republic, always has been.
It would be good to see this done with different colours - 1. Democracy of the ruling classes, e.g. Ancient Roman, Greek, perhaps America before the emancipation of the slaves. 2. Democracy for all classes. e.g Iceland 3. Women's suffrage. Another shade could indicate the presence of unelected leadership along with democratic bodies - e.g English monarchy. Imperial Rome. Another important but difficult factor is the ability for true parties to form, as is not the case in Singapore, Japan and Russia now.
Pretty weak. Not up to your usual standard......
The French Revolution was anything but democratic. They claimed to be for peace and brotherhood and liberty but all they really wanted was a totalitarian deification of the French state. Robespierre's reign of terror anyone?
Doing a march of democracy's tough because in many cases it has been established very incrementally and it hard for you to put an exact date as to when a country or region "made the switch".
This map was nowhere near as good as some of your others; it was oversimplified.
Very slanted view, and technically Communism is more democratic then the US system. Also fail to take into account the rise of Socialism spreading in the 21st century. The Only thing ended in the "Cold War," was the reign of a Stalinist state capitalism. Trotsky's Socialism will win.
Definitely something that would come from our American educational system. It's very limited in the world view scheme of things.
Example: If you have Rome then why not Poland? their king was elected by the nobility. They also had the second constitution in the world following us. More research is needed to make this useful.
This map made me lose all interest in this site. I will - if asked - just state this site is for fantasy, not reality.
Pek anladığım Söylenemez.
Besides many other (mostly valid) complaints the last map has North Korea in white with the PRC in Red. If the PRC is colored Red, NK should be Red.
Interesting, I agree...however there are two very LARGE errors in the whole map...first of all the map shows the USA as a democracy, however it was founded and should still be a republic... this common mistake is due to our public school indoctrination... also, the world is now becoming "capitalistic communist"(for lack of a better name, ie universal or world governance)... if you are unfamiliar with the communist manifesto feel free to explore the internet and compare the manifesto to what the USA has become...unbeknownst to most americans, we have allowed it...
This map incorrectly shows the Netherlands as having a fascistic government during WW-1, when it was in fact a neutral country and not part of the WW-1.
that map shows a complete lack of understanding of European history for one.
And what is democracy? i would not describe the united states upto the 1960's as a democracy it excluded ethnic minorities form the vote, bothe constitionally and un constitutionally. The same goes for athens.
And Rome was never a democracy it was dominated by a powerful elite and economic limits on who could stand for office.
The single biggest mistake on your map, and I'm afraid there are many, is that during the Cold War you show India as Tribes, Kings or Tyrannies desipite the fact that since Independence in 1948 it's been the world's largest democracy.
Secondly it's very politically loaded to show democract sweeping south from the US through South America since since it's not historically accurate and the US had a habit of supporting coups against dermocratically elected governments in the area.
All in all, very disappointing.
so the cold war was between democracy and communism, huh? Wow, I have to brush up on my history, I thought these were two forms of democratic government, one capitalistic and one communistic and both decidedly totalitarian and undemocratic.
I´m Icelandic and I can get behind those saying that Iceland was the first country founded as a democracy. However, it is debatable to what degree Iceland embraced democracy way-back-when and whether it was actually founded as a democracy from the beginning or whether it evolved into that form of governance. But then again, it is difficult to call the earliest manifestation of democratic America truly democratic as slaves and women were exempt from the democratic process until the mid 20th century. The map is a good idea but it is deeply flawed.
A basic idea of what happened but definetly with flaws that others mentioned already so I won't go ranting on about them. Dates are very important with anything involving history so that truly needs to be implemented.
Cody
Nice work so far. You might consider the Iroquois Confederacy (Founded sometime between 1150 and 1650, depending on who you ask), which has been credited as an inspiration for American Democracy.
This is a controversial point, but that it is controversial suggests that there were enough democratic notions in the Iroquois Constitution that it very well may deserve a spot on the map at least.
From Wikipedia:
"In 2004 the U.S. Government acknowledged the influence of the Iroquois Constitution on the U.S. Framers. The Smithsonian Institution also noted the similarities between the two documents, as well as the differences. "
i think the USA should get the nationalism color again towards the end of the 20th century
A bit short Democracy
Iroquois Confederation, anyone?
Sucks, haven't you heard about Poland and its democracy which started in 1385?? Learn history!
facebookara.com
facebookara
facebook
face book
faceturk
chat
muhabbet
sesli chat
sesli sohbet
arkadaş
arkadaş ara
facebook türkiye
facebook ara
sohbet
How many *&$%)(@# times do I have to down load FLASH ???? 6 times should be enough !!!! And I still can't get March of Democracy to load.
Get outa my face !!!
Good. Try to visit this site:
http://www.promlink.org
there are more tools available for your client.
Came here for the first time in a number of months. Was more interested in the technological dimensions, this time, than the actual data. Had appreciated some other visualizations. Didn't have high expectations on this one.
And even my relatively low expectations weren't met.
Glad to see such thoughtful comments, here. Seriously, it shows that people do think critically. Even when a visualization is "purty," people are able to assess information.
To play devil's advocate, there's a few things that I like about this visualization. For one thing, it occasionally shows regions instead of countries. Unfortunately, this erases differences between parts of a single region but it makes a bit more geographical sense than the typical animation using a contemporary political map.
Another thing is that it pays lip-service to the notion that apart from "democracy" and "the rest," there are different forms of governance. Some people interpret these other forms as more or less democratic (hence the color scheme) and the maps lump together different forms of governance while separating relatively similar governance systems. But, still, there's almost an acknowledgement that a republic is different from a parliamentary democracy.
Well... At least, it's a try...
there are many, Important ,missing parts of the history in this map.
Also there are mistakesin references of Democratic nations
I am not in a position to make comments about what the maps say about the rest of the world, but the facts about Europe are seriously warped.
One example: what about Switzerland, which has been a democracy since the year 1295?
India?
"What definition of democracy are you using?"
- American naivety of course!
a dissapointing lack of knowledge of history any other than "USA democracy" very vague, and it'd be nice to learn some history of the world, south america happens to exist too.
this map is just not representing world history and he spread of democracy at all.
This map is completely bogus. Democracy is a politically loaded word and is defined by whoever uses it. Every government, even the harshest dictatorship, has to be democratic to some extent or another. It is impossible to rule without some degree of democracy. Who says western democracy should be the standard of which democracy should be defined?
The most ridiculous thing is showing Iraq is a democratic country which ruling parties' member was preselected by USA governor, Paul Bremer, before election.
You completely skip the Icelandic Republic, dating from the year 1000. The Iroquois Federation might qualify. Certainly the Swiss Federation does, from the 14th Century, and several other Greek city states. I also think you left India a little late.
I agree this one needs work.
I will also concur on the US being a republic, not a democracy. If you're going back to Greek and Roman times, the Gauls and Brittano-Celts were democratic to a great degree, and both they and the Viking-era Norse gave women a lot more status than others of the time.
Jeers for the conspiracy nutjobs trying to use minor incidents to "prove" America is not a representative republic.
Also, have you considered deleting the spam comments?
Do you want to say more about politics, religion etc. - for further discussion go to www.thefaithdebate.com
Why is Venezuela marked as a current democracy, when it clearly is in serious danger of totalitarianism. Why is China called Communist? Perhaps Totalitarian is more appropriate. Why is the Russian Federation not marked as a democracy? It should be.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I love watching the red get owned at the end.
f
Thanks...
Caltel
Article
Too Americo-centric. Requires more serious scholarship. E.g: During the spread of democracy, why does it start in the U.S, going through Canada and spread to Europe?
Boy, you have a tough audience, but I applaude the effort. I'm sending this to a teacher friend. Most of his kids wouldn't have a clue what this map is about.
However, I have a technical question. The maps (on my computer) seem to be squashed-vertically. (NO I'm not a computer whiz). Anything I can do about that?
Wow, this map lacks so many details and sometimes even wrong! Just take it from your side and work on it please.
I thought this map was awesome.
I think a good idea for improvement would be to distinguish between true democracy and 'class' or 'caste' democracy such as the US before the Civil War, Athens, and basically every democracy/republic since recent times.
More detail would be nice, too. Europe was not entirely fascist before WWII, and you missed a few democracies that existed before the map shows any blue.
(sorry, I meant "before recent times")
I believe that you forgot the republic of Carthage that had a constitution and a people's house and a senate and believed in liberty and free trade . Carthage fought the dominance of Rome and fought wars for it's constitution. True Democracy in the classic era died with the burning of Carthage.
The March of Democracy maps, totally forgets what happened in America (the Continent not the US), 1810 Mexican independece of Spain, later in other countries in Central and South America, and before becoming what USA is now half of the country was part of Mexico!
Think globally!Not locally!
This is incredibly disappointing. The visuals were good but the history is way off. Also, nationalism is not a form of government!
Sure, there's going to be a lot of generalization giving a 90 second overview of 4000 yrs and I don't want to seem cruel (considering the quality of previous work on this site) but the 'March of democracy' is truly an abomination and I think it would be wise to pull it.
Epic fail...
Turkey was established as a democratic republic in 1923. You are missing that part.
I think there is a mistake.
You seem to have missed the history of democracy off this map.
But, I never knew America was a Democracy beofre the rest of the world.... Interesting.
That map generates a lot of false esspecially it is not consider any facts from history of Poland related to democracy, constitutions, cold war, second war - so it should be totally fixed.
Interesting but not entirely correct. Firstly the United States and virtually every single nation on the planet that we would call a "democracy" is really a Republic. Yes, parliamentary bodies ruling is also a Republic. Or, if you wanna call it this, a representative democracy. If you call it that then the United States fits the criteria of a democracy. Also, as others mentioned, some detail would be nice. I can't agree with the characterization of the Roman Republic as a democracy... however, several other comments seem to have missed that you meant the Republic prior to Caesar. If you consider this a democracy, then many other things have to fit into it. I think the best date to call the United States, and most other nations on the planet, would be around 1920 when women gained the right to vote. For those who say African-Americans didn't gain the right to vote until the 60s in the US, check your history. The United States even had African-American congressmen in the 19th century and they were given the vote just after the American Civil War. In the purest sense of the word, they had the legal right to vote. Wikipedia references the United States as the first liberal democracy, however, that does not make it the FIRST democracy. I would advise you to remove the Roman Republic and other states where almost no one could vote as democracies. Perhaps make the benchmark either the removal of a need to own land to vote, granting of the right to vote to minorities or the right to vote to women. Another option is to reclassify democracies under different styles, such as liberal, communistic and direct, things like that. It was alright, not great.
This map needs tons of revisions, seems to be done by an American teenager !
Why is Maine included in the original 13 states and Georgia not included? Even as a US-centric offering the map is flawed.
very US-centric, makes it look like it's the only true bastion of democracy ever -.-
Interesting form of distributing knowledge. I'll leave the other pedantic comments to scholars of history, but I do wish you could change a prominent misspelling: PHILADE(L)PHIA is missing its second 'L'.
Apart from some confusing transitions(which seem to have confused top drop), which makes the dates sort of hard to follow- I found it entirely excellent.
It seems a lot of Europeans seem a little flustered at the idea they missed the democracy bandwagon by a few years, of course, you got it right. France came after the US, and when you must express everything through maps, it just looks like it spread.
In "Modern Era" Afganistan and Irak are marked as democratic countries!
Is a war enough to bring democracy to those places; The grey colour for them sounds more logigal to me..
More over, DEMOCRACY FIRST FOUNDED IN GREECE AT THE CITY STATE OF ATHENS. Notice that the word "Democracy" is a Greek word..
You should start with that!
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Where is Haiti???? What about Communism in the Middle East??? W
Okay, I'm going to jump on the oversimplified bandwagon...
1. Where were the representations of republics and democracies in Italian city-states for example. Granted, It was very restricted to upper class, still, the notion of democracy still was kept alive to some degree.
2. The British had parliamentary representation for years, long before the US revolution for example. In fact, the initial violence leading up to the revolution before the declaration of independence itself was merely brought on by a demand for colonial representation in British parliament.
3. What was with the sweep of "nationalism" overtaking Europe but untouching the US? Those countries were still republics just as the US was heavily nationalistic at the time as well.
4. In one bit of defense for the map, the roman republic existed, just not in the full bounds of the empire as represented on the map, in fact, the formation of the empire marked the end of the republic.
Calling South America and Central America democratic after WW2 is grossly inaccurate. What about the paramilitary fascist dicatatorships in: Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile, Uruguay (I can go on).
James
Calling South America and Central America democratic after WW2 is grossly inaccurate. What about the paramilitary fascist dicatatorships in: Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile, Uruguay (I can go on).
James
So funny, but what is the democracy? For American Indian, it was not the fun to see the foundation of THE FIRST DEMOCRATIC country.
Why do this show that there were just tribes, kings, etc. in Africa? Who confirms?
I'm sure that there were a lot more than this horrible map. History is not a simple flash animation, but mixtures of mutual developments. Democracy is not the final answer.
Yoonho Choi
Yes,, much too tooo toooo general
So, no shades of gray in how democratic countries are? Rome, of course, was only democratic if you were a member of the Patrician class. Athens was just as bad. only about 1% of the population of classical Athens was able to vote in any way.
It should be noted that the "tribes" that are the vast blank area the map began with were often quite democratic. Modern stone-age tribes in New Guinea and the Amazon tend to be run by councils of elders; at least as democratic as our Senate.
Iceland, San Marino, Switzerland, the Iroquois Confederacy, the Hussite revolts in 14th century Bohemia, The English Commonwealth of 1649-59, the Parliamentary system of the UK, Corsica (1755), the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, etc. all seem to have been forgotten.
To simply have American democracy created ex nihilo in 1776 does a horrible disservice do the centuries of people who struggled for freedom before then.
Why is the UK marked as 'feudal', 'nationalist' etc. during the periods in which we were governed by an elected parliament? Why is the French revolution defined as democratic?
Wouldn't it be better to go
- from 'tribes etc.'
- to the early Greek etc. republics
- to the Roman Empire
- to feudalism
- to republics like the Venetian and Dutch and parliamentary countries like Britain as opposed to the absolutist ones like France
- then show the spread of the European empires
- then the US war of independence
- then the post-1870 democratisation in France
- then the unification of Germany and Italy
- then the democratisation of central Europe and Germany post WW1
- then pan out for the rise of Fascism world-wide
- then zoom in for the division of Europe between communist and democratic countries
- Then pan out to show the results of the various independence struggles, the Chinese war of independence
- Then show democratisation in Spain, the Philippines and South America
- Then zoom into Europe to show the end of the cold war
- Then zoom out again for a final survey of democratic and non-democratic countries.
Usually your maps are great but - like other people said - you seem to be missing some important ones: what about the Dutch Republic in the 1600s and the Renaissance Italian city-states in the 1400s (even though they were really run by wealthy dictators)?
Very nice tool.
Unfortunately very approximate also. You can't rank France, Tschekoslovakia, and Great Britain into "fascism" before WW2.
Watch Poland and Hungary in the XVIth century, which elected their kings...
Go on, you're on the good way!
It seems like more research would have been appropriate for this map. A poor offering.
Very confused. You seem to automatically associate republicanism with democracy, which is nonsense as there are democratic monarchies and republican dictatorships. In order to make this kind of map I think you need to develop the idea of degrees of democracy; e.g. The UK had "democracy" long before the founding of the USA (where do you think the American ideals came from?) but it wasn't the full franchise we recognise today. But then again, neither was the US (no slaves, no women etc. The British system was only different by degree, not type). You should start with a shading system that hits a final colour once a country has a universal franchise.
The errors are caused by generalizations and modern filters. Yes, US leaders really meant "All WHITE MEN" are created equal. But, that has since been fixed, at least Constitutionally.
One place was WAY overlooked. The world’s oldest continuous democracy (and the highest literacy rate) is about 1000 years old in Iceland. Funny how that never gets mentioned. It is ignored just as is the European “discovery” of America by Icelanders who settled Greenland in the 10th century and whose descendants STILL own it to this day! I guess when they discover oil up there, someone will start paying attention.
I did not see Israel colored blue in the modern era.It is the only democracy in the middle east with any history of citizen rights.
Really hilarious. It's obvious that an uneducated person made this video.
You spelled Philadelphia incorrectly.
crap
Wow... There is a great deal of history left out and this is a decidedly Caucasian/Western view of history. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy was established in 1142 with a written constitution. There are other examples.
Were the Americas unpopulated before 1776?
I always found the maps on this site to be interesting until now.
This site lacks a lot of information and as other have said, is missing some serious and important parts of history of other nations.
But as usual, like with everything "american" , history here again is misleading and always favoring and focused on the USA.
I hope in future maps you guys try to be more neutral towards history and do a bit more research outside your country.
for a site who is focused in maps, its mind blowing how you still think USA is the only country in the world and that everything revolves around it.
its sad but again, you still only make fools of yourself towards the rest of the world eyes when you keep this kind of arrogant attitudes.
the US is not a democracy, it is a republic!
and a bad one at that.
asshats
LOL, the Roman republic/empire is democratic!
thats just the first of misinformations you've put in this applet.
there's so many wrongs in this one, i don't even know where to begin.
Great maps but need some more precise dates on the Democracy map!
very disapointed, many inacuracies
I'm disappointed, since the 15th century feudalism was not present in the Dutch Republic! It was highly urbanised and the areas where there was feudalism were few! The Dutch Republic was democratic in the sense that the rich people could vote, just like it was in Athens in Ancient Greece!
I love the idea of the US as a shining beacon of democracy whilst the whole of Europe was lost in 'Nationalism"
can anyone imagine a more Nationalistic state than the US?
Jeesus
Learn some history before pushing this rubbish
What about India ? It is still greyed out (as in no form of rule there ??) all the way up until the cold war .... in reality though India has been the largest democracy in the world (population wise) for the last 61 years (soon after WWII).
Your democracy map is nothing more than an appalling and historically inaccurate piece of propaganda. I was genuinely excited about watching this and am now gravely disappointed. Painted with ignorant broad brushstrokes it appears simply that the authors are attempting to paint the (supposed) victory of a United Sates ideology. This sort of teaching aid undermines the value of democracy. It is a disgusting promotion of American imperial revisionism.
Terrible. In addition to Chris' and Killinchy's comments, not only is Ancient Greece (with exception of a brief mention of Athens) missing and the fact that England democratic was no less democratic than it is now at the time of the French Revolution where are the British colonies? - where is the rest of British North America, Australia, British East Africa, etc.? Where is the Mexican Revolution? Why are the ELECTED fascist governments of Germany and Italy excluded? By the definition of Fascism arguably the United States is Fascist now. As with "Top Drop" I seriously wonder what definition of democracy you are using. And at that, Greek democracy is radically different than representative democracy.
The United States was hardly the first nation founded on democracy. Iceland has about a thousand year jump on the U.S. as Johnathan points out.
Utter crap produced by someone who clearly has bought U.S. propaganda hook, line and sinker.
Well democracy should not be confound Republic and Democracy. So a Constitutional monarchy is still a democracy. So for example in Great Britain and in the Netherlands, there where democracy before the US. Well if we are very strict and consider that in a democracy everyone can be a representative, with the right of vote for the whole society than there are only democracies since WWII. And still for example the children cannot vote. So my sentence some could consider as a definition, is never true and will never be true. There are and will be always people who do not have the right of vote.
Therefore in my opinion you should consider a democracy a country where the society is well represented, and the principle of the counter power is stated (so the King cannot rule without the parliament).
But this map is a nice idea.( But You should not only use History books from the US secondary schools).
Yoy must be jocking!
Its well known to every person knows a little history that democracy was born in Athens. The meaning of democracy of course has been changed since then.
this map is so american biased! It's complete crap! USA: what a democracy... yeah, dollarcracy i'd say!
The United States of America is not a Democracy, it is a Constitutional Republic. The entire thesis of this map is flawed.
I've come across this website by accident and I have to say it is full of flawed information and utterly simplistic. It's almost dangerous. Leave history to the experts. Don't pretend you know what you are talking about when clearly you are no more than an ill-educated layperson.
Many Indigenous nations of North America were very democratic.
and im sure elsewhere as well.
good idea, but historically wrong (not accurate would be a too soft characterization)
Interesting.
But I thought Iceland was the oldest democracy in the world.
Please read a history book.
the US was not founded on democracy, it was founded on the republican form. democracy is mob rule and that's one thing that should not be spread.
Ludicrous! The creators of this map are pitiable. What is it that motivated them to attempt such a large-scale-project without the least understanding of world history beyond 9th grade standard American level? Without wanting to point out the obvious further (as has been done in the posts before), I suggest this map be removed. Still astounded by the sheer stupidness of it.
Very biased towards the USA as the 'first' democracy! There's so much here that's just plain wrong that it's useless. All south american states are democratic in the 20th century? Rome is a democratic republic? Waste of time.
Biased. North American concepts poorly applied.
OMG, whatever happened to Iceland, Switzerland, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Netherlands? All of them were pre-1700's democracies of their kind.
The United States was indeed the first nation founded on democracy, where democracy= white propertied males can vote, while females get to do laundry at home and brothas happily plant cotton under the benevolent whip of their overseers.
I preferred the other maps, where the time line was written on the line below. It's hard to follow the years now...
Interesting the Arab nations just don't exist ! What are they ? There are other colors then Blue and Red and Orange.
Uhh... North Korea's still under communism. In fact, if anywhere's not under democracy today, it's there.
I don’t know what to say.
This is nothing more than fiction.
Please... learn history!!
whats the difference between democracy and capitalism?
also, where are all the parts when "democratic" powers take over or influence the control of other countries?
kind of boring too.
This map is wrong, rome was never a democracy...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy#History
whats whith the whole of europe beeing fasists before WW II? only italy was truly fasist. The germans where national-socialists Who elected Hitler... And democracy is not so much an expression of believes as it is a way of goverment, You can still be a nationalist country if your form of goverment is democratic (the US beeing the best example here).
This map is poor quality :( I don't like this effect - spreading the blue color from USA to the rest of the world. This suggests that democracy was spread in Europe in XX century by USA and this is so not true. USA was maybe helping in the process but nothing more.
I'm from Poland and I saw many mistakes about history of my country. In 1573 we had firs free king's election, and many elements of democracy. In fact on May 3th 1973 we had first democratic constitution in Europe! etc.
In Portugal there were no Fascism!!
This map is certainly not up to your earlier standards!
Ireland was not a democracy at the break of WW1 as it was under tyrant rule from England so cannot be coloured blue, and they were not democratic at break of ww2 as Ireland was founded as a socialist state in 1921 when we got our independance, we slowly turned into a democratic state but not by 1939.
map is severly flawed and I dont like the thought some kids may think they are learning something from this flawed history lesson
Why all the rancor in this thread? Can't the group deal civilly with the subject and each other?
I assume it is about a moving map showing the spread and subsidence of the main religions in history.
My impression was that it did a good job but I am sure that it was too big a job to be especially accurate.
To prepare a really accurate such grand-scale presentation of all the religions over all historical times would involved, it seems to me, decades of research by more than one person and cost considerable money.
Oh well . . .
charles
http://atheistic-science.com
you actually believe that??? go read some history book from any country but your own...
Totally inaccurate presentation... Seems to have been made by an illiterate American teenager.. You should first study some history -from serious and accurate historical books- and then attemp to make a map of it.
(e.g. you ignore the fact that Democracy was born in ancient Athens many centuries before 1776...)
americans have quite the narrow view of world history. to suggest that the united states was the first democracy is... is... well, it defies description in its complete ignorance and arrogance. iceland?
It's not easy to get make such a simplistic representation of history totally accurate, but there are a few glaring errors. For example, no Ancient Greece, and the map greatly overestimated the number of fascist countries before WWII. France, for example, was not fascist. Neither was Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, or many of the other countries on that map. France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal were. Japan was still ruled by an emperor, so though it was allied with Germany and Italy, it was not actually fascist, just imperialist.
In addition, nationalism as an ideology only became popular in Europe prior to WWI. And it did not necessarily preclude also being democratic. In fact, a lot of democracies are quite nationalistic.
Yah, there are many errors on this map, though some of the others are very general, but much better done. This one could be better. Putting in years, and clarifying what definition of democracy you're using as well as checking a lot more historical facts would go a long way to making this map far more useful.
The most democratic state in the world is Republic of Indonesia, because we directly choose the President by general election one man one vote to choose President and not Via parliament or something like that...even in the U.S.A they not directly choose the President...Hmmm, who's democratic most?...
I agree.Missing some info.There was actually democracy in north america before the europeans just on a smaller scale.
Wrong!
South America got democracy before the Cold War.
The maps also ignores the democracy wars in several africa countries. Watch out!
So where is the Icelandic democracy, the world's oldest surviving one. How come the African countries are shown as being democratic. If they count as democratic, then England from 1300 should also be counted. Since when did the USA, which sanctions slavery in its original constitution count as a place "founded on " democracy.
Simplistic and seriously inaccurate
I think they missed Iceland's republic (first parliament).
USA is the "First nation founded on democracy"??
What about the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), who were the inhabitants of the place before the Europeans landed?
This map needs a bit more work, it's suggesting that the United States spread democracy to Europe which is obviously incorrect given that the UK was already a democracy before the USA came into being, and we in no small part had our democracy enhanced by continental Europe and specifically William of Orange.
Canada's democratic system came from the UK, pretty obvious given it has a Parliament, as did Australia. At this time the United States was not a world power so impossible for it to spread anything anywhere.
"The US expansion" based on extermination of the native Americans
You forgot North Korea.
This map, by leaving out a good 500 years, completly misses the birth of parlimentary democracy (in England) which is the basis of the American, and most of other democratic systems in the world. Bad Work.
Everybody knows that democracy started at ancient Greece.I did not see that.
in Turkey, democracy was settle in 1923.
Brazil is a republic since 1889! This map is wrong has to be corrected in many aspects.
Why anyone would spend so much time producing an animation without checking the facts is madness.
The Pirates had Democracy before USA in the early 1700. Why did´t we take the freedom they had?
You are indoctrinated to think in the typical US style.
The US government robbed land from the Indians, what a nice Democracy.
We who don´t live in US see your role in History in a other light.
Mats Borgkvist, Malmö, Sweden
What about the worlds oldest living democracy: Island?
Japan was a monachy... not a fachist state!!!
Where is the Roman Empire?
Great!! But --
Zooming and panning completely disrupt the continuum of time.
Actual numbers on the time line are needed.
Brutal lettering is distrative. Keep lettering in one place and have a pulsating spot on the point of origin. Voice-over would be better still.
this map is generally innacurate and therefore harmful as it is pretending to be authentic.
The British Empire, covering India, Africa, Asia and the US was a 'democracy' just not a 'republic' the two types of government are different. Modern Russia is a fully fledged democracy and so is India... both seem to be left gray as though they don't have any government????
The USA wasn't one whole country as it is today until after they acquired Texas and Hawaii in the 19th century.
Finally, you might be surprised to know that Hitler was actually democratically elected... meaning that the Yellow 'Fascism' during WW2 was actually still technically a democracy.
Highly recommend removing this map as it is just plain ignorant!
That was awful. Mainly, just wrong.
one of the mistake of the map is also about Turkey.The Republic of Turkey founded soon after World War I and from that time it performs democracy.
Nationalism isn't a type of government. Fascist, democratic, monarchistic and any other type of governance can be described as nationalistic.
Everyone else pointed out missing gaping holes.
It's a nice idea, but let's make sure it's right before sending it out.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bit crap.
This map is based on very insufficient data and wrong historical projection. Needs serious thought by the originators to correct it.
Absolute twaddle England has arguably had a paliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch since the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and certainly since the accession of the the Hanoverians (George I 1714) power vested itself in Parliament in a way almost unchanged into today. Sometime you'll recognise before Declaration of Independence, unfortunately it suits the US deocratic myth that you fought for freedom from the wicked tyrant King George and have since spread freedom to the world. New Zealand seems to be the first country to offer universal sufferage and should therefore possibly be considered as home of meodern democracy. US rights to vote for slaves and Women are just as patchy as the story of universal sufferage in many other countries in the World including UK. Bad history
John
China overthrew the Imperial government in 1914 and established a Republic. If the US, a Republic is mapped, I think China's Nationalist Government would also make China eligible to be placed as a Democracy for that time period.
Interesting, except you left out Western Hemisphere Indians. They had Chiefs and Tyrants as old as the ones you showed in Europe and India, and the first DEMOCRACY in North America was the Iroquois Confederation, not the United States.
grossly inaccurate, where the hell is Greece, and Rome was not a democracy!!
slightly inaccurate. Please look up "Charte du mande"
first democratic institutions originated in Africa. Just check it out !
Have you ever asked an American native - i.e. red Indian - if he or she understands what you depicted as western expansion of democracy in North America as such ? Describing the white genocide against Indian tries as a "democratic" process is not only misleading, but shameful as well.
This is so wrong I'm not even gonn start.
USA is Not a democracy. It´s a Republic.
Some nations have and had not democracy, but military dectatorcy, which means you could label some nations with military dictatorcy not grey (Kings, Tribes and Tyrants), but with different labels for Kings, Tribes and Tyrands and just to know, Military Dectatorcy is different than the "Tyrants" you describe...
And... where's the time (I don't know very good English) shower in the down of the screen? I only see B.C and A.C.
Poor... I suggest you make another map more detailed. Believe, me I would be delaited...
Oh yea US became a republic before Holland........
This map has errors on II world war.
You do realise that American was founded on liberalism...? Which isn't democracy...
there are so many mistakes in it, that it is actually more misleading than teaching in any sense.
it cannot even be used as a general overview.
as sad as it is, i have the impression that this is the way history is seen by many people in the US. founded as the first democratic nation, then spreading the superior idea all over the world...
another very important missing is the aspect: democracy of whom? slaves, women, blacks... there were always people who somehow weren't allowed to contribute to the democracies.
it's just not as easy as that, you can't explain history just with maps.
What about the fact that Iceland had a democratic Parliament (the Thing) HUNDREDS of years before Britain?
Even the Isel of Man Parliament is older than Englands.
This map was obviously designed by an American who knew nothing detailed about the way the government works. Nationalism is a belief, not a form of government. USA - 'first nation founded on democracy' - what does that mean? What constitutes the founding of a nation? If it is simply a change in government, then the Roman Republic was the first nation founded on democracy. That is the only possible meaning. When the USA became independent, the people's way of life did not change, in fact, it changed much more in Rome. The USA is a state,a country, but not a nation, anyway. The people's nationality is not 'American' unless they are native americans. They speak another country's language, and define themselves on how their government is run. Britain was democratic before the French revolution, by 1660 they ran the same system as they use now.
How come this map is still online? 70% of it is simply wrong or missleading...
Anonymous, you should know by now, regardless of HOW wrong the information is, if it is on the internet 50 % of the world population believe it 100%, and 40% think it is a conspiracy.
Switzerland has since 1291 an demoracy system!!!!
Great map website, nice project on making a map about the spread of democracies.
National borders for pre-WWI times are incorrect, as are those for the interwar period.
Israel was founded in 1948 and is a democracy.
Gotta say, Polk and Manifest Destiny is pretty "Nationalist" to me. Or how about the "Isolationist" stand that the US took for about 150 years? Also kind of a "Nationalist" flavor of Democracy.
Shoddy, deceitful and self-aggrandizing.
Sie sind nicht recht. Ich biete es an, zu besprechen. Schreiben Sie mir in PM, wir werden reden. viagra levitra [url=http//t7-isis.org]viagra ohne rezept kaufen[/url]
Although I assume intended as a piece of fun, this map is almost a-historical. If any research was done, I'm sure it did not impact on the answers that the auther came to, with the possible exception of the two pre-greek democracies.
On the factual accuracy scale from one to ten you score minus twentyfive:
You missed the polish-lithuanian commonweath one of the largest and longest lasting democracies ever!
You missed the medieval confederacy of the Rhine
You missed THE ITALIAN CITY STATES of the Renaissance including the oldest democracy Venice (well done!)
You missed the Hanseatic League of the same period.
I have no idea what kind of government 'Nationalism' is, or how it's different from democracy.
You missed the united irish men revolution and the republic of connacht (but you could be forgiven for leaving that out)
The magna carta has noting to do with democracy because it was only a charter amoung the ritch, agreeing to found a ritch boy's club and protect them from prosecution. It did not offer universal sufferage, nor protect any universal rights, and the right to trial was only for the titled aristocrats - it was no different from any other medieval tyranny. All european states had parlements (hint it's actually a french word) at that time why not mention them all?
You imply that western europe was democratic before the first world war? 'Kaizer' Willheim mean anything to you?
You missed the Republic of the Netherlands.
The map's very western europe oriented, particularly english-speaking oriented.
You didn't mention the League of the Iriquios, whom where a major inspiration to the Constitution, then you steam roller over them during the 'expansion of america' animation - the ignomony.
You don't mention the republic of China before the cold war.
Your depiction of the second word war in europe must have been influenced by hallucinogenic drugs. Facisim did not transform into democracy then get invaded by communism. Eastern europe went from Facsism to communism with no intervening period of democracy.
You list taiwan and chilie as democracies with no mention of the brutal facsist dictators that america forced on those countries? Ditto for numerous other latin american states.
Some third world included as democracies that are such only in name.
What i'd like is a map of 'real democracies' so a list countries that have universal sufferage; then you'll find that democracy didn't exist anwhere before the 1920's.
Iceland (first parliament), Republic of Venice (richest democratic country of that time), Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (biggest landpower in europe, in many aspects kind of predecessor of USA) were democratic long before USA and France. Check wikipedia or any other reliable source for reference...
I agree with the rest of the commentators... you leave out all the bits that are interesting... these maps show nothing new, and sometimes your data is corrupted. SET IT STRAIGHT.
However, you make a good attempt. You should check out the www.worldmapper.org
Way to simplistic and US-centric: e.g. what about the Dutch republic?
Um....this map is wrong on soooooooooooooooooooooooooo many levels. First off, the United States was NOT the first nation founded on democracy, not even in the western world. The UPN (United Providences of the Netherlands) was first, and England had its constitutional monarchy before the American Revolution even begun. If you check the facts, the American Revolution only shifted the executive power to the States, as a legislative body had existed before the Revolution, but many did not support it. The Revolution only shifted those in power, but the same style of government was re-inpossed on the colonialists after the Constitution was drafted (and after the failed Confederate system, i.e. the Articles of Confederation).
Next, Nationalism is not a government type....it is merely the product of a government, and one that was not foreign to the US. That's right, we should also be included in that silly Nationalist expansion.
What about all the smaller tribes of people with de facto democracy, such as the Germanic peoples?
Many people are criticizing this map - understandably.
But what they DONT seem to understand is the enormous complexity of animated global historical mapping. It would be extremely difficult to capture ALL the events because you quickly get into an ontological discussion of the "is-ness" of particular event. What "is" this battle, and what does it represent? Does it represent an empirical change or a boundary shift? Did this event effect the spread of particular ideals within a set region?
I honestly applaud MOW for their approach of at least making an attempt to animate historical events over time. In order to appease the masses, however, a map like this would need to be interactive, where the user could move the time control back and forth, manipulate the speed and "span" of the history to be shown, and be able to be author themselves within the app. Also, be able to toggle "thematic" elements of the animation - such as "military", "political" "religion" etc.
A user generated content approach would seem to be applicable in this situation (wikipedia for mapping) but would need EXTREME functionality to be effective at all.
Perhaps sourcing the material referenced in this animation?
Just ideas
This is so incompetent it must be
American.
No one else could make so many mistakes and leave it up.
Unless of course it is created as a joke by someone trying to caricature the Americans, such as al-Queada.
But then the spelilng would be better
This was an utterly dismal effort. You missed out so many societies both ancient and modern that were founded on democratic institutions. If I were you, I would be too ashamed to put this on the web, as it only shows how ignorant you are.
No mention of polish democracy in the 16th and 17th century? The only country in Europe to elect their kings, and have the 'librium veto'(for better or worse) in their parliament.
Post a Comment
<< Home