ONE LAND · 15 ATLASES
History of Georgia in maps
Georgia as it appears in 15 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Colchis & Iberia, Kingdom of Georgia, Georgia, Soviet Union, Soviet Georgia. 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 Georgia before it was Georgia? 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.
Colchis & Iberia (mod. Georgia) · Ancient Rome
| 264 BC | Hellenistic kingdoms — the opening position |
| 62 BC | Roman clients & allies |
ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Georgia · Norse and Aztecs
| Other peoples and states — the opening position |
NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Georgia — the Christian Caucasus · Crusades
The Christian kingdom of the Caucasus reached its golden age in exactly these years, under Queen Tamar — a Christian great power the crusaders knew of by rumour but never joined. Georgia’s strength was broken not by any Muslim neighbour but by the Mongols, whose thirteenth-century storm reshaped the whole region east of the crusaders’ world.
CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Kingdom of Georgia · Mongol Empire
The kingdom of Georgia, crusader-correspondent and Caucasus power, was shattered twice by the Great Raid (1221–22) before Europe knew the raiders’ name, then subjugated by Chormaqan in the 1230s. Georgian heavy cavalry afterward fought in Mongol armies from Alamut to Baghdad — vassalage meant service, and service meant survival.
| Other settled powers (Jin China, Christendom, Delhi) — the opening position | |
| Tributaries & vassals |
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Georgia · Industrial Revolution
| Industrialising — the opening position | |
| Industrialising |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Georgia · Age of Revolutions
| Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Georgia · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
Georgia declared independence in April 1991, two years after Soviet troops killed 21 demonstrators in Tbilisi. Its first president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was overthrown in a civil war in 1991–92, and wars in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in which Russian forces played a part, left both regions outside Tbilisi’s control. Eduard Shevardnadze, Gorbachev’s foreign minister, returned home to lead the country from 1992.
| The USSR, then Russia — the opening position | |
| Independent neighbours |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Georgia · Russian Revolution
From 1918 an independent republic under moderate Mensheviks — a rare democratic socialist experiment. It was invaded and sovietized by the Red Army in February–March 1921, the last independent piece of the old empire to fall. Georgia’s conquest, pushed by a Georgian named Stalin, foreshadowed how the nationalities question would be “solved.”
| The Tsarist empire — the opening position | |
| Provisional Government, then the Whites | |
| Breakaway national states | |
| Soviet power |
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Georgia (Russian Empire) · WWI
| The Entente & Allies — the opening position | |
| The Entente & Allies | |
| Russia in revolution | |
| Neutral or unaligned | |
| Russia in revolution | |
| Neutral or unaligned |
Georgia (Georgian SSR) · Stalin’s Soviet Union
Georgia was Stalin’s homeland and one of his harshest battlefields. As Commissar for Nationalities he forced its reluctant communists into the Transcaucasian federation in 1922, provoking Lenin’s anger. Under his ally Lavrenty Beria, party chief from 1931, Georgia’s purges were among the bloodiest. Stalin’s birthplace at Gori became a shrine, and in March 1956, after the Secret Speech, students in Tbilisi who rallied to defend his memory were fired on by troops.
| The Soviet Union — the opening position |
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Georgia · Road to WW2
| Neutral & unaligned — the opening position | |
| Aggressor clients & partners | |
| Democracies & powers fighting them |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Georgia · WW2
| Soviet Union — the opening position |
Georgia · Cold War
| USSR & Warsaw Pact — the opening position | |
| Non-aligned & neutral | |
| Non-aligned & neutral |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Soviet Union (Georgia) · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Right won in law — the opening position | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Right won in law |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Soviet Georgia · Refugee crises
| Soviet-occupied or communist — the opening position |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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