What does the interactive map help you understand
about European colonization?

Explanation:

The map above presents a very short history of colonialism around the world from 1492-2008 in one simple GIF. Interestingly, it doesn’t limit itself to European colonialism but also includes the colonial empires of the United States, Russia/Soviet Union and Japan.

1492: The year Columbus “discovered” the Americas.

1550: The start of the Valladolid debate

1660: Start of the English restoration.

1754: The eve of the Seven Years’ War, known as the French and Indian War in America. One of the first wars fought around the world.  

1822: Brazil declares independence from Portugal.

1885: Berlin Conference formalizing the Scramble for Africa.

1914: The eve of World War 1.

1938: The year before World War 2 breaks out in Europe, although World War 2 in Asia had already begun.

1959: The year before France grants independence to its remaining French colonies in Africa.

1974: The year before Portugal recognizes the independence of Mozambique and Angola.

2008: The year the map was originally made.

the berlin blockade was an international crisis that arose from an attempt by the soviet union, in 1948–49, to force the western allied powers (the united states, the united kingdom, and france) to abandon their post-world war ii jurisdictions in west berlin. in march 1948 the allied powers decided to unite their different occupation zones of germany into a single economic unit. in protest, the soviet representative withdrew from the allied control council. coincident with the introduction of a new deutsche mark in west berlin (as throughout west germany), which the soviets regarded as a violation of agreements with the allies, the soviet occupation forces in eastern germany began a blockade of all rail, road, and water communications between berlin and the west. on june 24 the soviets announced that the four-power administration of berlin had ceased and that the allies no longer had any rights there.

states

explanation:

as the old saying goes, all politics are local. state and federal governments affect our daily lives in numerous ways. yet, in our federal system, there is supposed to be a balance between federal and state power. as james madison envisioned it in federalist no. 51, “the power surrendered by the people” would be “divided between two distinct governments,” creating a balance of power that would enable the “different governments [to] control each other.”