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This is mainly an experimentation with soft bodies using toxi's verlet springs.
The data refers to the evolution of the top 4 maritime empires of the XIX and XX centuries by extent. The visual emphasis is on their decline.

More on that project mondeguinho.com/master/visual-experimentations/visualizing-empires

UPDATE – some minor fixes: no flickering and more robust simulation.

Credits

Likes

  • dream.pilot 1 year ago
    I like the approach very much.
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  • AntiVJ / Joanie plus 1 year ago
    Brilliant visualisation !
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  • minoumaguna 1 year ago
    ojalá sigas haciendo videos como éste. es una idea genial!
    salud!
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  • Pedro M Cruz 1 year ago
    Thank you et gracias!
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  • tschillin 11 months ago
    It's a pity that you didn't include data before 1800, to visualize the rise of colonialism as well. But then you should've also included the Netherlands. Anyhow, nice animation.
  • Pedro M Cruz 11 months ago
    Yes, it would be very interesting. The problem is that counting the areas occupied by maritime empires prior to 1800 requires a rather vast research. The initial plan was to include also the Russian and Qing empires in the visualization. Anyway the whole thematic has a lot to go for (e.g. Mongolian, Roman). The Dutch empire would be a following natural choice if we wanna stick only to modern maritime empires.
    Thank you!
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  • tamimat 9 months ago
    Really great. Thany.
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  • mark ellison plus 9 months ago
    It's funny when the Spanish empire poops out Cuba! Very nice animation, so cool.
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  • George Cheng 9 months ago
    Would be interesting to see the expansion of the United States from 1783 to 1959 in this form. The decline of the Ottoman empire would also be interesting to view.
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  • Enmanuel Morales 9 months ago
    i thought cuba, puerto rico, phillipines and guam were all thrown in the same bag? why cuba first? my wife is cuban and begs to differ...

    btw, awesome representation.
  • Pedro M Cruz 9 months ago
    The chosen data for Cuba's split was 1868 because it's the date of the declaration of independence prior to the Ten Years War. In all selection of dates the main rule was to distinguish the urge of a colony to become independent and not their recognition as a nation.
    Cuba had other conflicts after this first declaration of independence (as well as other countries) but the constraints adopted didn't allow to visualize this.
    I'll be working in another type of visualization of the same type of data, though.

    Thanks!
  • Enmanuel Morales 9 months ago
    I think the criteria you base your data on should be the date each country recognizes as its date of independence, and not the urge for being free. That urge may have come about decades in advance, yet it could have been the mindset of a minority. Besides both Cuba AND Spain recognize 1898 as the official year of independence. It's what they teach in school, it's what's written in history books and it's in the museums. Wikipedia is widely regarded as an untrustworthy source of information and I wouldn't consider it.

    don't get me wrong; the visualization is still very good.
  • Kirrily Robert 9 months ago
    *nod* on this basis Australia should be 1901 and Canada 1867. I was extremely surprised not to see them until the 1930s-1940s... I have no idea what those dates are meant to represent, and neither rings a bell for me (an Australian who spent several years living in Canada).

    Looking at Wikipedia I see you're using the Statute of Westminster (1931, adopted 1942 by Australia) but most Australians have never heard of that, and date the birth of the nation to Federation in 1901. I can't speak so authoritatively for Canada but I suspect they're in a similar situation.
  • improbable 9 months ago
    Ditto for South Africa, the date should be 1910. I've no idea where the date in the 30s came from. 1968 is the other important date (republic) but by that measure Australia and Canada would still be part of the red blob.
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  • Angel Minguez 9 months ago
    Some dates are wrong, as Enmanuel said Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philipines were lost in the Spanish-USA war in 1898.
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  • André Silva 9 months ago
    very good*****
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  • Kucu 9 months ago
    Really good!
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  • sanjuaneandopuntocom 9 months ago
    Si no me equivoco, Cuba se independizó de España en 1898, junto con Filipinas, Puerto Rico y Guam.
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  • frederico 9 months ago
    boa , foi feito em que aplicação?
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  • gaia grande 9 months ago
    great! i love it. Simple, clear and for those who knows the historical events....full of emotions
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  • Sebastian Salazar 9 months ago
    Great visuals, but I was eagerly awaiting the might of the American Empire, which never came (never mind that it's never been officially called an empire, but to omit it's prominence in the XX Century just felt odd).
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  • Edu Mas 9 months ago
    Brilliant.
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  • sumidero11 9 months ago
    spain lost cuba in 1898 por dios por mucho q se declarara la independencia historicamente es en q898 Mas se perdio en cuba, madre de dios si no esp or la ayuda de estados unidos jajaja patetico por mucho q tu digas q sea esa fecha la historia q se estudia en españa y en cuba la fecha oficial es 1898 cuando el ultimo español abandono la isla.
  • Juanma Diaz 9 months ago
    Eso de que el ultimo español abandonó la isla en el 98 es relativo. Unos decidieron quedarse y abrazar su nueva ciudadanía y otros se fueron a Europa a seguir con la que tenian .
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  • La idea es muy buena y original, pero las fechas no concuerdan muy bien y ademas no creo que los tamaños en los distintos años de los imperios se correspondan con su poder. ¿en funcion de que estan hechos los tamaños? ¿del tamaño del territorio? Un saludo a todos
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  • johnnysmoke 9 months ago
    I agree with Sebastian. Omitting the US skews the graphic. Why was it not included? I was waiting to see the WWII years. I'd love to see this model run on financial empires. Centers of wealth for the last 2k years.
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  • Zlatko Unger 9 months ago
    This is great. Would be better with trippy music in the background.
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  • Joseph P Young plus 9 months ago
    Yo! No sound on this video.
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  • zsutti 9 months ago
    I miss the music but the visualisation is great! I would show this in history lessons for sure :)
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  • Bálint Kiss 9 months ago
    I like it! Good idea!
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  • Cesar Escobar 9 months ago
    Excelente idea! Muy visual y el concepto se capta fácil.
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  • Calin Lausanne 9 months ago
    hey! where are the Ottomans and Russians ?
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  • Ka Lolo 9 months ago
    It doesn't show the loss of Haiti and Louisiana by the French Empire respectively in 1803 and 1804. These were not small losses. Haiti was the richest french colony at the end of the 18th century while Louisiana was huge in term of geographical size.
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  • karim ferrero 9 months ago
    I like it ;)
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  • Dynomatik 9 months ago
    Extraordinary... great work, thanks
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  • vanhoteen 9 months ago
    impresionante
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  • Pedro Gonçalves 9 months ago
    Very cool presentation. I really liked it, but I think it could be improved by making the transition faster in the years when "nothing happens" and slower in the explosion moments (there are moments when it's hard to keep up with all the territories being ejected, and it's easy to miss some).
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  • Aziz Carrell 9 months ago
    Very nice visualization!!! I'm wondering why the colonization of Africa on your video occurred so late ~1924-1970. By 1914 most African Kingdoms besides Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Liberia were under European colonial rule.
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  • smashcutcreative plus 9 months ago
    It's wonderful but some constructive suggestions: It would be useful with more context. This could be used in classrooms with the correct narration or text describing key moments. Also fast forwarding years where there is little activity would help. Perhaps change the years ticking to a time line thermometer.
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  • I agree with a lot of what smashcutcreative says above. I love it, it's fun to watch, but it could be more informative. Also, it's amazing how quickly the French empire disintegrated.
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  • Jelena Milojkovic 9 months ago
    Very originally! It looks like budding yeasts.
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  • Ed Macovaz 9 months ago
    Nice. One point though - I have no idea what happened to make Australia pop out of the British Empire in 1940, it federated in 1901.
  • Brian Maloney 9 months ago
    Since this video refers to military power, both Australia and Canada were granted their own control of foreign policy and defense (mostly) by the Statute of Westminster in 1931. That probably explains the difference between 1867/1901 and this video.

    When both Canada and Australia were formed, their defence policy was still ruled from London.
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  • improbable 9 months ago
    This was fun to watch, but some thoughts... I presume the areas are land areas, but wouldn't population make much more sense? The independence of (say) India and Australia were events of vastly different magnitudes.

    I guess there is an unbounded amount more one could do with this, as others have said it would be interesting to see the USA grow, and the Ottoman & Austrian empires decay, and the USSR too...

    Choosing dates is going to be hard, perhaps there should be several levels, to distinguish (say) the USA's complete independence from Canada's (queen & commonwealth).
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  • Kyle Flood 9 months ago
    Where is Ireland gaining independence in the early 20th century?
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  • b gottlieb 9 months ago
    Very Euro-centric model and thus not very informative. The approach could be very valuable if it were more comprehensive. Missing empires: Ottoman (Khan), German, Russian, Chinese (Qing), Korean (Yi), Japanese, Indian (Mughal), US (c'mon, since 1945, who's the big kid on the block?). good page to get you started... friesian.com/sangoku.htm
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  • Lisa Wines 9 months ago
    Very very cool. Thanks for doing this.
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  • Cindy Schuster 9 months ago
    I like this very much, though I agree with Emmanuel Morales that the dates should reflect actual independence; it's confusing to mix (and put a date on) desire for independence and actually achieving it. Also, it would be nice to see what colonies are still left inside the bubbles at present.
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  • Grendel 9 months ago
    I like this. But the history of colonialism is missing one of its major players: The USA.

    What about the way that the US took a chunk of Mexico in the early part of the 19th Century, Puerto Rico, The Philippines, Alaska, Hawaii among others????
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  • Jessen Felix 9 months ago
    Hi, this is a great visualization. I want to know what the size of the bubble refer to? Is it the size of the landmass occupied or population? Did I miss something here?
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  • axl dl 9 months ago
    Very nice but the first French Empire is completely ignored. The loss of Haiti, Louisiana and Napoleonic Europe should really be included in the early 19th C.
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  • Trikalina Nea 9 months ago
    Good start, needs some improvements, but it's a start.
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  • tadeu 9 months ago
    fantástico!
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  • Patricio Brito 9 months ago
    Muito bom! Parabéns.

    Estou a frequentar o Mestrado de Multimédia na FEUP, e tem faltado convicção para escolher tema de tese. Como sou designer acho que faria sentido investigar numa área de programação gráfica (processing, nodebox, etc...) Mas, acho que chegar a um trabalho coeso como este teu video não deve ser fácil!? Pois não?

    Deves ter bastante conhecimento em programação!...
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  • lostinspace 9 months ago
    brilliant!
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  • Rana Sinha 9 months ago
    Brilliant. A novel approach to visualize history.
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  • Adrian 9 months ago
    Outstanding visualization and feedback from viewers. Will be looking for more of your work -- there are so many ways to use this idea!
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  • Fucklite Inc. 9 months ago
    Excellent !
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  • Bradley L. Garrett plus 9 months ago
    It is beautiful - a wonderful way to present data, but as many people have pointed out seems to be lacking some crucial data. Where is Japan, where is the US?

    Why the focus on maritime military empires?
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  • David Sabadell 8 months ago
    I've found this visualization an amazing idea!!
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  • luismadrid 8 months ago
    I love this video!! now is on my channel Inpiración de Luismadrid
    cheers
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  • Jose 7 months ago
    Muy bueno, visual y facil de entender, esto debería ser el futuro de la educación.
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  • Richard Jefferies 7 months ago
    Would love to see a version of this which includes the United States.
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  • Paul Besley 7 months ago
    Absolutely superb. I hope you dont mind if I use this on my blog with a credit to your great skills.
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  • zaphodora beeblebrox 7 months ago
    Love it, I'm a sucker for maps and diagrams;
    some of the dates seemed a bit off.
    It would also be interesting to see one based on population; though i know that would be much more difficult.
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  • Lanternativa 6 months ago
    Excelent!
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  • Lauren Eldekvist 4 months ago
    Fantastic idea and execution!
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  • tutuca 1 month ago
    muuuuuuuy bueno!
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