A history of the 20th century in maps – in pictures

From the opium trade routes of the 1900s to CND’s operations in the 1980s, maps reveal the political leylines of history – except when it comes to the holiday islands of San Serriffe, as a new British Library book reveals

• Buy A History of the 20th Century in 100 Maps

Tim Bryars and Tom Harper

  • 1901: Jewish East London

    Influenced by Charles Booth’s ‘poverty map’, this shows the density of the Jewish population in east London after a decade of pogroms in eastern Europe
    1901 map of Jewish East London

  • 1907: Bartholomew’s map of the Edwardian drug trade

    The legal international Edwardian opium trade was criminalised in the UK during the first world war, as expanded drug use threatened the existing social order
    The Opium Trade

  • Shackleton’s sketch of Antarctica
    Shackleton's sketch of Antarctica

  • 1940: Occupied Paris

    A tourist map given by the German military governor to troops on leave in the occupied but unscathed city, taking in many of the traditional sites
    1940 map: Occupied Paris

  • 1945: Women in the workplace

    An Isotype map, ‘world language without words’ according to Isotype’s creator Otto Neurath, here encouraging British women to stay in the workplace post-1945
    1945 map: Women in the workplace

  • 1947: The Partition of India

    An unofficial souvenir of partition, one of the bloodiest events of the 20th century, published by a Calcutta printer and advertising their services
    1947: The Partition of India map

  • 1977: April fool! Visit San Serriffe

    The original artwork for the typographic islands of San Serriffe, introduced in the Guardian on 1 April 1977. One of the most successful newspaper April fool jokes, it had people contacting the Guardian offices with holiday booking inquiries
    1977: April fool! Visit Sans Seriffe - map

  • 1974: The Beatles’ Liverpool

    Beatles tourism begins in Liverpool, four years after the band split; a surreal Yellow Submarine-era fantasy world is superimposed on real locations
    1974 map: The Beatles’ Liverpool

  • 1984: A CND operations map

    CND’s highly organised disruption of US military manoeuvres on England’s Salisbury Plain were aided by maps such as this one. ‘Cruise watch’ maps showed dirt tracks, terrain and, in the years before mobile phones, a network of Telecom callboxes
    1984: A CND operations map
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