The History of the Centre of the World

The changing geographical midpoints of the world's most powerful cities.

1AD

1AD - All Roads Lead to Balkh

1AD - All Roads Lead to Balkh

(Click on the title above for interactive map.)
Calculated by centre of minimum distance: Balkh, Afghanistan
Calculated by average latitude/longitude:  Persia

The centre of human civilisation is still in the Middle East. The Silk Road is operating, and glorious Rome is merely a terminus.

It's no surprise that these geographical centres are also centres for trade. It's no large leap to imagine them also focal points for ideas. What happens when they move? (Spoiler alert: they do, drastically.)

500AD

500AD

500AD - Local Blackout
Centre of minimum distance: Shanxi
Average latitude/longitude: Qinghai

Dark Ages? Only in Europe. Civilisation's centre moves East, with the centre of minimum distance close to infant Xi'an, but the average latitude-longitude remains in Central Asia.

1000AD

1000AD

1000AD - Rock the Casbah
Centre of minimum distance: Baghdad
Average latitude/longitude: Persia

Civilisation orbits the Islamic world.

1500AD

1500AD

1500AD - Ming the Gap

After six dynasties, Ming China wrests the centre of minimum distance back to Beijing. However, the average of latitude and longitude remains in the cradle of civilisation, Persia.

Hey! It's all been Oriental to this point. What about the Italian Renaissance and the rise of the West?
The Renaissance is a blip. Yes, scholasticism thrived, but much focused on restoring knowledge from Greece, (to the EAST).

Wealth also flourished, but it was periphery to China and the Silk Road, in which the West partook with ... slaves. Their own kin. You know, what they blame African chieftains a few centuries later for. Before you jump in about how much more civilised slavery was back then, let's just ... wow. Just. Wow.

Given that the Romans practised sophisticated maritime insurance, its possible that Western wealth was merely restored after the dark ages than created through new enterprise. It was a RE-naissance, after all.

1750AD

1750AD

1750AD - Empire state of mind
Centre of minimum distance: Mongolia
Average latitude/longitude: modern-day Uzbekistan

New world discovered! Colonies established! Advances in maritime navigation! But the centre drifting east shows China's growing dominance. China is still a heavy hitter, needing nothing from the West, nor producing anything they can afford...

... for the time being.

1850AD

1850AD

1850AD - Amazing Grace
The industrial revolution and the burgeoning colony of New York City shifts the latitude-longitude average west to Cyprus, and the centre of minimum distance to Berlin. Coincidentally, Protestantism is evolving through Calvinism to the Methodism that we know as 'Christianity' today.

Perhaps this north-west shift, which we are still in, is why we equate luxury with the aesthetics of 19th century Vienna, as opposed to those of, say, 19th century Istanbul. 

In the chat with zacalstin which started this post, I postulated that discovering the new world shifted the centre of civilisation - both economic and cultural - from the Silk Road to western Europe as the gateway for trade. I am surprised how it took so long and how recent it was.

1975AD

1975AD

1975AD - The New Colossus
Centre of minimum distance: Canada
Average latitude/longitude: Off the coast of Mexico, North America.

In two hundred years, the midpoints of civilisation moved more than it had in the previous one-and-a-half millennia.

Was it a triumph of the Protestant work ethic? Manifest destiny? Perhaps. Also an industrial revolution. And slavery, and indigenous dispossession.

2015AD

2015AD

2015AD - East Inflection
Centre of minimum distance: Yukon, Canada
Average latitude/longitude: North Pacific Ocean

The centre-points drift west with the renaissance of east Asia, but inequality in economic fortunes - which are arguably greater than in antiquity - lend much inertia, keeping them close to the U.S..

Comment

China has always been MVP, but America is the game changer. It literally changes the playing field.

Apart from being a fun visualisation of history, I think it also shows our cultural axis gravitating towards these midpoints. Think about the moral framework that surrounds you. I bet it won't be laid-back tropical assuredness or Catholic/Orthodox fatalism. Those are so yesterday. Not fealty, or good citizenship, but self-determinism. Our idols have shifted from the god-king representing heaven's mandate, to the holy man, to the tech prodigy espousing kaizen.

Dominance also realigns history towards the heritage esteemed by the dominant. The America-centred present leads us to view ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and the development of 'Western' ethics, as far more important than they were in their own time. Perhaps our values do not advance so much as change with the fortunes of cities.

Calculation Notes

There are several ways to calculate geographic midpoints. 'Centre of minimum distance' and 'Average latitude/longitude' are used.

• Historical data to 1850: Wikipedia
• 1975 data: Population Reference Bureau
• 2015 data: CityMayors 

Weightings of cities to 1975 are by population. The largest ten cities are used, but they capture so much of the urban population that further cities don't make much difference.
Weightings of cities in 2015 is population times by GDP per capita (USD nominal).
City Name Changes:

• 0AD - Salona = Solin, Croatia; Seleucia = Babil, Iraq; El Mirador = El Peten, Guatemala; Wanxian = WanZhou.
• 500AD - Constantinople = Istanbul; Ctesiphon = Bahdad; Ye = Linjang; Antioch = Antakya, Turkey; Teotihuacan = San Juan Teotihuacan.
• 1000AD - Ani = Kars, Turkey; Angkor = Siem Reap; Shangjing = Chifeng.
• 1500AD - Tenochtitlan = Mexico City; Gaur = Malda, West Bengal.