

US Territorial Expansion: 200 years mapped with d3/HTML5 - enjalot
http://michaelporath.com/projects/manifest-destiny/

======
arscan
Very cool. Personally I find animated maps to be the easiest way to digest
this kind of data (like the animation of nuclear testing[1] or walmart
proliferation[2]). Looks like it would only take a few lines of javascript to
accomplish this kind of "flipbook" animation. Just a thought -- great job
regardless.

[1] <http://www.ctbto.org/specials/1945-1998-by-isao-hashimoto/>

[2] <http://blog.kiwitobes.com/?p=51>

~~~
_delirium
Here's an animated-gif version of the American territorial changes map, found
on Reddit: <http://i.imgur.com/5wZX0.gif>

It's just the maps in the Wikipedia article
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_the_Un...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_the_United_States))
turned into a flipbook animation, as you suggest.

------
hkmurakami
I'm personally really curious about the "other territories" that US has
control over (overseas) as a result of wars and other political events.

Examples [1]:

* The Line Islands (? – 1979): Disputed claim with United Kingdom, all U.S. claims were ceded to Kiribati upon its independence in 1979.

* The Panama Canal Zone (1903–1979): sovereignty was returned to Panama under the Torrijos-Carter Treaties of 1978; the U.S. retained a military base there and actual control of the Canal until December 31, 1999.

* The Corn Islands (1914–1971): leased for 99 years under the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty, but these were returned to Nicaragua upon the abrogation of the treaty in 1970.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territories_of_the_United_State...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territories_of_the_United_States#Classification_of_former_U.S._territories_and_administered_areas)

~~~
asmithmd1
Do you mean like Germany (52,000 troops), Japan (35,000 troops), and Korea
(28,000 troops)

~~~
aurelianito
In my opinion Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq should also be considered.

~~~
philwelch
Of those three countries, only one has US troops currently stationed there.

------
coderdude
April of 1803 was a big month for the US.

From Wikipedia:

> The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America
> in 1803 of 828,000 square miles for a total sum of 15 million dollars (less
> than 3 cents per acre) for the Louisiana territory ($233 million in 2011
> dollars, less than 42 cents per acre).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase>

~~~
a-priori
Louisiana was purchased from France during the Napoleonic Wars. Napolean used
the money to fund an army that he amassed on the north coast of France for a
planned invasion of England.

But he never launched the invasion, and the money was wasted.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon%27s_planned_invasion_o...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon%27s_planned_invasion_of_the_United_Kingdom)

~~~
philwelch
It should be pointed out that the loss of Haiti to a slave revolt led Napoleon
to believe that the Western Hemisphere was a bad investment. That was the
other major impetus.

------
shn
Interesting. I've been through first 10-15 maps, no mention of American
Indians. Did I miss something. It mentions about other nations (British,
Spanish, Russian) but no mention of Indian Nations.

~~~
philwelch
The Indian nations did resist white settlement, but their numbers were
depleted, mostly by smallpox, to such an extent that they had no real chance
of changing anything. You might notice the "Indian territory"--now Oklahoma.
Many eastern Indians were relocated there.

------
grecy
The purchase of Alaska in 1867 shows the panhandle as immediately being part
of Alaska.

This does not take into account the Alaska boundary dispute[1] which, although
officially resolved in 1903, is still disputed by many Canadians.

(Note: I live about an hour away from the "disputed" border)

[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_boundary_dispute>

~~~
throwawayhn25
Canada is the second largest country on Earth and one of the most sparsely
populated,[1] and Canada has already laid claim to a vast swath of the Arctic
that it has neither the will nor the means to settle or defend.[2] For you to
lust after a single square inch of another nation's soil is greed of a
particularly galling and egregious quality.

Canada chose to remain a servile possession of a foreign monarch until 1931
(and in some respects, remains such even to the present day), and one of the
consequences of that choice was having the UK manage your foreign affairs and
your mother country's desire to maintain good relations with the US resulting
in Canada getting the short end of the diplomatic stick.

Frankly, I am still bitter about the Oregon Territory boundary dispute[3] and
even the very existence of British Columbia, a Canadian "Polish Corridor"
separating Alaska from the rest of the continental United States. That
Americans require passports to drive to and from Alaska--on a highway that was
originally constructed by the US Army, no less--is utterly reprehensible.
You're delusional if you think Alaskans would ever choose to (or could somehow
be coerced to) join your country. Even if you took the queen off your money
and out of your Constitution and amended your beloved Charter so it actually
protected freedom of speech, private property rights, and other fundamental
freedoms Alaskans hold sacred, they would balk at having share their oil
wealth through transfer/equalization payments (which don't exist in the US)
with the rest of Canada. If anything, it's far more likely that Alberta would
secede and join the US, if only to avoid subsidizing the other provinces any
longer, or that Quebec would become an independent nation.

You and other Canadian nationalists should aim towards trying to keep what you
already have--which, in my opinion, is far too much as it is.

1: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_by_population_density>

2: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_arctic>

3: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_boundary_dispute>

~~~
gruseom
This is really rather interesting. I don't think I've ever encountered anti-
Canadian resentment before. Certainly never anything strong enough to bother
accumulating a dossier of links and grievances. Or purple language like
"lusting" after other nations' "soil"!

I feel like a bird watcher who just spotted a species not known to still
exist.

~~~
tptacek
Daniel, we are simply too polite to say it. I've been to Calgary a bunch of
times, and each one of those times I looked around and I saw AMERICAN SOIL. MY
SOIL. MY BIRTHRIGHT. MY SNOW IN AUGUST. You are nuts if you think I'm not
training my children to be ready for the inevitable border war.

Also, there are 311 million people in the US, and I think I speak for most of
them when I say that very few of us are "over" the Oregon Territory Border
Dispute.

~~~
elptacek
Oh, that's why Call of Duty is always in the PS3. It all makes sense now.

------
rmc
Similar, but for Europe (which has had much more border changes):

* Maps every 100 years (0 → 2000) <http://www.euratlas.net/history/europe/index.html>

* <http://historicalatlas.com/> Software and videos of border changes

------
zoidb
Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Phillipines (after the spanish
american war), Virgin Islands..

~~~
adaml_623
It'd be interesting to include the various military bases that America has
around the place. Germany, Korea, Japan, Australia.

~~~
caf
The US doesn't have military bases in Australia. The closest things would be
Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap and Naval Communication Station Harold E.
Holt. There's now 2500 US Marines on permanent rotation in Darwin but they are
stationed at Robertson Barracks.

------
goodcanadian
As a Canadian, I am a bit offended by the handling of the Oregon
territory/Columbia District. It is marked as unclaimed when in fact, it was
claimed by the British. Then, it is marked as US territory when it was, at
best, disputed. I suppose the Treaty of 1818 made it "shared" territory (and
to be fair, the explanatory text explains this), but I still find it
misleading to label it as US territory. Finally, the territory was split with
the Oregon Treaty to form the current border.

~~~
grannyg00se
How is being Canadian of any particular relevance if the dispute was between
the British and the US?

~~~
eropple
Presumably because it would have been part of the British holding of Canada.

------
_delirium
It's in the About/Credits (which I initially missed), but fwiw, the source of
all the text and dates here is the following Wikipedia article (which in turn
cites "proper" sources, if you're curious about details):
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_the_Un...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_the_United_States)

------
badusername
The legend should probably be open by default. It is kinda annoying to keep
referring to it, and it hides away in two seconds :)

I also agree that this kind of visualization is better served with having an
animation, and an ability to select specific points in the timeline. I like
the small multiples visualization, but the individual map view could be
better.

I'd also like to add that having the year show up on hover only is another
pain-point. It should be rendered below each map as well.

------
shawndumas
This I did not Know:

"In July 1777 delegates from 28 towns met and declared independence from
jurisdictions and land claims of British colonies in New Hampshire and New
York. They also abolished slavery within their boundaries."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_Republic>

~~~
jackfoxy
First state to outlaw slavery...sorta. Massachusetts de facto outlawed slavery
by a court decision in 1781
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_Massachus...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_Massachusetts)
, before peace was settled with the British in the Revolutionary War, and it
was one of the original 13 states. Vermont was the first state to join the
union after the original 13.

In 1777 the British controlled Manhattan and Long Island, with the Americans
controlling the upper Hudson, and it stayed that way for the rest of the war.
So politically New York must have been in turmoil, easing the way for
Vermont's secession.

------
wallawe
Thanks for this, extremely cool. I feel like I just relearned a lot of things
I had forgotten/skipped out on in grade school.

------
hammock
I would like to see this with the faded background being black, or
alternatively the entire continent of North America, as opposed to an outline
of the US today. Sort of gives it away and distracts from viewing and
appreciating the expansion.

------
fourstar
I was at your talk @ Rocketspace. Thanks for sharing your stuff! For more cool
D3 stuff from (the guy who wrote d3) check out his site:
<http://bost.ocks.org/mike/>

------
obituary_latte
In the blown up view of a map, the tooltip goes underneath the year if the two
meet.

Chrome Version 22.0.1229.94 OSX

<http://i.imgur.com/nk0F9.png>

------
batgaijin
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine%E2%80%93American_War>

Hey, we owned the whole Philippines for a while.

------
cathustler
I just showed this to my U.S. History teacher and he loved it.

------
mimiflynn
Its beautiful! Great work, but I have one issue:

"Mexico" in references to "New Mexico" is linked to "Mexico" as in "Old
Mexico".

------
jasonkolb
I thought this was going to be much more interesting and include the US
occupation of foreign countries via military bases.

------
mihaifm
Any idea how the maps themselves were created? Were they edited using some SVG
editor like Inkscape ?

~~~
poezn
The maps were originally created as GIS Shapefiles and then exported as
GeoJSON.

D3 provides handy functions (d3.geo) to project GeoJSON files to reasonable
looking maps.

You can find all original assets (Creative Commons licensed) here:
<http://poezn.github.com/us-history-maps/>

------
cvrajeesh
UI looks great, except the default scroll-bar on the "Highlight Changes"
section.

------
jbattle
Would be interesting to see a view including territories and possessions

------
jlgreco
Does anybody know what the deal is with that top sliver of Texas?

~~~
boredguy8
Texas wanted to be admitted to the union as a slave state. But the Missouri
Compromise established the 36°30' parallel as the northern limit of slavery
for new states. So Texas gave up its claim and the territory became "No Man's
Land".

~~~
rmc
Fun fact, there's a patch of 20,000 km² of desert between Egypt and Sudan that
neither country claims. ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halaib_Triangle> ).
It's essentially no-man's land, but for countries.

~~~
dubfan
The territory you're referring to is called Bir Tawil:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil>

~~~
rmc
Oops, yes got them mixed up, thanks.

------
iscis
July of 1868 is a little jacked up, shows up more than once.

~~~
tokenadult
More than one event happened in July 1868.

For onlookers who would like a wall map that shows many of these territorial
changes, the United States Geological Survey map UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PUBLIC LAND SURVEYS,

<https://store.usgs.gov/yimages/PDF/101208.pdf>

[http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/catalog/query/(xcm=r3standard...](http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/catalog/query/\(xcm=r3standardpitrex_prd&layout=6_1_61_48&uiarea=2&ctype=areaDetails&carea=%24ROOT\)/.do?lastVisited=areaDetails&query=public+land+surveys)

may be of interest. The usability of the federal government online map store
leaves a LOT to be desired, but I have successfully ordered a copy of this map
just a few months ago, and it looks gorgeous on a sufficiently large wall. (I
first saw this in person at a map store in DC, back in the 1980s, and my
previous copy of the map was tattered, so I ordered a fresh copy this year.)

------
billiam
Texas and Georgia were still not back in the Union in 1870?

------
flexie
Well done!

------
mindstab
:/ One of Britain/the UK might be more interesting.

Also, where's Alaska?

~~~
YoukaiCountry
In the lower left.

------
LaRakel
html5? how irrelevant.

The only thing html5 about this is the doctype, a header and a footer tag. The
maps are svg not canvas.

