It has been stated that, as men progress, they shall be able to travel in airships and reach any part of the world in a few hours.
The world population tripled between 1500 and 1900, to an estimated 1564 million. In that period, the populations of the United Kingdom and the United States increased more than ten-fold, the population of the Netherlands increased five-fold. For most of this time the Netherlands were known as the United Provinces; whilst neither the United Kingdom, nor the United States, had been formed.
In 1900 much of the world was under imperial rule, new territorial boundaries were being defined and contested. The borders of Africa shown in this map were mostly drawn at the Treaty of Versaille, in 1919.
