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Academic Insights for the Thinking World

Istanbul, not Constantinople

Throughout history, many cities changed their names. Some did it for political reasons; others hoped to gain an economic advantage from it. Looking at a modern map of the world, you’d probably have a hard time finding Edo, Istropolis, or Gia Dinh. That is because these places are today known as Tokyo, Bratislava, and Ho Chi Minh City respectively. With this interactive map, you can explore a few notable examples of city name changes, and the history behind them.

A version of this blog post originally appeared on the OxfordWords blog. 

Image Credit: “Istanbul” by Robert S. Donovan. CC BY NC 2.0 via Flickr.

Recent Comments

  1. rl

    Toronto – formerly York

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