Blog
Stories, updates, and insights from the Moving Polygons team. Explore how maps bring change to life.
Particle View: A New Way to Watch History Unfold
Moving Polygons now offers a Particle View mode that replaces solid polygon fills with animated swarms of colored dots. Watch borders dissolve, empires expand, and territories shift — one particle at a time.
Read more →The Ottoman Empire: Six Centuries of Conquest, Rule, and Decline
From a small beylik in northwest Anatolia to a three-continent empire — and back to a single point in Istanbul. This animated map traces the full 624-year arc of the Ottoman Empire.
Read more →Rome: From Republic to the Fall of Constantinople (509 BC – 1453 AD)
Nearly two millennia of Roman civilization in one animated map — from the birth of the Republic in 509 BC, through the Empire's peak under Trajan, the East-West split, and the final fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD.
Read more →The Community Library: Country Polygons and Reusable Maps
Moving Polygons now has a Community Library with ready-to-use country polygons and published maps. Copy any timeline into your own map and start building from what others have already created.
Read more →New: Export as GIF & Embed Maps on Your Website
Two new features make it easier than ever to share your animated maps: export any published map as a GIF, or embed it as a fully interactive widget on your own website.
Read more →Welcome to Moving Polygons
Why we started Moving Polygons — a passion for maps, history, and showing the full picture of how territories change over time.
Read more →The Swedish Empire: From Gustav Vasa to Modern Sweden
Trace the Swedish Empire from Gustav Vasa's break with the Kalmar Union in 1523 through its Baltic zenith and the treaties that shaped Scandinavia.
Read more →AI-Generated Maps: From a Topic to a Full Animated Timeline
What if you could describe a historical period and get a complete animated map in return? We're exploring AI-powered map generation — here's where things stand and how you can try it today.
Read more →From Burgundy to the Dutch Republic: Three Centuries of Transformation
Five overlapping timelines trace the Low Countries from Philip the Bold's Burgundian state (1363) through the Dutch Revolt to the Peace of Münster (1648).
Read more →The Black Death: Mapping the Deadliest Pandemic in History
Trace the devastating spread of the Black Death from Crimea across all of Europe in just seven years — a pandemic that killed an estimated 25–50 million people.
Read more →Brazil: From Colony to Empire (1500–1828)
Follow Brazil's transformation from a Portuguese claim on the coast to a continent-spanning empire, through Dutch invasion, independence under Pedro I, and the war that created Uruguay.
Read more →The Hanseatic League: Five Centuries of Trade and Power
From the rebuilding of Lübeck in 1159 to the last Hanseatic Diet in 1669: trace the rise and decline of medieval Europe's most powerful trade confederation.
Read more →