How these dates were made
Why this bar's edges are floors, not a founding and a fall.
The atlas draws the world at 2 moments in time, not continuously. This bar runs from the first snapshot in which Dutch settlements appears to the last, so both edges are floors — the earliest and latest years it is attested, not a founding and a dissolution.
Elsewhere in Africa at the time
Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.
Landmark · Africa
Taï National Park
3000 BCE – still standingPolity · Africa
Morocco
Founded 789 CE · attested to 2026 CEConflict · Africa
Merina Unification of Madagascar
1787 CE – 1828 CETrade route · Africa
Atlantic Middle Passage
1600 CE – 1850 CELandmark · Africa
Rwenzori Mountains
3000 BCE – still standingPolity · Africa
Ghana
Attested 800 CE – 2026 CEConflict · Africa
Kanem–Bornu Wars
700 CE – 1846 CELandmark · Africa
Serengeti National Park
3000 BCE – still standingDated moments inside this span
Events the timeline places between 1783 CE and 1800 CE.
And in the rest of the world
Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.
Image credits5 pictures from Wikimedia Commons
- Taï National Parkyakovlev.alexey from Moscow, Russia · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Flag of MoroccoDenelson83, Zscout370 · Public domain
- Rwenzori MountainsNick06 · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Flag of GhanaTheodosia Okoh · Public domain
- Serengeti National ParkBjørn Christian Tørrissen · CC BY-SA 3.0