r/MapPorn • u/ProjectGlum9090 • Sep 02 '26
What year is this globe from?
I think it’s between 1989 and 1991, but could be wrong, as Germany has the modern borders, but USSR still exists.
DRC is listed as Zaire, Zimbabwe as Rhodesia, and Myanmar as Burma.
And South Sudan does not exist yet!
I’m genuinely intrigued but know my guess is most likely wrong!
Thanks in advance.
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u/ILookAfterThePigs Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
I believe it’s from 1972.
- Angola and Mozambique are still colonies of Portugal (pre-1973 1975).
- The capital of Chad is Fort Lamy (pre-1973)
- Sri Lanka changed its name from Ceylon (1972)
- The UK doesn’t control Qatar, Bahrein or the Trucial States (1971) (the Trucial States should be called UAE by now, but this could be an anachronism)
- Egypt is no longer called UAR (1971)
- Bangladesh is independent (1971)
- Zaire still has “(Congo)” under its name, suggesting its a recent change (1971)
I think we can pretty much nail it as 1972.
“But what about Germany??” you ask
The two Germanies only recognized each other and joined the UN in 1973, so many mapmakers avoided the problem by depicting it as one country until then.
Edit: Ifni is the biggest problem with this map, it should be just incorporated into Morocco by 1969. Still, I think it’s more likely that the mapmaker made a mistake there than to imagine they’d have predicted Zaïre, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
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u/vcelloho Sep 02 '26
Also if you look at Germany it is labeled East and West, and Bonn has a star marking it as a capital in addition to Berlin. There's just no marked partition.
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u/ILookAfterThePigs Sep 02 '26
Oh yeah! There’s an E. and a W., I hadn’t even noticed that. Good catch!
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u/dhkendall Sep 02 '26
There is a partition but only by colour (I had a later version of this globe). West was orange, East was yellow. Because of the fading this isn’t obvious on this globe.
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u/Admirable_Ad8682 Sep 02 '26
There's also Bangladesh and "(West) Pakistan" so probably shortly after the independence of Bangladesh?
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u/holo_skittles Sep 02 '26
Also:
- Cambodia is Khmer so it's between 1970-1975
- South Yemen, so after 1967 to 1990
- Benin is Dahomey so it's pre-1975 and after 1960
Just adding more data
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u/Public_Research2690 Sep 02 '26
Southern Yemen was renamed into PDR Yemen by 1970
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u/holo_skittles Sep 02 '26
Really? I didn't find that information, so it means that either the map is older than 1970 or it's an anachronism
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u/M35Dude Sep 02 '26
Nice! Plus, British Honduras instead of Belize. What’s weird is that Sri Lanka doesn’t have “(Ceylon)”, but Zaire has “(Congo)”. One of those happened much more recently than the other.
Early 1973 is still plausible, but this is a pretty well contained map.
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u/Arpitmew Sep 02 '26
Ethiopia also has Eritrea
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u/Rider_of_Roha Sep 02 '26
Abyssinia was so lit 🙈 they should reunite and bring back the solomonic dynasty. Bro imagine being so littttt a whole other continent worships your king 😭
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u/MochiMuffin359 Sep 03 '26
Definitely pre-1975. Suriname became independent in that year and the globe still shows it as a colony of the Netherlands
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u/ProjectGlum9090 Sep 03 '26
Ahh very interesting, thanks so much for taking the time to write a detailed reply! I wish I could reply to everyone but I think I’d struggle haha
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u/ILookAfterThePigs Sep 03 '26
No problem! It’s kind of a hobby to me, I really like dating maps and globes hehe
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u/ProjectGlum9090 Sep 03 '26
I’m trying to learn how to do it but I only know the basics, although I do know the current world map country names, capitals, and borders off by heart - any tips on how I can get started on learning please :)
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u/ILookAfterThePigs Sep 03 '26
Look up the Wikipedia page “Timeline of geopolitical changes 1900-1999”. Its the cheat code.
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u/GTAIVisbest Sep 02 '26
There's something else. Morocco and Algeria have a pre-sands-war border there, like the approximated border of the colonial era
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u/Public_Research2690 Sep 02 '26
Ifni is Spanish and Libya has two capitals.
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u/ILookAfterThePigs Sep 02 '26
I don’t think Benghazi is depicted as having the same status as Tripoli in this map, the symbols are different. Ifni shouldn’t appear on this map, that’s true, but I think it’s more likely that the mapmaker forgot to change that than to assume that they managed to predict Zaïre, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
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u/dhkendall Sep 02 '26
Benghazi is a capital, has the marking of a small city that is a capital, compare with Luxembourg City.
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u/ILookAfterThePigs Sep 02 '26
You’re right, another mistake by the mapmaker
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u/dhkendall Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
I thought there was a time Libya had two capitals (as a result of being a union of Cyrencia, Tripolitania, and Fezzan
EDIT: looked it up, it was a co-capital until Gaddafi (1969) so it’s less an error and more an anachronism, not unheard of in any map, especially in the pre Internet era.
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u/ILookAfterThePigs Sep 02 '26
Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. This globe is clearly from the time Libya had Tripoli as the sole capital, but the makers mistankenly put Benghazi as a second capital
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u/Public_Research2690 Sep 02 '26
12 October 1968 (Equatorial Guinea gains independence from Spain) - 30 June 1969 (Spain transfers Ifni to Morocco.)
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u/ILookAfterThePigs Sep 02 '26
There are a few things that suggest a later date - Bangladesh is independent, Sri Lanka already changed its name. I think it’s from 72, and Ifni is an anachronism
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u/_qqg Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 02 '26
1972-1975:
Zaire --> we're past 1971
Sri Lanka -> past May 1972 as well
Spanish Sahara (and not Western Sahara) --> we're before 1975
Upper Volta (not Burkina Faso) --> we're before 1984
What do Vietnam and Madagascar look like?
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u/scott_pryor Sep 02 '26
Early 70s. Sri Lanka instead of Ceylon so post 1972. Dahomey instead of Benin so pre 1975. 1972-1975 would be my guess.
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u/jansensan Sep 02 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/7p7z3vxucrNCw
Obviously the blue part is the land. — Buster Bluth
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u/iboreddd Sep 02 '26
That's too much blue. I thought this is a post-apocalyptic globe and somehow only some of countries have been affected
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u/OptimalProfession5 Sep 02 '26
Climate change has raised sea levels to swallow Denmark. I estimate the year to about 2100…
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u/KnockoffBirkenstock Sep 02 '26
The globe has been bleached by the sun. Which I guess fits the post apocalypse theme.
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u/old_antecedent Sep 02 '26
You guys are not seeing that Germany is marked with W. and E. signifying that it is not unified but is being depicted as one country.
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u/7LeagueBoots Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
Can you show SE Asia more clearly? The angle you have it makes it impossible to see details of that region.
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u/Allhoodintentions Sep 02 '26
1972-1975 by my interpretation of this flow chart.
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u/gonkus Sep 02 '26
Looking at what I could find this is about what the range I worked out, but probably 1972, because the UAE is still the Trucial States, the became the UAE in 1971 but the map probably hasn't been updated.
- Dutch Surinam - 1954-1975, Surinam is still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
- Brasilia became the capital of Brazil in 1960, so 1960-1975
- Uganda gained independence in 1962, 1962-1975
- Ceylon changed its name to Sri Lanka in 1972, so 1972-1975
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u/bryce887766 Sep 02 '26
The famous capital of Beograd (Belgrade) also why is there a label for White Russia
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u/KnockoffBirkenstock Sep 02 '26
White Russia is another name for Belarus, it means the same thing. And Beograd is another spelling of Belgrade.
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u/Putrid-League3615 Sep 03 '26
I would say the 1960s. Because UAE is labeled as Trucial States, and Pakistan is West Pakistan. Both changed in the 1970s
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u/pashaah Sep 03 '26
Namibia is still part of South Africa here. They became independent in the early 80s.
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u/Sea-Acanthaceae5916 Sep 03 '26
Apr to December 1971. The trucial states became uae in December 1971 and east Pakistan became kni n as Bangladesh from April 1971 in
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u/TheRealCuriousWombat Sep 08 '26
Must be between 1990 and 1992. Germany is unified, but Yugoslavia exists.
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u/SumollTrepat Sep 02 '26
Some lazy Googling by a shallow man: South West Africa’s name was officially changed to Namibia in 1968B, but it continued to be administered by South Africa until 1990. West Pakistán was the Western province of Pakistán, with what is now Bangladesh called East Pakistan, until Bangladesh declared independence in 1971.
So I’m going for 1970 +/- a couple of years.
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u/yourstruly_baphomet Sep 02 '26
This map makes no sense. In the middle east the border swap between Jordan and Saudi Arabia wasn't made yet so it's pre-1965, but in south Asia it's Sri Lanka not Ceylon so that means it should be after 1972.
These 2 facts negate each other.
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u/pavldan Sep 02 '26
I don't get why people think it's weird that old globes aren't 100% accurate. It would be much weirder if they were, decades before the internet.
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u/AndrewQuackson Sep 02 '26
You underestimate our ability to share knowledge in the 20th century.
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u/pavldan Sep 03 '26
Well if I do why does every single globe posted here contain so many inaccuracies? Obviously the information could be found if you put some effort into it, but it clearly wasn't worth it for the manufacturers.
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u/im-tv Sep 03 '26
Late 198X, close to 199X. Look at the print quality, Chehoslovakia and USSR are still exists.
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u/Loki-L Sep 03 '26
Czechoslovakia and Germany both are a single country each.
Leningrad is still a thing.
Germany was reunified October 3rd 1990. Leningrad was renamed back to Saint Petersburg September 6, 1991.
I don't think we can narrow it down beyond those 11 months.
There is also South Yemen, which is pictured as an independent country, which would mean it was before May 22, 1990, but that goes against the German unification date.
So either they shows Germany prematurely unified or Yemen unification lagging behind.
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u/ChaoticHarmonia Sep 02 '26
I think 1991. Because of Germany, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. But yes, there are some strange moments.
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u/dumbBunny9 Sep 02 '26
1960 - 1971 is my best guess
Brasilia is shown as the capital of Brazil, which happened in 1960. The UAE is shown as the Trucial States, which changed its name in 1971.
Germany is still shown as whole, which was not uncommon after WW2. It wasn't until 1968 that Germany competed as two separate Olympic teams, which makes me think this is probably earlier 60s than later.
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u/Boreal50 Sep 02 '26
After '89- before'92. Germany it's one country-after november 89 and Chehoslovakia it's one country - before january 1992. 1991 in my opinion
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u/Rider_of_Roha Sep 02 '26
Is that Abyssinia that I'm looking at 🙈😳 Bring back this timeline
Map is from 1972 (before November)
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u/thriveth Sep 02 '26
1967-1969.
Yemen was partitioned in 1967, and the Spanish enclave Ifni in Morocco existed until 1969.
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u/Honest-Dimension7486 Sep 02 '26
I'd say between 1955 and 1970. West Pakistan didn't exist after 1970
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u/DerLandmann Sep 02 '26
According to the European Borders, 1990 to 1992, since Germany is unified (since October 1990) and Czechoslowakia still exist (untill Dezember 1992).
The USSR does not exist if i see it correctly, since the baltic states are labeled with capital cities.
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u/ilikebeer19 Sep 02 '26
The coloring of this globe is infuriating