How OLD is this ATLAS?

Well, it's at least 8 minutes old

The fact that this book's publishing year has so many major events happening in it makes this a fantastic historic relic, as it is basically a snapshot of history from the 1970s

I am an Afican 1978. I nailed it when you said..it was printed 3 years after Mozambique's independence. I knew it was post 1970 when I saw nearly all African countries were independent.Rhodesia is now Zimbabwe gained independence and changed the name in 1980 so this Atlas could not have ben printed after that. This was fun.

The map of only England is actually useful because it includes the metropolitan counties such as Merseyside which means it must be after 1972 but still includes counties like humberside which was abolished in 1996

My guess is 1978. Portugal abandoned it's colonies in 75, and you said that the flag of Mozambique was 3 years old. You also mentioned that the Iranian revolution had started, but not yet come to a close. I know it ended in 79, so it would match the previous example as well. Rhodesia granting majority rule is also something I think was in 79, but since it hasn't gone in effect yet, that yet again points to this being the year before that. Edit: Let's fucking gooooo

Freeze-framing on the England page "where not much has changed" gave me the biggest clue of the whole video. English and Welsh county borders either side of 1974 are very different propositions, and remain somewhat malleable for the rest of the century in places.

I would love if this concept became a regular series! I loved the globe video and I love this video too. It's not just a geographical curiosity; it really inspired curiosity about several major world events that I never learned about in school, or that were only briefly touched on. I have a lot to read about now.

This reminds me of a natgeo atlas from 90 or 91 my family had when I was young. It had a united Germany but an intact USSR. Wish I could have kept it just for what a neat moment of time it was. I even remember the map saying Germany wasn't reunited yet at time of print, but all the plans were in place.

the inclusion of additional "artifacts" aside from the atlas itself, in the form of the old-school newsreel/documentary clips, is a really nice touch! really adds to the sense of diving into the past. my provisional guess was 1974 before i strayed into the comments and saw the answer

You'd actually be surprised in regards to the Netherlands. The Flevoland Province wasn't even established until 1986 because they created it from nothing. Until the 50's, this was essentially ocean or sea. Additionally, there were some major dam/infrastructure projects that took place, which are typically noted on more modern maps.

There is actually one small detail I picked up on in Ireland that helped me narrow it down. The town of Craigavon in Northern Ireland wasn’t founded until 1965, the fact it was featured meant it was at least some time after that.

The british isles part is actually pretty useful in telling you that the map is no older than 1965 because the greater London area already existed.

As a Greek, I knew it was 1978 the moment you mentioned the Greek flag change.Hope to see more such videos though, both this and the globe one were very interesting and entertaining

At first I thought I was being clever by looking up the population numbers of some European countries and comparing them to the stated numbers, which put me somewhere in the late 60s or early 70s. Then when you got to Iran I knew it was 1978. It's interesting that the demographic data seems to be about 5-10 years out of date, but I guess censuses don't happen every year. I also really appreciate the historical footage you used, both for context and for flavor.

The Spanish flag that was skipped at 5:54 could actually be a helpful clue. It featured a bird on it, which was something that would have been present during the Francoist period, which I knew would have been around this time. The bird was ditched in 1981, so it told me that the atlas couldn't have been any newer than that. I'm not Spanish, but I do know my flags.

I loved the news reels you included here. This video was great fun!

Something else to look at when dating older maps are what is not there. When looking at the African maps, Eritrea was not there and Namibia was probably labeled as Southwest Africa and possibly indicated as under South African rule. Both of these countries got independence later, but they are also clues to map dating.

"Names like these almost feel like ancient history to me then real places that existed not to long ago." Having lived in a time when East Germany, Czechoslvakia and Yugoslavia were a reality during a big part of my life (and also being European), I felt similar when I discovered Ceylon and Siam in an old Atlas my parents owned. Edit: Ah, I see Ceylon is still mentioned in parenthesis at least, same for Siam.

Much as you felt the map of England was no different to today, the county boundaries shown did a fine job of narrowing the window of time for somebody who lives here (they are the boundaries established in 1974, providing the earliest date). The rest of your clues suggest that the book dates from the late '70s - probably '78 or '79 - making it just a little younger than me. A fair amount of that information was still accurate when I was at school. ^.~ edit: oh, okay - it sounded like you were going to provide the answer in your next video. Huzzah for instant satisfaction! ^.^

thank you again for this incredible video. Mostly THANKS for the addition of the old news report videos so helpful and a good remember of what happened <3