Historical world map · 1945
World map in 1945
A postwar threshold snapshot before the main wave of twentieth-century decolonization. On 1 July, CShapes counts 67 independent states and 103 colonies and dependent territories. This sourced reconstruction contains 227 mapped geometries. 185 have source labels representing 183 distinct names; 42 have no usable source label.
- Mapped geometries
- 227
- Labeled geometries
- 185
- Distinct labels
- 183
- Data source
- Historical Basemaps borders
World map preview and interactive explorer for 1945
Static map preview for 1945
Load the interactive view only when you want place search, year comparison, point history, or detailed border inspection.
Border changes
What changed on the world map in 1945
Independence, new states, transfers between rulers, and border changes recorded in CShapes during 1945. The map above shows borders as of 1 July.
- Indonesia becomes independent from Netherlands.
- Germany ceases to exist as a separate entity; its capital passes to Russia.
- Korea (until 1945) ceases to exist as a separate entity; its capital passes to United States.
- Southern Sakhalin Island ceases to exist as a separate entity; its capital passes to Russia.
- Taiwan ceases to exist as a separate entity; its capital passes to China.
- East Germany appears as a territory of Russia.
- Germany appears as a territory of United States.
- North Korea appears as a territory of Russia.
- South Korea appears as a territory of United States.
- Czechoslovakia gains about 11,064 km² of territory.
- Poland loses about 76,701 km² of territory.
- Russia gains about 237,478 km² of territory in 2 separate changes during the year.
- China gains about 35,990 km² of territory.
CShapes does not code wartime military occupation as a border change, so occupied countries keep their prewar borders in these maps.
Named in the source
Countries, territories, and regions mapped in 1945
Usable source labels can mix states, empires, dependencies, cultural regions, and other mapped entities. Wording follows the dataset rather than forcing every shape into a modern-country category.
- Distinct named labels
- 183
- Unlabeled geometries
- 42
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria
- American Samoa
- Andorra
- Angola (Portugal)
- Anguilla
- Annam
- Antarctica
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Bahamas
- Bangladesh
- Barbados
- Belgium
- Belize
- Benin
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Botswana
- Brazil
- British Somaliland
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Burma
- Burundi
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Chile
- China
- Cochin China
- Colombia
- Congo
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Cyraneica (UK Lybia)
- Czechoslovakia
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Dutch Guinea
Show 135 more named labels
Precision in the source
Not every border deserves the same confidence
Precision is inherited from the dataset when available. It describes how the line was encoded, not the overall certainty of every historical claim inside the polygon.
- Determined by international law
- 227
These precision categories cover all mapped geometries. Label coverage is reported separately above, so the two sets of counts should not be added together.
Source, license, and download
Historical boundary snapshots for countries and cultural regions, used through 2010. Coverage: 53 available snapshots from prehistory through 2010
Reuse terms: GPL-3.0 repository license. Check the original project for full attribution and reuse requirements.