A library of Georgian and world history maps with hotspots, campaign arrows, borders and trade routes — plus a NAEC-style map exam for every map.
Georgian era
VI c. BC – III c. AD
The two earliest Georgian states: Colchis on the Black Sea coast with its Greek trading colonies, and Iberia in the east astride the Mtkvari valley.
5 hotspots
IV–VI c.
Western Georgia became the battlefield of two empires: the Lazic War (542–562) decided who reached the Black Sea coast.
978–1125
How separate kingdoms and emirates were welded into one state — and how David IV finished the work by taking Tbilisi.
1184–1213
Georgia at its greatest extent: vassal principalities from Shirvan to Trebizond and a network of tribute-paying neighbours.
12 August 1121
A tactical map: how David IV used terrain, a feigned envoy party and the narrow Didgori valley to destroy a much larger coalition.
4 hotspots
1220–1330
From the first raids of 1220 to the split into two kingdoms under David VII Ulu and David VI Narin.
1490–1783
After 1490 the unified kingdom split into Kartli, Kakheti, Imereti and the principalities — with the Ottoman/Persian border of 1555 cutting through the middle.
1762–1801
Erekle II's united eastern kingdom between three empires: Krtsanisi, the Treaty of Georgievsk and Russian annexation.
26 May 1918 – 25 February 1921
Borders, disputed districts and the Soviet invasion routes of February 1921.
550–479 BC
The Achaemenid superpower from the Indus to the Aegean, and the campaigns of Darius and Xerxes against the Greek poleis.
334–323 BC
Eleven years from the Hellespont to the Indus: the campaign path, the four decisive battles and the Hellenistic world it created.
264 BC – AD 395
From the Punic Wars to Trajan's greatest extent, then the frontier crisis and the division of 395 into West and East.
1095–1291
Crusader routes to the Levant, the four Crusader states, and the Italian sea-trade network that grew out of them.
1354–1699
From the crossing into Europe to the walls of Vienna — and the pressure this put on the Georgian principalities.
1914–1918
The Western and Eastern fronts, the Caucasus campaign, and the collapse of four empires that opened the way to Georgian independence.
1939–1945
Blitzkrieg, Operation Barbarossa, the turning points of Stalingrad and Midway, and the Allied counter-offensives.
1089–1125
David IV reformed the army, broke the Seljuk grip at Didgori (1121), retook Tbilisi (1122) and pushed the kingdom's frontier to Shirvan and the Armenian highlands.
6 hotspots
1466–1490
The royal council of 1490 recognised the collapse of the unified monarchy into Kartli, Kakheti and Imereti, with the principalities of Samtskhe, Odishi, Guria and Abkhazia drifting free.
1783–1878
From the Treaty of Georgievsk and the sack of Tbilisi to the annexation of Kartli-Kakheti and the treaties of Gulistan, Turkmenchay, Adrianople and Berlin that redrew the Caucasus.
7 hotspots
1415–1580
Portuguese and Spanish voyages opened the Atlantic route to India and the Americas, shifting Europe's economic centre from the Mediterranean to the ocean ports.
8 hotspots
1814–1815
The victorious powers restored legitimate dynasties, built a cordon around France and created a balance of power that held until 1853.
527–565
Justinian's renovatio imperii recovered North Africa, Italy and southern Spain, codified Roman law and raised Hagia Sophia — while plague and Persian war drained the treasury.
632–750
Within a century Islam spread from Arabia to the Atlantic and the Indus, absorbing Sasanian Persia, Byzantine Syria and Egypt — and reaching Georgia through the Tbilisi emirate.
768–843
Charlemagne united most of Latin Europe, was crowned emperor in Rome in 800 and launched the Carolingian Renaissance; the Treaty of Verdun (843) split the realm into the seeds of France and Germany.
1337–1453
England and France fought for the French crown and Flanders' wool trade. Longbow victories gave way to French recovery under Joan of Arc, forging centralised monarchies and national identity on both sides.
1517–1648
Luther's 95 theses split Latin Christendom. Lutheranism, Calvinism and Anglicanism reshaped Europe; the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and Westphalia (1648) turned religion into a matter of state sovereignty.
1789–1815
Revolution abolished feudal privilege and proclaimed the rights of man; Napoleon spread the Civil Code by conquest until Russia, Leipzig and Waterloo destroyed the empire.
1870–1914
Industrial Europe divided Africa and Asia. The Berlin Conference (1884–85) set the rules of the scramble; rivalry over colonies, markets and raw materials fed the alliance system that exploded in 1914.
1945–1991
Yalta and Potsdam split the continent; NATO faced the Warsaw Pact across the Iron Curtain. Crises in Berlin, Hungary and Czechoslovakia gave way to 1989 and the collapse of the USSR in 1991.