The world in 1917

Why this year has a page

The year of Russian Revolution (dated events index, Wikidata).

Names on the map

As the map labels them, largest first by the area of the outline drawn. Areas are of the drawn outline, rounded, and approximate. The record column says which record draws the outline; a Wikidata item is given where the record links one.

What changed since 1914

Names counted are those the records date to the year or the day (CShapes, OpenHistoricalMap, Cliopatria). Outlines filled from the nearest historical-basemaps sheet are counted only when both years are years that sheet was drawn for — otherwise the change would be the switch between two sheets, not a change in the world. Names are compared as written, so a polity a record names differently in the two years (Carthaginian Empire, then Carthage) is in both lists.

← Earlier: 1914Later: 1919 →

Events dated to 1917

Every record of IntMap’s one index of dated events whose date falls in this year: what the border record (CShapes 2.0) states about its own outlines, IntMap’s war record, and the world events Wikidata dates — each with its source and the precision of its date.

1. 1917

   Russian Revolution

   1917-1922 political change in Russia

   1917 · Wikidata Q8729

2. 1917

   Battle of Rafa — the last Ottoman post in Sinai falls and the campaign crosses the frontier

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-01-09

   On this day →
3. 1917

   Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare — the decision that brings the United States in

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-02-01

   On this day →
4. 1917

   Second Battle of Kut — Maude retakes the town where an army surrendered ten months earlier

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-02-23

   On this day →
5. 1917

   The Zimmermann telegram is published — Germany had offered Mexico an alliance against the United States

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-03-01

   On this day →
6. 1917

   The February Revolution — the Tsar abdicates

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-03-08 – 1917-03-16

   On this day →
7. 1917

   Baghdad is taken

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-03-11

   On this day →
8. 1917

   First Battle of Gaza — the town is all but taken and then given back the same evening

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-03-26

   On this day →
9. 1917

   The United States declares war on Germany

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-04-06

   On this day →
10. 1917

    Battle of Arras

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-04-09 – 1917-05-16

    On this day →
11. 1917

    Vimy Ridge — the four Canadian divisions attack together for the first time and take the ridge

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-04-09 – 1917-04-12

    On this day →
12. 1917

    The Nivelle Offensive — its failure sets off mutinies in half the French army

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-04-16 – 1917-05-09

    On this day →
13. 1917

    Second Battle of Gaza — a frontal attack with gas and tanks fails in three days

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-04-17 – 1917-04-19

    On this day →
14. 1917

    First Battle of Doiran — the British attack the Bulgarian hill line twice and gain nothing

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-04-22 – 1917-05-09

    On this day →
15. 1917

    The French Army mutinies — half the divisions of the French army refuse to attack again

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-04-25 – 1917-06-08

    On this day →
16. 1917

    The Strait of Otranto — the largest surface action of the Adriatic, fought over the drifter barrage

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-05-15

    On this day →
17. 1917

    The Gotha daylight raids — bombers replace the airships and London is hit in broad daylight

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-05-25 – 1918-05-20

    On this day →
18. 1917

    Messines — nineteen mines under the ridge, heard in London

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-06-07 – 1917-06-14

    On this day →
19. 1917

    Greece enters the war — the National Schism ends with the king gone and Venizelos in Athens

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-06-29

    On this day →
20. 1917

    The Kerensky Offensive — the last Russian attack of the war, and the army breaks up behind it

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-07-01 – 1917-07-19

    On this day →
21. 1917

    The capture of Aqaba — the Arab force takes the port from the desert side, where there are no guns

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-07-06

    On this day →
22. 1917

    Battle of Mărăști — the reorganised Romanian army attacks and advances for the first time

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-07-22 – 1917-08-01

    On this day →
23. 1917

    Battle of Passchendaele

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-07-31 – 1917-11-10

    On this day →
24. 1917

    Battle of Mărășești — the German drive on Iași is held, and Romania keeps a corner of itself

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-08-06 – 1917-09-03

    On this day →
25. 1917

    Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo — Italy takes the Bainsizza plateau and exhausts both armies

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-08-18 – 1917-09-12

    On this day →
26. 1917

    The Riga offensive — a river crossing behind a hurricane barrage, the method of 1918 tried out

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-09-01 – 1917-09-05

    On this day →
27. 1917

    The Kornilov affair — a march on Petrograd that fails, and arms the Bolsheviks who stop it

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-09-10 – 1917-09-13

    On this day →
28. 1917

    The battles of Ramadi — the Euphrates garrison is trapped against the river at the second attempt

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-09-28 – 1917-09-29

    On this day →
29. 1917

    Operation Albion — the German landing on the Baltic islands, the war’s largest combined operation

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-10-12 – 1917-10-20

    On this day →
30. 1917

    Battle of Mahiwa — the bloodiest action of the East African campaign, won by the side that had to retreat

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-10-15 – 1917-10-18

    On this day →
31. 1917

    Battle of Caporetto

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-10-24 – 1917-11-19

    On this day →
32. 1917

    Beersheba — the wells are taken before they can be blown, and the Gaza line is turned

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-10-31

    On this day →
33. 1917

    Third Battle of Gaza — the town falls at the third attempt and the road to Jerusalem opens

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-11-01 – 1917-11-02

    On this day →
34. 1917

    The Balfour Declaration — Britain declares itself in favour of a Jewish national home in Palestine

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-11-02

    On this day →
35. 1917

    The October Revolution

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-11-07

    On this day →
36. 1917

    The Supreme War Council is set up at Versailles — one command for the whole Allied war at last

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-11-07

    On this day →
37. 1917

    Monte Grappa — the mountain anchor of the Piave line, held through two winters

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-11-11 – 1917-12-23

    On this day →
38. 1917

    Second Heligoland Bight — a running fight over the German minesweepers, broken off at the minefields

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-11-17

    On this day →
39. 1917

    Cambrai — the first mass tank attack, and the first German counter-attack to take it all back

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-11-20 – 1917-12-07

    On this day →
40. 1917

    Battle of Ngomano — the German force crosses the Rovuma into Portuguese territory and re-equips from the garrison it destroys

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-11-25

    On this day →
41. 1917

    The map begins drawing Finland; new borders for Soviet Russia (RSFSR)

    the border record (CShapes 2.0) · 1917-12-06

    On this day →
42. 1917

    Jerusalem surrenders

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-12-09

    On this day →
43. 1917

    Battle of Jaffa — the Auja is crossed at night and the port is put out of shellfire

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1917-12-20 – 1917-12-21

    On this day →

Sources and method

Borders and names: CShapes 2.0 (Schvitz et al. 2022, icr.ethz.ch/data/cshapes) · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 + OpenHistoricalMap (openhistoricalmap.org) · CC0 1.0 · adapted by IntMap: the admin_level=2 relations in force from 1886, less the ground CShapes states on its own dates + Cliopatria v0.2.1 (Seshat Global History Databank, github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/cliopatria) · CC BY 4.0 · adapted by IntMap: simplified, BC years made astronomical, and the ground OpenHistoricalMap (1689–1885, and from 1886 where CShapes is silent) and CShapes (1886–2019) state removed on their own dates.

Which years have a page is worked out when the site is built, from three rules applied to the records themselves: every year the historical-basemaps atlas drew a world sheet for; every year whose change from the year before (names the dated records begin or stop drawing) is in the top 5% of all such year-to-year changes since the dated records begin, leaving out the years where one record hands over to another; and every year of a geopolitical, war or revolution event in the dated events index, up to the last year the border records cover (2019).

On each year the map is read on 1 July, the instant the app’s own year links open on. Names are the source’s own, translated where the source or IntMap’s name table has a translation. A name is what a record draws there, not a verdict of history.

World map in 1917 — the map, with the years it stays the same Historical maps by region Countries On this day

All data sources →