About The Wheeler Atlas

History happens on a map, but it's usually taught as text. That gap is why I built The Wheeler Atlas. It's hard to really understand the context behind major historical events without being able to see where they happened and what changed.

The Wheeler Atlas is an interactive map of the world that lets you move through time and watch empires rise, fracture and give way to the countries we know today. Click a realm to see who ruled it. Turn on the religion, culture or development layers to see deeper patterns, and follow the trade routes that connected it all.

The goal is simple: make history and geography something you can see, not just memorize. It's built for students, teachers, content creators and anyone curious about how the world got its shape. I will strive to continuously improve this project so that it becomes the gold standard in accuracy and navigability.

— Gregory D. Wheeler, JD

About the name

The name is a nod to family. Greg's great-great-grandfather, Howard E. Wheeler, founded the Wheeler Yacht Company, whose Brooklyn yard built Ernest Hemingway's fishing boat Pilar in 1934. By coincidence, the "Wheeler Atlas" was also the name of Lt. George M. Wheeler's 1870s survey maps of the American West, which is good company for a project like this.

Disputed borders

Some borders are disputed today. Where they are, the map shows who administers the area on the ground and marks the disputed area with diagonal hatching and a dashed outline. Hover over or tap the area for a short note on who claims it. Showing who administers a place is not a statement about who should. Places that are usually mapped as their own unit, such as Taiwan, Western Sahara and the Palestinian territories, are shown that way.

Hatching currently marks Kashmir, Taiwan, Crimea, the West Bank and Gaza, the Golan Heights and Western Sahara, on maps from the year each dispute began. The outlines come from Natural Earth. If you think we have something wrong, please tell us.