The Atlas of States: Global Change 1900-2000

The Atlas of States: Global Change 1900-2000 provides an illustrated survey of the independent states of the 20th century. During this period the world has witnessed unprecedented political changes as globalization and the destructive powers of contending ideologies led to the continual transformation of state patterns in extensive sections of the world. Political leaders sought to harness the forces of nationalism, communism, imperialism, and fascism, in an attempt to redraw the world map and, in the process, political structures of considerable antiquity were overthrown and fragmented. This did not preclude the resurrection of states destroyed in earlier eras. Recent turmoil in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has exposed historic peoples seeking to regain their own states, whether sovereign or not. In the course of the 20th century the number of sovereign independent states has almost quadrupled, despite the demise of some and the transitory nature of others. Most new states had pre-independence forebears, whether styled colonies, provinces, kingdoms or states . The pattern of non-independent states is thus significant in providing pointers to possible future independent states.