MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Bangladesh
ONE LAND · 7 ATLASES
Bangladesh, on the map of history
What was Bangladesh before it was Bangladesh? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — 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.
Bengal (mod. Bangladesh) · The Mongol Empire, 1206–1294
| 1206 | Other settled powers (Jin China, Christendom, Delhi) — the opening position |
OPEN THE MONGOL EMPIRE ON THE LIVING MAP →
East Bengal / East Pakistan (mod. Bangladesh) · Indian Independence & Partition, 1905–1948
East Bengal: Curzon’s province of 1905, the League’s heartland (founded at Dacca, 1906), the famine’s killing ground in 1943, and from 1947 the eastern wing of Pakistan — holding most of the new state’s people and little of its power, its language soon a grievance (the Language Movement’s martyrs fell in Dacca in 1952). This map’s era ends with East Bengal blue; the wing became Bangladesh in 1971, at terrible cost — Curzon’s line of 1905, made a nation on the third attempt.
| 1905 | British India — direct rule — the opening position |
| AUG 1947 | Pakistan (from Aug 1947) |
OPEN INDIAN INDEPENDENCE & PARTITION ON THE LIVING MAP →
Bengal, British India (mod. Bangladesh) · China in Revolution, 1911–1949
| 1912 | Foreign empires — British, French, Russian, American — the opening position |
OPEN CHINA IN REVOLUTION ON THE LIVING MAP →
Bengal (British India) · The Great War, 1914–1918
| NOV 1914 | Entente-aligned & imperial territories — the opening position |
Bangladesh · The Road to War, 1931–1941
| 1931 | Colonial empires & possessions — the opening position |
OPEN THE ROAD TO WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →
Bangladesh · The War Room — WW2, 1936–1945
| JUL 1937 | Western Allies — the opening position |
Bangladesh · The Cold War, 1945–1991
| AUG 1945 | NATO & core Western allies — the opening position |
OPEN THE COLD WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →
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