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TimeMaps: Atlas and Encylopedia of World History

The TimeMap of World History is a comprehensive atlas and encyclopedia of world history. It contains over 650 maps and 1,000 pages of supporting text. It is designed to be easy to navigate, through both time and space.

The TimeMap pays attention to the byways as well as the highways of history. It is structured to make the complex mesh of history accessible and comprehensible. It will continue to grow as we add more content.

Company History

We have been producing history education software for a combined total of over 70 years! Peter Britton (who claims 30 of these years – some of his colleagues might go as far to say he is a historic relic himself!) spearheads the team of history teachers, professional history writers, cartographers, copywriters, designers and digital media professionals.

Peter’s interest in history was sparked at an early age. Growing up in northern Nigeria meant that he spent a lot of his youth in Kano and other wonderful cities which hadn’t changed much since the Middle Ages. Making regular trips back and forth between modern, industrial London and these medieval cities felt like changing historical eras as well as places. He believes that the dramatic contrasts he encountered developed in him an abiding interest in history. As a youth he became fascinated by ancient civilizations, especially those of the Chinese, Indians and Romans, and of course African civilizations.

Before producing history software, Peter studied history at undergraduate and post-graduate level at Durham University, one of the leading academic institutions in the UK, where Peter is now a visiting fellow. After teaching history and being an educational librarian for some years, he founded Appian Way Software in 1988. This specialised in publishing history education resources for UK schools.

In 1999, with many successful titles under its belt, such as the Data 100 series, which gave students access to primary historical sources on a large range of topics, Appian Way merged with Actis Ltd – one of the largest educational publishing companies in the UK at the time. Peter became Actis’ CEO.

Leading such a company as Actis was a great experience, but it moved Peter a long way away from his first love, history. After 5 years, therefore, he left to move back into history publishing and in 2007 founded TimeMaps. This new direction was inspired by two factors: 1. an awareness that maps and diagrams are a great way to learn about history, and 2. a growing desire to break free from the constraints of the History curriculum as practiced in may UK schools at the time.

In 2008, Jonny joined his father after graduating with an MA from the University of Manchester. His love of maps and digital technologies put him in a great position to take the lead in technical matters in the business. Although he left working full-time in the company in 2016 to found his own company using his knowledge in land management (his degree subject), he is still very much involved in Timemaps as a director.

TimeMaps-founders-Jonny-Peter-Britton

Why Timemaps?

The “Time-Map” concept was originally conceived to offer a visual framework for history topics. A map combined with a timeline lets users see where an event is happening, both in time and space. If done properly, it gives them a panoramic view of change over time, and allows them to understand the significance of historical episodes much more clearly.

With this aim, the TimeMap of World History was created. It was designed to offer the full spectrum of human history, calling in on each civilization, nation and empire, and covering every major development in world history.

Originally we conceived that it would take world history a year at a time. However, there were already several resources that did just this – in particular, may I refer you to the work of Ollie Bye, which you can view here on YouTube? Also, we wanted to develop understanding of historical developments. This meant combining maps with information. The result is what you see in our TimeMap website.

A Note on Dates

You will notice that we now use the date notation BCE and CE rather than BC and AD. I am aware that this change will not be to everyone’s taste.

The traditional notation is specifically Christian, and therefore Western, in its meanings. BC stands for “Before Christ”, and AD stands for Anno Domini, or “In the Year of the Lord”. The new notation, on the other hand, is more global in its implications: BCE stands for “Before the Common Era”, while CE stands for “Common Era”.

The reason for the change to BCE and CE is that, soon after launching the TimeMaps website, we began receiving comments from US schools that they would love to use the site, except that they were put off by its use of the BC/AD dating system.

This, it has to be said, blindsided me at first. In Britain, the traditional BC and AD notation is still standard, and though I was certainly aware of the existence of BCE and CE, having read a lot of world history, I had no idea how widespread it had become in North America. Once launched, it immediately became clear that TimeMaps has much more traction in the US and Canada than here in the UK, so we took the decision to change over to the BCE/CE system.

I would like to emphasis that this is not an anti-Christian stance on our part.  However, I have often wondered what devout Muslims or Hindus must feel when forced to use the traditional European BC/AD system – for many it must have represented a form of Christian triumphalism. Thank goodness that it is a core tenet of modern Christianity that its beliefs should not be forced on anyone, but can only be valid if accepted voluntarily by each individual. As is well known, it has not always been so.

Nor does our use of BCE/CE reflect an anti-Western bias. It seems fashionable today to denigrate the West, but we don’t share this approach. Our philosophy is that ALL civilizations are to be treated with respect, and on their own terms. We apply this to the West as much as to the great civilizations of China, India and so on. 

If the notations BCE and CE are free of religious connotations, we recognise that they do have their own issues. They carry with them a heavy pro-Western bias – almost a Western triumphalism, one might say – in that they assume that the “Common Era”, though rooted in Western historiography, is the prism through which all regions must view their past. However, the fact is that the whole world must now use a single dating system, and it so happens that this system is the one that seems most suitable. (In any case, we don’t want to have to go to the effort and expense of changing all the dates again, at least for some time!)

Take a look around

TimeMaps - Atlas

The Atlas

The Atlas of World History contains more than 650 maps covering world, regional and country histories.

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TimeMaps - Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia contains short articles covering the civilizations, empires and great episodes of history.

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TimeMaps - Teachers Area

Teachers Area

This huge website is ideal for learning about all the world's history! We have classroom ideas and teacher support.

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