ONE LAND · 10 ATLASES
History of Pakistan in maps
Pakistan as it appears in 10 interactive history atlases, from 1206 to 2000: the Indus marches, India — the Indus and Punjab, Pakistan, West Pakistan, British India. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
WW2 is free — every chapter. Try chapters 1–2 of any 2 other atlases (3 with a free account). Opening a new atlas uses one of them. Membership opens all 21 — Join.
What was Pakistan before it was Pakistan? 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.
The Indus marches (mod. Pakistan) · Mongol Empire
| The Islamic powers — the opening position |
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
India — the Indus and Punjab (mod. Pakistan) · Industrial Revolution
| Colony or dependency — the opening position | |
| Colony or dependency |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Pakistan · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
| Western powers and allies — the opening position |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
West Pakistan (the Raj’s west, to 1947) · Indian independence
The state demanded in a resolution at Lahore in 1940 and delivered — “moth-eaten,” its founder said — in August 1947: the Muslim-majority west of the Raj, joined to a Bengali east wing a thousand miles away across India. Jinnah, its Quaid-e-Azam, survived his state’s birth by thirteen months; his 11 August speech promising a state blind to creed remains its most contested text. Karachi doubled with refugees within a year; the army born of the Punjab’s recruiting grounds became the state’s strongest institution — a fact with a long future. Pakistan’s first constitution came only in 1956, and in October 1958 martial law ended it and brought General Ayub Khan to power, while India held its third general election on schedule.
| British India — direct rule — the opening position | |
| Pakistan (from Aug 1947) |
INDIAN INDEPENDENCE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
British India (Indus provinces) · WWI
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories — the opening position |
British India (mod. Pakistan) · Chinese Revolution
| Foreign empires — British, French, Russian, American — the opening position |
CHINESE REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Pakistan (British India until 1947) · Stalin’s Soviet Union
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Pakistan · Road to WW2
| Colonial empires & possessions — the opening position |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Pakistan · Cold War
| NATO & core Western allies — the opening position | |
| Non-aligned & neutral | |
| US-aligned states |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Pakistan · Mao’s China
| Neutral, non-aligned or colonial — the opening position | |
| Beijing’s allies and friends |
MAO’S CHINA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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