State · 301 BCE – 500 CE

Xiongnu

A state of 301 BCE – 500 CE — 801 years in East and Southeast Asia. The atlas records 4 things within it — wars and battles 1 · people 3. Its line of rulers holds 14 people, 1 with dated terms.

For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.

Stood: 801 years; 301 BCE – 500
Rulers: 14; the Chanyu
Most ground: 5.61 million km²; in 144 BCE
Within it: 4; recorded rows

Map: Xiongnu in 144 BCE, its borders in gold among its neighbours — Xiongnu in 144 BCE, when it held the most ground the borders dataset draws for it: 5.61 million km². Its neighbours wear their tints, as on the atlas's own map. Borders from Cliopatria (CC BY 4.0), coast and rivers from Natural Earth, cities from Reba, Reitsma & Seto 2016 (CC BY 4.0), each city under the name it bore that year.

Xiongnu in 208 BCE, first mapped — The rise and the fall in one frame: the same ground at the years the borders dataset first maps it, maps it largest, and last maps it.

Xiongnu in 144 BCE, at its largest — The rise and the fall in one frame: the same ground at the years the borders dataset first maps it, maps it largest, and last maps it.

Where it sits in time

Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold.

Rulers

The line of Chanyu - the office this state names as its head of state.

died in office

Ruler	Reign	Length	How it ended · source	To the ruler before
Modu Chanyu	209 BCE – 174 BCE	35 years	died in office, manner not recordedread off the dates alone

14 rulers, 1 with terms dated as terms, covering 209 BCE – 174 BCE. Only 35 years of the line are dated - too short for a median. A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.

Ground held, by year

km² inside its borders as the borders dataset draws them, measured on an equal-area grid; a step series, held between the years the dataset maps.

4.10 million km² in 201 BCE, 211,700 km² in 149; at its largest 5.58 million km² in 126 BCE. Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0.

What happened within it, by century

Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.

300 BCE – 201 BCE1 row

Modu Chanyu · ruler · 234 – 174 BCE

200 BCE – 101 BCE2 rows · 1 wars and battles

Wuwei Chanyu · ruler · 151 – 104 BCE
Battle of Mobei · battle · 119 BCE

100 BCE – 1 BCE1 row

Souxie · ruler · 12 – 11 BCE

Among all states

Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.

How long it stood801 years
stood longer than 95% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.
The most ground it held5,606,400 km²
held more ground at its peak than 98% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.
Wars recorded per centurynone
had more wars on record per century than 44% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.
Rulers on record14
has more rulers on record than 87% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.

Open in the atlas

On the timeline, 381 BCE – 580, with everything that stood beside it.
On the map in 144 BCE, live: scrub the year and watch its borders move.
Investigate it: what led to it, what came of it, and its succession analysed.

Wikidata Q188836 (CC0) · borders Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0 · coast and rivers Natural Earth · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.