The Kushanas have succeeded the Scythians in ruling a huge empire stretching from central Asia into India. The growing industrial towns, the multiplying factories, and now the expanding railway networks, are helping to undermine old social structures and create new ones in their place. At the same time, a civilization, made possible by irrigation, is emerging in the southern tip of Arabia.

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They think this is the norm for African societies, and the idea of African “savagery”, and the Europeans’ civilizing mission, takes hold. The Chinese empire has experienced a run of three of the most remarkable emperors in its history – in fact, in world history.A more recent map will show you, for example, how major events like World Wars changed Europe’s region map and, ultimately, its philosophy. North of the Black Sea, the Cimmerians have been replaced as the dominant people by the Scythians, whose tribes are fanning out over a huge area from eastern Europe to central Asia. As a result, Indian civilization is beginning to spread amongst the peoples of Burma, the Malayan peninsula and the islands of Indonesia. This brings enslaved African labour to work in the European-dominated economies of the Western Hemisphere. Expanding trade and wealth brings benefits to many local groups, enabling them to seize economic opportunities well beyond the gift of traditional agricultural societies.

Review: A history of the world in 500 maps by Christian

In the Pacific, the Polynesians have now settled even further afield, in Tahiti and the Society Island. On an island off the same continent, Madagascar, a group of settlers arrive who are related to the Polynesians of the Pacific. The growing links with other parts of the eastern Hemisphere have brought East Asian technologies to backward Europe. And here, even with 500 maps, there’s a selection process at work that may leave some readers wanting for specific trajectories and topics. Both within the Roman empire and the barbarian kingdoms of the old western provinces, Christianity has become the official religion.

In the steppes of central Asia, the nomadic horsemen have become a major threat to the settled civilizations of Eurasia. Originating in the Middle East, in the course of time all regions of the Eastern Hemisphere will be affected by this. On the islands and coasts of southern China the ancestors of the Malays and Polynesians are starting their great migration down into South East Asian waters.