I've been into other projects mostly -- and I lost my map drawing software in a computer crash -- so there's not a whole lot to report, but here are some Atlas pages I've added or substantially modified in the past year:
Nothing new in the Real History sections, but I'm trying to jump-start my life, so I've spiffed up my homepage, and broken down and put more personal information on it. Also, I've started two newprojects. Oh, yeah, and a silly essay.
Although this falls a bit outside the 20th Century, I got curious about how far American power stretches now that the Cold War has been over for awhile.
New Project: History Site of the Fortnight.
A couple of years ago, I embarked on a massive study of Twentieth Century art. I enjoyed the study, but I only progressed about halfway on writing a report of what I had learned. My study has languished all this time, but now I finally patched up a few pages to actually post. It's far from being the thorough analysis I was hoping for --mostly just links-- but you might find it worth a look.
I fiddled a bit with my government definition page, and added a new series of maps for other possible classification schemes.
A half century of trouble in Israel
New and improved Second World and Korean Wars
I've thrown together some timelines of the 20th Century.
I've always been suspicious of easy answers. Our species has been beset by war throughout recorded history, yet a remarkable number of seemingly intelligent people think that we could rid ourselves of this plague if we would just... well, the exact prescription varies from era to era.
"... love each other" was popular for awhile. "... end oppression" has been proposed. "... stop injustice","... accept Jesus into our hearts", "... rid ourselves of the inferior races", "... arm everyone equally", "... submit to the will of God" and "... let women run things" have all had their proponents.
The solution that's been kicking around lately is that democracies don't make war with one another. Although I tackled this topic a couple of years ago, I'm now older and wiser, and I decided to revise my original essay a bit to include new arguments and examples and to address some faqs.
In the map world, I've been focusing on the recent Middle East, and I've posted maps of the wars in Afghanistan, the Gulf and Sudan. I probably will continue to fiddle with these for awhile, so if this topic interests you, you might want to check back in a couple of months as well.
Well, they said it couldn't be done. They said that no one could untangle the Mexican Revolution, but I did it. I'm not saying that I actually understand all the subtle motivations and back-stabbing complexities of the major players, but at least I've laid out the rough sequence of events.
Americans (like me) often underestimate the importance of the Mexican Civil War, but here are a few key points you might want to consider as an incentive to look deeper into it:
Speaking of chaotic free-for-alls, I've worked a bit more at mapping the Chinese Interregnum. Recently, I mapped the Long March, and I've gussied up my map of the Final Chinese Civil War. Even so, I'm still a long way from finishing this phase of history.
I've thrown together a simple map of American imperialism in the Caribbean during the Wilson years. The various involvements of the United States in the small nations of the Caribbean are the reason I described American involvement in Mexico as the first "major" intervention.
The number of map links I've gathered is now up to about 300. I probably should explain that my links page has turned into one of those monster projects that I fiddle with whenever I get down-time but lack the energy to concentrate and draw maps. It's probably pointless for me to keep saying that I've updated it. From now on, let's just assume that I've made a few additions over the past month, and you can look at them or not as you wish.
Two other projects that I'm always fiddling with are my list of The Century's Top 100s and my Almost Totally Complete List of Every War and Dictator of the 20th Century. These too have probably changed since the last time you saw them. By itself, each change is probably just a little tweak here or there, but the cumulatve effect of several months can get rather big. There's no need for you to go rushing back every week to see what I've done, but you might want to take a second look if you actually have a specific subject you're researching, or if you've been out on Summer Vacation or something.
I've been mapping a few of the forgotten wars of the 20th Century:
When I first started this atlas, I had a perfunctory links page for the sole purpose of getting rid of people. "Go away," I was saying, "Look at these sites instead." Now, after spending over a month poking around the web, I have a links page which might actually attract people. Strangers might now come from miles around just to admire the awesome thoroughness of my collection of links. In fact, with over 200 sites referenced, I believe that I now have the best daggone historical maps links page on the whole freaking Internet.
Aside from that, I didn't add a whole lot during May.
After a major sweep of the Web, I've revamped my links page. Most of the maps I found are scanned from printed sources. They show enormous detail, but they sprawl off the edge of my monitor. There are still only about five sites in the whole planet which display detailed maps that were actually designed to appear on a computer screen. There are also huge gaps in the coverage, but the four principle wars of the 20th Century are adequately covered, so there's no hurry for me to map WW1, WW2, Korea or Vietnam. I'll redirect my efforts to the lesser events of the Century instead.
I've mapped three lost worlds:
... but these are basic no-frills maps to add zoom-in capabilities to wider, world maps. (Here. Try it. Click on Russia or South Africa to see this month's maps, or click Europe or South America to see a couple from last month.)
Well, the first thing that's new is this What's-New Page. I figured that I've been online long enough that some people who visited this page a year ago might want to be directed at all the things they missed the first time here.
I'm currently experimenting with shareware animation applications which can create moving maps, such as...
I haven't worked out all the bugs yet. The big problem is that my computer is so primitive that it groans and grinds whenever I try to use these applications, so I can't decide which program to keep ( --and pay for. I try to be honest.), or whether to just break down and upgrade entirely. Also, I can't quite adjust the timing of the animations because it appears that each PC/IP runs them at a different speed.
I've discovered a few more lists of the Century's Top 100s.
I've reworked the map of North American and South American border changes. I'm fairly happy with the North American one and will probably leave it alone for awhile, but the South American one needs something -- I'm just not sure what.
I've plugged some gaps in the main sequence of world political maps. Most changes are small, like categorizing the government of Bolivia or naming the Prime Minister of Italy, so you can pass these over without losing a whole lot.
Elsewhere on my website, I've bundled all my alternate histories into one index.
Last updated Sept. 2004
Copyright © 2000-04 Matthew White