Come on a journey through global history, told in more than 130 specially made maps that each offer a window on a key event. Step into the action and follow Ghengis Khan sweeping through China, Napoleon conquering Europe, or two world wars raging across the globe. See empires rise and fall - from the Egyptians and the Aztecs to the British Empire and the Soviet Union. This book also explains how elements of civilization, such as writing, printing, and tool-making, came into being and spread from one country to another. It tells of the rise of the world's great religions and of human endeavour such as the voyages of early explorers. It charts stories of adversity such as the abolition of slavery, and shows how people have always migrated for a better life, from the very first humans moving across Africa, to millions of 19th-century Europeans crossing the Atlantic in search of the American dream.