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"The Histomap" by John B. Sparks, published 1931
(www.visualcapitalist.com)
It is certainly not perfect, but still an impressive piece of work.
And here is a version embedded in a web page so it scales to your browser window's width.
I mean it's a fact I've known previously but to see the Chinese empire never end is actually crazy and impressive.
It's good branding. "China," as we think of it, fragmented into states that recombinated into different versions of what they each claimed to be the rightful empire, many, many times. It's like a ship of thesius thought experiment, almost, but sometimes the boat is a pile of wood, sometimes it's a galleon, other times it's a fleet of smaller boats.
And sometimes it's Turkish. (Sorta)
Source: degree in Song Dynasty era Chinese history. (It's a long story)
The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.
-Romance of the Three Kingdoms
So a bit like the holy Roman empire?
It's against my political philosophy to say this about a monarchy but it makes me kind of sad it's gone. The world feels smaller without these sorts of things.
You could think of Xi as a monarch.
Yeah but I want him to say it and put on the funny hat.
Definitely. Once upon a time, the prestige of the title of "Reigning Monarch of the British empire and all its territories" was incredible.
The weight of the crown back then was immense. Now it's more like a party hat...