Stanford Spatial History Lab
October 2010
European territory changes during World War II, 1938-1945.
The study was conducted at Stanford's Spatial History Lab (spatialhistory.stanford.edu) in support of the Holocaust Geographies Project. The research was made possible through funding provided by NSF Award 0820501, Mellon Distinguished Professor Grant (Richard White), and the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Stanford.
Historical research and digitization completed by Michael De Groot (mdegroot@stanford.edu) in Summer 2010. Technical support and project management by Erik Steiner (ebs110@stanford.edu). Additional support provided by Kathy Harris, Anne Knowles, Alberto Giordano, Marc Masurovsky, Pavel Ilyin, and others at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. Military front line data provided by James Graham. Modern Europe data by ESRI.
vector digital data
http://www.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site-dev/pub.php?id=51
This dataset documents European territory changes during World War II, 1938-1945. The features in this dataset represent individual areas of territorial change marked by annexation. For a month-by-month view, see "Month_by_Month_Layers".
Month to month territory changes are recorded only in the event of an annexation of territory (vs. military or civilian occupation, or alliance). While such a method is contentious and only partially representative of the on-the-ground experience, it was the most parsimonious method we could use given the lack of spatial data for territorial oocupation and dispute. Occupations and other events for which we have little spatial reference are marked in the attributes of many features. The data are much better presented with accurate military front lines, data which has not been fully digitized but would constitute a valuable addition to the research.
For further analyses and commentary, please visit Michael De Groot's article, "Building the New Order: 1938-1945" at http://www.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site-dev/pub.php?id=51
Sources:Source geography data includes Modern Europe data (ESRI) and dozens of scanned maps from the Library of Congress. For a listing of a access to source maps, contact the authors. Map content was supplemented by consulting historical texts.
Methodology:Modern European borders were used as a template, and then modifed using scanned + georectified historical maps from the Library of Congress and USHMM.
Based on historical research and visible changes in the borders across historical maps, we developed a feature class of territories which "changed" over the course of 1938-1945. Many areas changed multiple times and were given a new date stamped feature to represent each change, Changed regions were defined as those which were annexed to another country, or set up as a new entity that was not a nation-state and separate from its previous country.
The study was in support of the Holocaust Geographies, a project which studies the Holocaust from a spatial perspective.
February 1938
May 1945
February 1938 to May 1945
As needed
-76.291425
96.933543
90.000000
24.320547
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Borders
Europe
1938-1945
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The reuse and adaptation of this data is encouraged for scholarly work. Its commercial use is strictly prohibited. Kindly inform the authors of any adaptations or modifications made to improve the quality of the data.
Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.3.1.1850
I first used 2010 European borders as a template for 1938. I then modified the borders (using the cut feature and multipart to single feature) which were different in 1938 (Czechoslovakia, Poland, etc) using historic maps found at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, and this file became February 1938.
Separately, I developed a feature class of territories which "changed" over the course of 1938-1945. Changed regions were defined as those which were annexed to another country, or set up as a new entity that was not a nation-state and separate from its previous country.
After this feature class was completed, I began to merge those regions individually into the base 1938 layer as needed. The first merger was in March 1938, when I added the Austria polygon (from the "changes" feature class) to the 1938 layer and merged it with Germany. I then ran the topology tool to eliminate overlap. This altered 1938 layer was then renamed "March 1938." The second change was the Sudetenland in September 1938. I added the Sudetenland polygon (from the "changes" feature class) to the March 1938 layer and merged it with Germany. I then ran the topology tool to eliminate overlap. This altered March 1938 layer was renamed "September 1938." The remaining months in which "changes" occured were also created following this procedure. After I created each of the "changes" months, the database naturally did not have files for all months between February 1938 and May 1945. To create the others, I made duplicates of the preceeding months. For example, no April 1938 file existed. I copied the March 1938 file and named it April 1938 (because there was no spatial difference between March and April 1938). I then altered the attributes to ensure that they reflected April 1938, not March 1938.
Downloadable Data
20110128
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FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
FGDC-STD-001-1998
local time
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