Fifteen plates show who held the land in a given year, from the Ghurid conquests of 1200 to the nations of 2000. Scroll to turn the years. Point at a state to raise it from the map, and click it to read the story of its plate. The portraits on the left are the figures of each age.
Borders before about 1800 were rarely lines on the ground. Power faded outward from forts and capitals, tribute stood in for rule, and one valley could answer to two masters. Read the early plates as zones of influence, not surveyed frontiers. Kashmir is shown along present lines of administration; India, Pakistan and China each claim more than they hold.