ONE LAND · 12 ATLASES
History of Azerbaijan in maps
Azerbaijan as it appears in 12 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2000: Caucasian Albania, Arran & Shirvan, Azerbaijan, Soviet Azerbaijan. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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What was Azerbaijan before it was Azerbaijan? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History atlases — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.
Caucasian Albania (mod. Azerbaijan) · Ancient Rome
| 264 BC | Hellenistic kingdoms — the opening position |
| 62 BC | Roman clients & allies |
| Rival great powers |
ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Arran & Shirvan (mod. Azerbaijan) · Mongol Empire
| The Islamic powers — the opening position | |
| The Mongol Empire |
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Azerbaijan · Industrial Revolution
| Industrialising — the opening position | |
| Industrialising |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Azerbaijan · Age of Revolutions
| Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Azerbaijan · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
Azerbaijan, an oil republic on the Caspian, lost Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts in its war with Armenian forces in 1988–94, which displaced several hundred thousand Azerbaijanis. In January 1990 Soviet troops entering Baku killed more than a hundred civilians, a day remembered as Black January. From 1993 Heydar Aliyev, a former Soviet KGB general and Politburo member, ruled the independent state.
| The USSR, then Russia — the opening position | |
| Independent neighbours |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Azerbaijan · Russian Revolution
The oil of Baku made Azerbaijan a prize everyone wanted. Independent from 1918 under the Musavat party, it was sovietized in April 1920 when the Red Army arrived to secure the oilfields — the first of the Caucasus republics to fall.
| The Tsarist empire — the opening position | |
| Provisional Government, then the Whites | |
| Breakaway national states | |
| Soviet power |
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Azerbaijan (Russian Empire) · WWI
| The Entente & Allies — the opening position | |
| The Entente & Allies | |
| Russia in revolution | |
| Neutral or unaligned | |
| Russia in revolution | |
| Neutral or unaligned |
Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan SSR) · Stalin’s Soviet Union
Azerbaijan’s oil fields at Baku supplied most of the Soviet Union’s oil until the war, which is why Hitler aimed his 1942 offensive towards the Caucasus. The republic was part of the Transcaucasian federation until 1936. In 1945–46 Stalin sponsored a separatist government across the border in Iranian Azerbaijan and withdrew only under American and British pressure, one of the first crises of the Cold War.
| The Soviet Union — the opening position |
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Azerbaijan · Road to WW2
| Neutral & unaligned — the opening position | |
| Aggressor clients & partners | |
| Democracies & powers fighting them |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Azerbaijan · WW2
| Soviet Union — the opening position |
Azerbaijan · Cold War
| USSR & Warsaw Pact — the opening position | |
| Non-aligned & neutral | |
| Non-aligned & neutral |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Soviet Azerbaijan · Refugee crises
| Soviet-occupied or communist — the opening position |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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