Globes are a great decorative addition for any home, but you may not know that they can also provide great insight into what the world was like at the time they were created.
This is what one man has shown after going viral on TikTok for pinning down exactly when old globes were made, according to small but key details on the maps.
The perfect TikTok content for all you history, and geography buffs out there…
TikToker Jake (@jakie62) has gained popularity for his videos in which he breaks down date giveaways such as the names of certain countries, and how a country appears on the globe.
For example, in one of his popular videos, he notes that the Democratic Republic of Congo is called Zaire on the globe he is dating, which is what it was called between 1971 and 1997. Then he points out that in 1978, Ceylon renamed itself Sri Lanka, and the globe uses Sri Lanka, so it’s was definitely made after this (1978-1997).
Jake is able to get closer to the date by pinpointing how the city of Mumbai in India is referred to as Bombay on the globe, which is what the city was called before 1995.
While Germany on this globe is unified – unification of the country happened in 1990, giving Jake a big clue that the globe was made after 1990.
Czechoslovakia still remains on this globe, meaning it’s before 1993, while the Soviet Union has been dissolved into different countries, including Russia. Therefore, the globe must be after December 26, 1991-1993.
Finally, Jake notes how Yugoslavia has not been split up yet on this globe which is something the US recognised on April 7, 1992, while Yugoslavia formally ended later that month on April 28.
“So we know that this globe must have been made during about a three and a half month period between December 26 1991, and April 7 1992,” Jake concludes.
Since uploading, Jake has received over 6.1m views on this particular video, with all of his other globe dating videos also going viral too.
It seems people were pretty impressed with Jake’s historical detective skills and have been left “fascinated” by his knowledge of historical events.
One person wrote: “Omggg yes thank you for the visual year tracker addition.”
“This would be such a fun final activity in a geography class or something,” another person said.
Someone else added: “Imagine how frustrating it would be to be a globe/map maker. Like 3 months you gotta redo.”
“So this was something I never knew I’d be into, but is absolutely fascinating!”
Jake’s globe dating has even gone viral on Twitter with one person describing the TikToker as their “New favourite TikTok creator,” and receiving over 30,000 likes.
Don’t know about you, but we’re currently adding globes to our online shopping basket…